Bird banding is a method of tagging birds for the recording of their migratory routes and gaining insight on their tendencies, that would have otherwise been difficult to observe. This is helpful for scientists working to develop protection for bird species as the world around them develops.
As we ramp up our newest project of bird documentation, led by science director Ruby Hammond, the practice of banding is put at the forefront of our efforts. The process works by capturing the birds, harmlessly, with mist nets (incredibly thin nets) that they fly right into due to their inability to see them. They are collected using small cloth bags, and then carefully extracted by their feet. After the data is collected and they are banded, and released.
Alabama Audubon came to us as spectators to witness Ruby’s two-day bird banding presentation. With stretched out nets, invisible to any unsuspecting passersby, and a table littered with measuring equipment, Ruby was set to lead an eventful demonstration.
Hans Paul, observing birds passing though trees.
The group, led by the Audubon’s program coordinator, Andrew Lydeard, could be seen hoasting a pair of binoculars around their necks or cameras in their hands, with eyes peeled and fingers constantly popping up to point at a bird in a tree. They were a jovial bunch, excited to see birds common and rare alike.
From left: Mark Banaszak Holl, Becky Smith, and Anne Sweeney from the Alabama Audubon group talking with Beth and Bill Finch
Over the course of their visit, Ruby’s nets – aided by stealthy movements of onlookers and speakers projecting bird calls- entrapped Northern parulas, Chickadees, and Yellow throated Warblers. Her procedure for banding the captured birds included: measuring wings, tails, weight and feet (for the bands) then distinguishing the age and gender of the birds.
After their release, the birds were on their way back to either their local habitat or on their long journey to finish their migration. The birding group that typically spend their time identifying and appreciating bird species, came out of the forest with a healthy understanding of the process that goes into banding the birds, recording the data, and drawing up blueprints to protect the objects of their fascination.
It’s hard to understand natural systems when all you can see is computer monitors and sheetrock.
One of the missions of the Paint Rock Forest Research Center is to expose students interested in sciences to the delightful chaos of nature in the flesh. University of West Alabama botanist Brian Keener appreciates that, as well, and he’s helping develop an educational center on the Cahaba River. But Brian has made the Paint Rock center an important destination for the students in his Alabama Natural Communities class — because, as he notes, it exposes them to a fascinating and exceptionally diverse natural system that they’re unlikely to see anywhere else.
Brian Keener, PhD Professor of Biology and Alabama Natural Commuities at University of West Alabama. Founder of the Alabama Plant Atlas and Director of the Cahaba Biodiversity Research Center.
Twelve tired students and teachers staggered in well after dark Saturday night But they buzzed with excitement when they work up Sunday morning and got a better vision of where they were.
With golden timing, they arrived as Paint Rock’s most famous wildflowers were beginning to showcase their colors. The stars, as always, were the seemingly endless stretches of bluebells, surrounded by dancing swallowtail butterflies. But Brian made sure they made note of the bright yellow Celandine poppies, the amusing dangling pantaloons of the Dutchmen’s britches, and the intense purple woodland larkspurs. It wasn’t just a sight to behold. Students and professors tasted and sniffed every aromatic, edible plant (pulled straight from the ground) and offered to them.
Keener runs the Alabama Plant Atlas, which holds specimens of every species of plant know from Alabama. His knowledge of the Alabama flora, from one end of the state to the other, is encylopedic. And so when Brian tells the students there isn’t another wildflower site (or sight!) like this in Alabama, and maybe in the South, they pay attention.
The trip provided insight into the younger generation’s optimism for the future. One student, studying to become a middle school science teacher, expressed her excitement about watching young minds develop and children grow in their passion for science and the outdoors. Many of her peers agreed and shared an appreciation for the abundance of hands-on learning experiences that students now get to have, rather than just covering them in lectures or reading about them in textbooks.
Keener may well be the state’s best botanist. But we think even he would agree that Paint Rock is the best teacher.
That’s the hard labor behind scientific discovery and advancement. At times it can be as numbing as assembly line work or slapping pepperoni on Domino’s pizzas. The difference is knowing that you’re doing something lasting and significant.
Ask the folks who’ve helped us map, measure, and identify well over 50,000 trees in the Paint Rock Forest Dynamics Census plot. Most of us have a hard time imagining the scale of forests anymore, so let me put it in terms we understand all too well. A typical WalMart parking lot covers 10 or so acres. Our census plot covers 150 acres – the size of 15 super-sized WalMart parking lots
Ryan Long who has been with us for the better part of two year will be leaving for the University of Georgia for a Ph.D.
Kennedy Norris has a master in entomology from Jacksonville State and will be getting married to Ryan and moving with him to Athen, Ga. also pursue a Ph.D.
Now, imagine you had to precisely map, measure and describe every car in a slammed-full Super WalMart parking lot. Do that 50 times, and you get a sense of how monumental this effort is. The rocks and rattlesnakes and unanticipated encounters with nature make it more engaging than counting cars. But there’s no mistake it’s work.
