EDIT: Everything is posted now, so I'll respond to any questions I can answer for you now. Enjoy, and I hope you learn some new things!
Went to a bird banding event held by Wildlands Conservancy last night. Unfortunately this year has been a bit of a poor showing due to the warm weather, and we didn't end up with any owls.
There was still a great presentation on the owls of Pennsylvania and the bird banding process. We did get to meet some of the educational owls and handle some nice examples of things being discussed.
I got some time to talk to the guy running the banding and the lady running the animal education part of things and got some of my questions answered. I've been becoming really interested in learning more of the regulatory side of things. There is a real web of agencies that govern how wildlife can be handled.
Other misc facts I learned:
Some of the raptor gloves for bigger birds are made of kangaroo leather, which is tougher than cow leather. Looking at product descriptions, it describes kangaroo leather as the most puncture resistant leather, which is good when dealing with large powerful talons.
The operculum is the muscle that controls an owl's ears. Fish also have operculum muscles, which are what flaps their gills.
To start a banding program, you need to apply to the government and demonstrate you have the ability to handle the birds you want to study and write a report detailing why you want to study a particular bird species in a particular area and get their approval. There is very much involved in the whole licensing program.
There are different mist nets to catch different birds. The program leader said a hawk would punch right through his nets, but they are put out at night for the owls in places owls are likely to fly and not other birds.
The nets are checked every 20 minutes while they are out. It is illegal to possess mist nets without a license as they are abused for poaching. To possess any bird or part of a bird without a license is a felony and it is taken very seriously, so it was neat to be able to handle feathers and parts of the raptors in person.
You can't age a bird by the UV light technique after 4 or 5 years. When they are younger, they don't have enough energy to replace them all every year, but once they get strong enough they can, so it become impossible to age them. They're just considered "adult birds" from then on.
There's probably more that in forgetting, but it was a lot of fun. It was a 2 hour program and was a $15 donation for attendance and we got refreshments as well. Very much worth it, and would have been even more amazing if we had caught some owls, but that's the luck of the draw...
I'm learning all these people are so knowledge because of how rigorous the requirements are to get any of these jobs, and there are many long and random hours of dedication involved too with with them, because you largely have to do it on the animals' schedules, so everyone you will meet really knows their stuff and loves to share there knowledge because they practically have to make it their life.
When I was young I used to go out every Saturday with my dad and a guy that was part of a bird banding group. We mostly caught warblers and chickadees and a few others line that.
I learned how to hold birds, band them, untangle them from the nets, and all about their personalities. It was so much fun getting to hold wild birds and track their migratory patterns.
Many birds we would see on the same week every year. It's amazing.
I think they're way more strict about who can hold or untangle birds now. So I feel even more privileged to have gotten to participate as a kid (teenager).
That's great you got a chance to do that! Finding someone to tag along with seems the best way to get into it still.
When I was little, or neighbor had a blueberry bush he would cover with netting and I would sneak back there to look for birds caught in the net and set them free.
The last few years, I've been feeding my backyard jays and have come to know them pretty well and got to see all their babies this year and they all still come around every day looking for treats. It's fun to see the kids try to act tough, but the adults show them there still tougher.
It's good there are so many rules to keep out people that would traffic or harm animals, but it seems to make it hard for an adult to get into while still having a day job. I'm going to keep looking for a good opportunity to do something though. Nothing beats hands on experience for getting these memories!