North American Hummingbird Monitoring Network

Article provided by Jim Bodkin

Team Calliope, the North Okanagan’s volunteer group of citizen scientists wishes to thank everyone who helped them host the Hummingbird Monitoring Workshop held in Vernon this past weekend.

Team Calliope is part of the Hummingbird Project of BC which is part of the North American Hummingbird Monitoring Network. This is a group of scientists, citizens, land managers and property owners who are dedicated to the conservation of hummingbird diversity and abundance throughout the New World. For more information please visit their website at www.HumMonNet.org.

Team Calliope is led by bander, Gail Loughridge and sponsored by the North Okanagan Naturalists Club (NONC) who very kindly donated $200 to help defray the costs of the workshop which was attended by hummingbird aficionados from throughout BC to share knowledge and be taught by special guest experts from Arizona, Dr. Susan Wethington and Lee Rogers from the Hummingbird Monitoring Network.

On Friday evening, June 5, 48 workshop members met at Gail’s for a BBQ, introductions, renewing friendships and meeting other team members from elsewhere. Special thanks are due to everyone who helped provide billets…Barb Harris and Colin Heggie, Dennis and Sharon Seymour, Rod and Ruth Drennan, Peter and Judy Stockdale, Jack and Lyn Smith, Jim Bodkin and Gail Loughridge.

Everyone was up at 5 am on Saturday, June 6 for a banding session at either Frank and Mary Paul’s on the west side of Okanagan Lake or at Marjean Postill’s in Lumby followed by a workshop held at Tekmar’s excellent training facility. We offer a special thank you to Tekmar Control Systems Ltd for donating the use of their premises; also to Doug MacPherson of Tekmar for making the arrangements.

Saturday evening a dinner was held at the Cattleman’s Restaurant at the O’Keefe Ranch and Rod Drennan kindly arranged a group rate for those who wanted to tour the O’Keefe mansion beforehand. The dinner honoured retiring master bander Cam Finlay. Cam has mentored Gail since 1996 and enabled her to qualify for a hummingbird banding permit from the Canadian Wildlife Service. Doug’s father, Don MacPherson carved and donated a beautiful wooden hummingbird wall plaque in appreciation to Cam for all the dedicated time and expense he devoted to creating the Hummingbird Project of BC. Dr. Alison Moran of the University of Victoria is acquiring her master hummingbird bander certification and is bravely stepping into the very large shoes left by Cam’s retirement.

Sunday morning, June 7 everyone was up again at 5 am; this time banding sessions were held at Cunliffe and Mary Barnet’s, Mark Hammeril and Susan Latimer’s, Egon and Margaret Dietche’s, all near Lumby and at Bill and Pat Martin’s in Coldstream and at Ken and Linda Christie’s in Vernon. Afterwards, the day was spent at Tekmar in a series of workshops to train our citizen science teams.

These teams train to become banders and to manage monitoring sites. They strictly adhere to project protocols, safely band hummingbirds, ensure that data are taken correctly and accurately, submit reports and banding data after each session, work with site hosts, and manage other volunteers.

We are trying to understand more about the biology of hummingbirds in order to protect them and their habitats. Without research that documents the diversity, abundance, age structure, breeding requirements, seasonal habitat use, and other features of their populations, there is no way to identify the areas important for maintaining hummingbird diversity and abundance.

The North Okanagan was chosen to host this important hummingbird monitoring workshop since it is home to 4 species…Calliope, Rufus, Annas and Black Chinned. Many thanks go to NONC and Tekmar for their generous support. Thanks also to everyone who provided billets and host sites. Without this support and all the volunteers this workshop would not have been possible.

For more information about becoming a volunteer hummingbird citizen scientist please call Gail Loughridge at 250-545-7455.