banded bird skeleton

[leewee]

hi there i dont know too much about banding but this must be a good place to send some info... but i got to tell the story too...

i went rock climbing today (one of my fave things to do), i was gonna go shore birding but the tides werent right with my schedual...so the place i went climbing was in a falcon nesting aria the aria is closed during nesting but it provides a great show when reopened...so i was climbing about a hundred fifty feet of the ground watching the peregrines and finding hundreds of feathers along with some bones...then as i came over a bulge in the rock i saw on a ledge to my delight, a lower half skeleton of a medium sized bird compleat with bands on both legs....

left leg white plastic band
right leg aluminium band with the following markings
868 BMNPA 66 (it was a bit different than this the NP was smooshed in to one letter and the 66 was on its side...

let me know if this is of interest... contact me for further info on the habitat, location etc, along with info on local places to climb and bird watch at the same time cause thats what i love to do haha..... let me know anything about this if you can please and thank you... lee

[Beverlybaynes]

I don't have the addy -- someone will. I THINK you can report it to the folks at Patuxent where there is a clearinghouse for all banding done in North America. They will be very interested in your find, I'm sure.

And please do post what you find out from them.

Rock climbing???!? Uh.....no thank you. I'll wait for the elevator, please.

[leewee]

haha, nice...and thank you...do you know the best way to get the info to patuxent, web site maybe? lee

[Beverlybaynes]

Thanks to Google:

www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bbl

There's a link on the opening page specifically for reporting 'found' bands. Assuming it'll give you a phone number.

[leewee]

thanks so much ill get on that...lee

[leewee]

well the people at the bird band reaserch place seemed not to know (or really care) what kind of a band i had and said that perhaps it was a band by the pigion society....and gave me another site to check out...but they said they didnt think it sounded like their bands eather...so i will try them anyway... i thought it would be of interest to someone and i hope it is...
let me know if any of you have some leads... poeple dont band birds they dont care about , do they?

[KCFoggin]

Well that stinks. When I photographed a banded bird and forwarded the info to Patuxent by email, I was replied to within a matter of hours and asked if I could possible email them a photograph of the banded bird. I then received an email from the actual bander telling me what the bands meant and was able to tell me that it was a bird banded 4 years ago in North Carolina. Several months later, I received a certificate of appreciation for following through on my find.

[leewee]

wow thats more what i thought would happen but i didnt think they would be that happy...i think they were only interested in there bands...so maybe if i find the people that banded it i will be met with more excitment....i will keep trying...thanks

[Michael Frankis]

If it is (was!) someone's racing pigeon, then Patuxent - who only band wild birds - won't have any info on it.

I looked at the Patuxent site Beverly posted, and there is a link there for pigeon bands. That is probably the best route to follow now.

Of course, when all that Lee found is a skeleton with a band, there's no way of knowing (unless you're a bird skeleton freak!!) whether the bird was a wild bird or not - I don't think this story should be held against Patuxent, just because it turns out not to be a type of ring they don't have any details about.

Michael

[Screech]

The band is a pigeon club band, 99 refers to year 1999, BMN, is the club band id #, 868 is the id # of the pigeon you found.
The bird was a good one to the breeder, a 1999 bird would be flying in the "old bird races", flown from April thru June, from 150 miles up to 500 miles on the west course.
I'll see if I can find some informtion on this end for you lee.

[Michael Frankis]

Hi Bob,

Would that leave the final two letters, PA, as showing it was from Pennsylvania?

Michael

[leewee]

thank bob i really apreciate it... i was dicouraged...im glad you have some info and if you want to look deeper id love to see what you get....thanks again...lee