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Banded
Black Skimmers |
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photo
by James R. Gallagher |
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| As many of you are
aware, there are lots of banded Black Skimmers floating around
California, and we are asking for help in tracking the movements
of young birds banded at the Salton Sea this year (2010). |
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| In September 2010,
Kathy Molina and crew banded 75 pre-fledged Black Skimmers at
the Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge headquarters ponds;
most of those young (birds) were still at the colony site in
mid-October, but by now (Nov.), they have mostly dispersed away
from the Sea. On 7 November, two of them were sighted at an
estuary south of Bahia Kino in Sonora, Mexico. |
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| In past years, various
proportions of the cohort of young skimmers from the Salton
Sea have moved either south into Mexico (Sonora, Sinaloa, Baja
California) or west by unknown route(s) to the coast of California.
The odd bird has even moved east to Arizona (once) and SW New
Mexico (once). |
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| (The) 2010 Salton
Sea birds were banded with TWO BRIGHT
BLUE BANDS on the LEFT LEG, and a silver
USGS numbered band
on the RIGHT LEG. These birds should retain obvious brownish
plumage until late into the winter, so (the) 2010-fledged birds
should be easy to pick out in a skimmer flock. |
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| If you examine skimmer
flocks, you will undoubtedly see other banded birds. We are
not interested in reports of USGS metal bands unless you can
read most or all of the number (a 3 to 4 digit prefix ending
in the number "4", then a 5-digit suffix). Some of
the plastic alphanumeric bands placed on skimmers years ago
have survived the elements, so if you see a tall plastic band
with a letter and two numbers, please report the band color,
which leg that band was on, and the alphanumeric combination.
You might also encounter bird with other colored bands (black,
pale blue, pale green, white, red, pink) and we would be interested
in hearing about those birds (also). |
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| Daytime roosting
skimmer flocks on beaches often allow close approach, and band
numbers can often be read with a telescope (and patience). |
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| If you find the
blue-banded birds mentioned above, or are able to get specific
color band combination or band number information on other birds,
please send the following information to Kathy at:
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date |
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exact locality |
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approximate
number of skimmers in the flock |
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approximate
number or proportion of juveniles in the flock |
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exact band
information |
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(photos are
often helpful as well) |
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| Thanks for your
help. |
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