Jim Bryce applies a metal band to the leg of a yellow warbler.

Jim Bryce extricates a towhee from the mist net while the Wisconsin Master Naturalist students observe.

Jim Bryce holds up a just-banded yellow warbler in 2021. This same bird was recaptured in the same net, on about the same date in 2022! Recaptures like this one are important for bird research.

Jim Bryce applies a metal band to the leg of a yellow warbler.

Jim Bryce extricates a towhee from the mist net while the Wisconsin Master Naturalist students observe.

Jim Bryce holds up a just-banded yellow warbler in 2021. This same bird was recaptured in the same net, on about the same date in 2022! Recaptures like this one are important for bird research.

This week’s guest writer Olivia Rataezyk is from Seattle, Washington and studies biology at Kenyon College in Ohio. On campus, she divides her time between a research lab studying birds (her favorite animal) and her college’s art gallery. Olivia just finished her tenure as a Summer Naturalist Intern at the Cable Natural History Museum.

The sun was hot in the Moquah Barrens as I trekked up a hill to meet Jim Bryce and watch him band birds as part of my Wisconsin Master Naturalist Volunteer Training. I had some experience with this process through my school; I work in a lab that occasionally catches and bands birds in our area.

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