What a nice time we had at the Refuge this past Thursday morning! Kerlanda, Javion, Brianna (John’s daughter), Teacher Ruth and I helped Alan Jackson band 130 purple martin chicks at the Edwin B. Forsythe Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ. The kids had a great time helping Mr. Jackson and the other Refuge volunteers with the purple martin chicks. Kerlanda and Javion even got to band a chick themselves! Each chick receives a silver Federal ID band and a purple NJ State ID band, one on each leg. Each band has a special ID of numbers and letters on the bands. Scientists can use these ID bands to determine loads of information about the bird: age, how far the bird has traveled, where it was banded, etc. Now that we are done banding, we won’t be monitoring the nests again until next year. The purple martins will stick around until mid-August when they will begin their long migration to Brazil!
ms.lenahan the pictures of the birds are so nice and sweet to look at also they look like your rats for a minute then they look like birds also i wanted to tell you that the pictures the that you have up of everyone is nice i thought that the refuge would look different i thought that the woods would be closer towards you i didnt think that it would be so far behind is that johns daughter thats in that picture well lucky up cause i gotta go.
Sincerly,
Shalese Harris
I love those pictutes you posted Ms.Lenahan.
I’m glad, Kerlanda! Could you please write a few comments here and tell me what you enjoyed most about banding purple martins? I’d enjoy reading what you thought about our day!
~Ms. Lenahan
What i enjoyed about banding the purple martins was putting the beads on there little legs and they had numbers and letters the letters stands for NJ and i don’t know about the numbers and the best part is taking and putting the purprle martins in there houses and out, i love purple martins there are so cute i just want to cuddle them!!