We greatly enjoyed today’s Birds workshop 2026 with Professor Terri Maness of LA Tech University and her student assistant, Holly, in Ruston, Louisiana. Sensibly, the activities began with us doing the field portion of the workshop first, in the cooler part of the day when the birds would be more active.
We gathered at 9.00 AM and agreed that today’s Workshop would be advanced with a practical focus on trapping and banding birds in the field and a speedier treatment of physiology and taxonomy and more information about the university’s research projects in the presentation phase. We car-pooled to the LA Tech Arboretum which is a lovely wooded area with adjoining meadow and nearby lake, passing through pastures where grassland birds such as Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and Dickcissels can be found. David and Susan Hoover observed a hawk there on the way.
Pulling up in the meadow area, we saw Prof. Maness and Holly had prepared a table and shelter – a banding station, where the equipment and documentation necessary for banding was laid out. They told us how to position mist nets in order to catch birds. Please note that this can only be done with a special Master Bird-bander’s certification and due authorization. The nets were about 20 feet long 6 feet tall and woven of a very fine thread mesh. You could hardly see them when placed in shady areas where they were situated at the forest edges.
Terri showed us the equipment that they would use. Bird bags to secure the birds, a leg measuring gauge that matches bird leg thickness to the band size, the ring bands themselves and special banding pliers, the scissors and weighing scales and collar. Also the hand-sanitizer for hygiene. With the prevalence of bird-flu it is necessary to protect researchers and the research subjects. Each bird gets their own bag, and hands and items are sanitized between birds.
With the nets pre-set and shown to us, we explored the area, noting butterflies on the Self-heal and studying mushrooms, and a very handsome Western Rat Snake! Please see our Facebook for the various photographs taken by our party.
Some of us went to explore the lake area where we encountered a Red-shouldered Hawk that took wing but refrained from calling. A deceptive Jay called repeatedly, imitating the raptor, but we weren’t fooled as it was a nasal buzz.
We learned of the capture of a male Northern Cardinal and returned to the banding station.
The Cardinal was pacified by being in the bag. When Professor Maness deftly extricated the bird and held it securely in a “Bander’s Grip” with bird on its back in her palm and two fingers holding it snugly on either side, it cried out and Holly put a small stick in its beak to reduce bites to the researchers. Cardinals can deliver powerful nips! A Blue Jay and some Cowbirds were drawn by the cries of the captured bird.
She checked its vital statistics and called out data to Holly to record in the documentation sheet. She splayed its wing for a wing-length measurement of 89mm, weighed it in a special collar— finding it to be 40 grams, examined feathers and noted they were fully new, developed for breeding season. She felt for fat beneath his throat and found none accumulated, he’s been highly active. She declared him to be at least 1 year old.
Then we enjoyed its safe release —it flew like a blazing arrow back to the safety of the woods.
A later inspection of the nets found a hen Cardinal. She underwent the same procedure and flew off with stick still clasped in her beak.
We lunched in Ruston and gathered in a very well-appointed classroom at Carlson-Taylor Hall for an excellent presentation on birds that was both foundational and enriched with recent data on taxonomy and original research into existential threats of window collisions and plastic ingestion & inhalation.
Somewhere between 100 million and a billion birds die annually in window collisions. We learned about student documentation of collisions with glass building facades on campus, the causal factors of birds misjudging reflections for free space, the empathic response of surveyed students, and proposed solutions of decals, shades, and painting – including portraits of some quails killed by striking windows.
Research into Suzanne Laird Dartez’s Woodcocks showed the pathway between earthworm ingestion of plastics and Woodcocks. We learned of the surprising accumulation of granulated rubber in the birds!
Please see our groups’ Facebook for member photos of the day. We really enjoyed this program and recommend next year’s to those who couldn’t make it this time.
Bird Species Observed
- American bluebird — Sialia sialis
- Blue-gray gnatcatcher — Polioptila caerulea
- Brown-headed cowbird — Molothrus ater
- Carolina chickadee — Poecile carolinensis
- Carolina wren — Thryothorus ludovicianus
- Common Yellowthroat — Geothlypis trichas
- Crow species — Corvus sp.
- Downy woodpecker — Dryobates pubescens
- Eastern kingbird — Tyrannus tyrannus
- Eastern Wood-Peewee — Contopus virens
- Eastern phoebe — Sayornis phoebe
- Eastern Warbling Vireo — Vireo gilvus (Unconfirmed)
- Eurasian collared dove — Streptopelia decaocto
- European starling — Sturnus vulgaris
- Great crested flycatcher — Myiarchus crinitus
- Great-tailed grackle — Quiscalus mexicanus
- Hooded warbler — Setophaga citrina
- Indigo bunting — Passerina cyanea
- Northern cardinal — Cardinalis cardinalis
- Orchard oriole — Icterus spurius
- Pine warbler — Setophaga pinus
- Prothonotary warbler — Protonotaria citrea
- Red-eyed vireo — Vireo olivaceus
- Red-shouldered hawk — Buteo lineatus
- Red-winged blackbird — Agelaius phoeniceus
- Scissor-tailed flycatcher — Tyrannus forficatus
- Summer tanager — Piranga rubra
- Swallow species — Family Hirundinidae
- Tufted titmouse — Baeolophus bicolor
- Turkey vulture — Cathartes aura
- White-eyed vireo — Vireo griseus
- Yellow-billed Cuckoo — Coccyzus americanus
- Yellow-throated vireo — Vireo flavifrons
Other Species
- Amanita Sp.
- American lady — Vanessa virginiensis
- Brown-headed cowbird — Molothrus ater
- Carolina satyr — Hermeuptychia sosybius
- Cope’s gray treefrog — Hyla chrysoscelis
- Common self-heal — Prunella vulgaris
- Dewberries — Rubus spp.
- Fiery skipper — Hylephila phyleus
- Mulberry — Morus spp. (fruiting)
- American Green Tree Frog — Hyla cinerea
- Hairstreak sp. — Family Lycaenidae
- Least skipper — Ancyloxypha numitor
- Little wood-satyr — Megisto cymela
- Lovebugs — Plecia nearctica
- Orange-banded hairstreak — Satyrium favonius ontario
- Pearl crescent — Phyciodes tharos
- Rat snake sp. — Pantherophis spp.
- Rudbeckia — Rudbeckia spp.
- Saddlebags dragonfly — Tramea spp.
- Stereum Sp.
- Schizophyllum commune
- Sweat bee — Family Halictidae
- Variegated fritillary — Euptoieta claudia
