Travel Tips

I worked as an intern at a Audubon sponsered mapping station on Long Island 2 summer's ago. We would get up before sunrise and put mist nets up and periodically check them for birds for several hours in the morning.
Birds can become very stressed and injured if left in the nets for too long, so we checked quite often. It's also often not that easy getting the birds out as they really can get themselves tangled up! Seeing these birds up close and in hand was really something. If you are interested in bird banding, it's possible that there are bird banding programs in your area. At least where I was doing it, they always needed volunteers to help. You could check with a local Audubon chapter if you live in the US. I'm not sure if they have chapters outside of the US. The banding is usually done during the summer months when the birds are in the area nesting. Hawk banding is done in the fall during migration. Catching wild birds like this and holding them is normally illegal so to experience this you really would need to volunteer or intern with an organization licensed to do so.