Weather: Clear skies and bright sunshine. 30°C
An early start led to lots of half asleep students on the vans as we headed to Florida Gulf Coast University, but eyes were wider when there was talk of meeting “Doctor Danger” in the afternoon.
But the reason for our early start was that we were meeting FGCU legend Prof. Jerry (Jerome) Jackson and his wife Bette, for some mist netting.
“My life is hopelessly linked with nature — and I love it.”
Jerry Jackson
Jerry explained to us that to catch birds in a mist net, you need to set the nets early before the wind builds. By 10 am in Florida the wind is at a level where it causes the nets to flap and the birds can then see them and avoid them.
Mist nets are generally made of a black nylon micro-filament, the nets shouldn’t be pulled tight but left loose.
Jerry holds permits to catch and ring birds in countries all over the world including the US, Peruvian Amazon and Jerry was the first American to receive a permit for Cuba.
Birds must be removed from the mist net within 15-20 minutes of being caught, this is just one of the strict regulations surrounding mist netting.
Jerry Jackson holds a Yellow Rumped Warbler, that was caught using a mist net.
Once caught the birds needed to be ringed, so they can be identified if they are ever recaptured. If you ever recapture a bird with a ring you should send the ring information, date you caught it and where, to the US government. Interestingly the address you send it to is shorter than any other US address and is entirely wrong. The postal address is Bird Band, Washington DC. That’s it the entire address in four words, and the your letter is actually sent to Laurel, Maryland!
John James Audobon is seen as the father of ringing, he attached small pieces of silver wire to birds legs so he could see if they returned to nesting sites the next year.
Modern day banding started in Denmark in 1890 when Hans Christian Mortensen started banding birds, but his original bands were too heavy for the birds who struggled to fly.
Ringing didn’t take off (excuse the pun) until 1906, nowadays bird rings are made of aluminium and differ in size depending on the bird.
I found it interesting that bird legs are at their biggest whilst in the nest, as they age the diameter of the leg decreases.
When ringing a bird there are lots of details that you need to take and submit with the ring code. Here are the details of one of the Yellow Rumped Warblers (Setophaga coronata) we caught that morning:
- ID: 156075086
- Weight: 11.9 g
- Tail: 55.5 mm
- Wing Length: 73 mm
For anyone who wants to hear more about the Yellow Rumped Warbler, Jerry describes them on his radio show “The Wild Things“. Jerry also discusses Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on his radio show which is worth listening to.
Jerry Jackson in the process of ringing a Yellow Rumped Warbler.
Finally Jerry had a special treat for us that none of us were expecting. After spending the morning discussing and ringing birds, he then produced two plastic boxes from which he pulled out an albino and a two headed red eared slider turtle brilliantly named Pete and Repeat. Jerry has had the turtles for 25 years despite being originally told that they never normally survive more than a few days. Jerry attributed Pete and Repeat’s survival to his credit card, not because of the money but because it was the only way he could feed them without them fighting each other!
Pete and Repeat the two headed turtle.
Jerry holds his albino Red Eared Slider Turtle.
In the afternoon it was time for us to meet “Dr. Danger”, otherwise known as Win (Edwin) Everham, the man responsible for the only two evacuations of the campus. Win’s research specialises in the area of disturbance science, such as the effect of burning on forest ecosystems. Win talked with great enthusiasm and excitement that was truly infectious.
Win gave us a guided tour around the campus, half of which is set aside as a preserve, explaining all the measures that had been taken to prevent disturbance to the environment and in some cases how they have failed. There are constructed wetland areas on site that were designed to hold water for one to three months, yet they very rarely hold water for a month each year. Perhaps more interestingly was learning about how animals have adapted to human development, such as the frogs and snakes that use the electric boxes by the side of the road to shelter from the sun.
Win talks to the group about the Cypress dome on the FGCU campus. He eloquently described them as a “Cathedral of trees”.
Winn pointed out that due to the flat topography, a change in height of just 20-30 cm can have a drastic change in the vegetation. This is evident in the ecotone habitat between the pine and cypress forests.
Student James Stops investigates the local flora camera in hand.
Dr Christian Dunn is rescued from the Cypress swamp after taking a soil sample, which he would later give to us MSc students to carry home in our luggage.
Ed Jones 