~ Monitoring Avian Production and Survival (MAPS) Intern ~
May 1st 2006 - August 8th 2006
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Below are some links to galleries of pictures I took while working this job...enjoy!
***Please note, Adobe Flashplayer 9 is needed to view these pics***
(All pics were taken with my Nikon 5700 Digital Camera and  resized to 800x533 for your viewing pleasure)

Gallery 01 - 71 Pics (Banding birds, and work related pics)

Gallery 02 - 40 Pics (Pacific Northwest side trips and other various pics)


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Job Description:

In the Summer of 2006 I worked as a MAPS Intern for the Institute of Bird Populations (IBP) based out of Point Reyes, CA.
My adventure started off with two weeks of training in Grant's Pass Oregon, where I learned the basics of micro aging, sexing, and banding passerines.  Training consisted of 10 interns (including myself) and our two supervisory biologists.   After training we were split up into groups of two and sent to various sites throughout the Pacific Northwest.  Me and my partner, Ken, got placed in Wenatchee National Forest in Washington.  It was considered the site that had the most bird activity (in terms of the number of birds banded by past interns), and Ken and I were up to the challenge.  Previous interns banded upwards of 1400 birds in "the natch", but we still banded an impressive 1238 birds (587 of which I banded), including 108 birds in one day.  The closest town to where we lived was Naches, WA and it was quite the "interesting" place.  Before we arrived in Naches though, we got the opportunity to assist other groups with setting up their sites.  While doing so we got to see areas of the Pacific Northwest we wouldn't have otherwise seen (including areas of Mount Baker National Forest as well as Siuslaw National Forest near the Oregon coast).

My Job as a MAPS intern consisted of waking up as early as three in the morning and driving to one of six locations and setting up ten mist-nets at sunrise.  Once all our nets were up and running, we would do net runs every 30-45 minutes and extract all birds caught.  These birds would be aged and sexed (based on plumage and other feather and non-feather criteria), weighed, banded, and body condition would be looked at.  Occasionally feather samples and cloacal swabs would be taken for studies being done on avian bird flu.  Ideally we would leave our nets open for six hours and throughout the day we would record all the birds in the area based on calls and songs as well.  Throughout the season we also had to complete habitat surveys (HSA's) for each of our six sites.

We worked a "six days on and four days off" schedule depending on weather.  On our days off we traveled around the Pacific Northwest to places such as Mount St. Helens, Olympic Peninsula, Cape Disappointment, WA, Astoria, OR (where "The Goonies" was filmed), Portland, OR, Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, Fremont National Forest (to visit another MAPS crew - Mel and Will), and Bend, OR.  Ken and I also did a small backpacking trip on the PCT near White Pass.  We packed along our fly rods and caught some plentiful/beautiful cutthroat trout.

All in all my summer spent in the Pacific Northwest was an awesome one.  I met a bunch of cool people, saw a bunch of cool places, and got to work with some pretty awesome birds the whole time.  There is so much more to see in the Pacific Northwest and I will have to venture out there again in the future, if for anything else to do some backpacking on the PCT (or maybe the whole thing) and in the Olympic Mountains.

If you want to know more about IBP and the projects they are involved in, including being a MAPS Intern, visit www.birdpop.org.

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Updated February 2008
 © Christopher Hansen 2008
chris.f.hansen@gmail.com