New Bird Banding Station Unveiled at Rushton Farm

The new bird banding station at Rushton Farm looks a bit like a gazebo one might find in a nice park. The wooden structure, built by Eagle Scout Cody Pitz, features a skylight in the roof but no walls, and is big enough to easily fit the crew of about 12 people who attended its first use the morning of Wednesday, May 25.

It was a slow morning—the tail end of the spring migration station—until a volunteer birder named Lou approached the station and breathlessly announced, "Lisa, we've got a pileated."

Lisa Kiziuk, associate stewardship manager at Willistown Conservation Trust, was immediately off and running. Through the field and into the wood, she found a pileated woodpecker in one of the 10 nets that had been set up at dawn.

Returning minutes later, bird in hand, she announced that it was everyone's lucky day. As the small crowd admired the impressive, bigger-than-you'd-expect woodpecker, Kiziuk explained how pileated woodpeckers are a "keystone species," creating holes in trees that become homes for many other, smaller animals.

"Without these guys, there would be a lot of animals looking for homes," Kiziuk said.

The banding station allows ecologists to track the migration patterns and other data relating to birds living in the area. Birds caught in passive nets placed temporarily throughout the property are detained for a matter of minutes, as a small, metal band with a nine-digit code is attached to one leg.

"We weigh the bird, determine the age of the bird, to some degree, determine sex, if possible," Kiziuk said. "We measure the wings and tail length, see how much fat it's carrying on its body, see if it's molting, and the data are put into a federal database."

According to bander Doris McGovern, the data yield fascinating results. Some species thought to be endangered were actually found to be plentiful thanks to the information gathered by banders across the country.

Blake Goll, an intern at Willistown Conservation Trust, had the honor of releasing the pileated woodpecker, whose leg was too thick for any of the bands the birders had brought for the day. She made sure to turn her head away as she released the bird, wary of the warnings she'd received about how a threatened woodpecker will "go for your eyes."

A recent Penn State graduate, Goll was a wildlife and fishery science major. She said her interest in birds was sparked by an ornithology class, which led her to work in an environmental education center.

"We did live raptor shows, so you'd be holding the owl and telling everybody about them. And then, I saw a banding demonstration..." Goll said, her words trailing off as her gaze shifted skyward.

"Distracted by birds," she explained after a moment.

Rushton Farm, operated by Willistown Conservation Trust, also features a working Community Supported Agriculture farm (CSA) and a nature preserve. The preserve went public the same week the banding station was unveiled, and supporters hope to draw members of the community to the land in multiple ways.

"You enter through the farm and you see this CSA, you see this sustainable agriculture model. It's a six-acre CSA that feeds 80 families and then some," Kiziuk said.

"As a land trust, we're trying to get people to save land, and conserve land and open space. The only way to do that is to connect people to that land. Some people are connected to land through food, some through birds. ... Our goal is to get people out here."