While we cannot see Boise from the banding station, a short walk of 100 meters down the trail opens to a great vista of the city of trees, 3000 feet below.
The sunrise is always a great experience.
The Idaho Bird Observatory is an excellent place to band migrating songbirds. The mountain ranges of western Idaho funnel all of the birds to this point before they must cross the Southern Idaho desert. From this point there will be no food or cover for many songbirds for about 50 miles.
For songbird banding we operate 10 mist nets for 5 hours per day starting at sunrise. The nets are located in a variety of terrain, all a short walk from the central banding station. We check the nets every 30 minutes to extract birds and return them to the banding station. The crew consists of 4 or 5 people per day. At least 2 clearing nets and 2 processing birds. We trade off tasks a well. In this early part of the season we only have 5 people available, and try to have at least 4 on duty every day. A new volunteer arrives next week so that I can take a few days off.
Most days I commute to the mountain on my dual sport motorcycle. Some nights I stay over with the crew. The team takes turns cooking dinner for the group.
I only have 4 weeks left until school starts. My school schedule won't allow me to stay on with the songbird banding team, although weekends are still available for me to fill in. Once school begins I will start hawkwatch at the IBO one day a week after I get out of school. Hawkwatch consists of identifying and counting migrating raptors that pass over the site. Both songbird banding and hawkwatch are related to my research.
Once again, if you are in the area you are welcome to come up to see us. We will give you a tour, explain the process, and show you some beautiful birds up close.