A year or two into this census, we recognized why no one else in North America is doing a census at this scale, even though the scientific benefits are great. It involves an enormous amount of labor, and it’s quite expensive. More than a million dollars has now gone into the census. It started with funds from Lyndhurst Foundation and a USDA capacity building grant through Alabama A&M in 2018. We slogged through COVID and when that grant ran out, we supported the effort with the help of many friends – foundations like Lyndhurst, Goldenrod, Munson, individual large donors like Gates and Margot Shaw, Nancy and Johnny Johns, Cliff and Cindy Martin, the Cynthia Neal estate – and more than 100 other donors who’ve contributed the funds when we needed them most.
What those dollars paid for first and foremost is engaging a new generation in the work of nature. More than three dozen up and coming scientists and naturalists have now participated in the census. Believe me, they have a harder job than most folks you know as they climb the steep slopes of Paint Rock, balancing scientific calculation with the grace of a mountain goat.
But we also work to make sure that they understand the significance of where they are and what they’re doing, and we look for ways to help them translate that into a lifetime of experiences and achievements. We enjoy looking back through the photos and remembering how each of them were affected by their encounters with one of North America’s richest forest ecosystems.
And we remember with gratefulness how hard they’ve had to work to build the science infrastructure that we’re creating here, one tree at a time.
This past year’s crew has been challenged more than most. Because of funding restraints, we reduced the size of the census crew significantly from the first few years. Fortunately, we were able to bring back a couple of crew members from 2022 – Joao Pedro de Godoy and Ryan Long. Their experience, under the guidance of our science director Ruby Hammond, helped us develop more efficient census methods that will speed our work in the future. Kennedy Norris and Sakora Smeby quickly got into the swing of things. And they all persevered in spite of the many curveballs. They had to inch their way through some of the thickest forests on the census plot – forests so thick, we repeatedly ran out of tags for labeling the trees. And then, we discovered that the survey grid that is so critical to helping us census the trees had a gaping hole. Working with local surveyor Mike Stanley, they became extraordinarily adept surveyors – which requires another level of scientific diligence and patience.
Forest Census crew in the field. Ryan Long, Kennedy Norris, Joao De Godoy
And in spite of all the obstacles, they have exceeded our goal for this year’s census. Our next crew will pick up in the midst of columns 36 and 37, more than 60% through the plot. By the end of this year, we hope that the first census of the largest forest dynamics plot in North America will be about 86% complete.
Ryan and Kennedy are now officially affianced, and will be moving on this week – to the University of Georgia, where they’ll both be pursuing doctorates. Congratulations on all accounts! We’ll continue to work with them to make sure they have the best research opportunities when they get there. We’re optimistic that their unique insights into the plants, insects and forest ecology encountered on the plot are going to translate into significant scientific advances.
Sakora Smeby was hired part time to help with communications and outreach for the Research Center.
It’s to our immense benefit that Joao will continue with the census this year. He’ll be helping Ruby and our new crew leader train other young scientists, and he’s learning new skills all the time – he’s now in charge of our seed processing program. We’ll be looking for ways to help Joao make his experiences here a platform for his future. And we hope you’ll be hearing a lot more from Sakora on these pages. She’s already playing a larger role in our photography, our newsletters and other communications as she finishes her degree in forestry and wildlife science at Alabama A&M.
When you support the Paint Rock Forest Research Center, you support science. You support nature, and the future of Eastern North America’s biodiversity. But you also support the hard work and learning experiences of a new generation, who will determine the future of our planet.
Forest Census crew in the field. Ryan Long, Kennedy Norris, Joao De Godoy
Bryce Lafferty, head of the art and design program at Jacksonville State University, and JSU photography professor Doug Clark are giving a face and voice to the Paint Rock forest and its inhabitants — from the vibrant moss growing on the edge of sandstone cliffs to small owls tucked in the crevices of hidden caves.
Lafferty is increasingly recognized for his unusual landscape representations, which slice into the heart of the land and the ecosystems he paints. Clark is a landscape photographer who’s working at many scales, capturing forests of mosses or trees. But their tour wasn’t just about what they see: They’re scouting the preserve for inspiring places that encourage developing student artists to express their own interpretations of how art and science collide.
Lafferty and Clark began their explorations in the soaring cave behind the research center’s main residential building. A steady stream of water rolls from the back of the cave and out the entrance, echoing off the rock walls, trickling past boulders that pile up on the slope of the mountain. This would be a great introduction for artists, both agreed.
After a long buggy trip deep into the 4000-acre preserve, they settled into a large sink, the local name for a collapsed cave system. The artists couldn’t take their eyes off the ornate limestone walls, but they got a crash course in dendrology, learning about the various tree species discovered in the forest dynamics census taking place on the preserve.
We advanced further into the forest, climbing in elevation to a breathtaking view that overlooks the preserve. Growing on the cliffs are striking patches of moss, soft enough to lay on and too vividly green to ignore. They, of course, stole the attention of each person with a camera and Clark used the photo shoot as an opportunity to teach the group techniques for achieving quality images in nature.
As we began losing daylight we trekked to a vast, stunning holler, cloaked by massive trees. Fallen timber was a bridge over the waterfalls rushing below. We photographed until everyone’s batteries bit the dust. Clark came prepared and had another camera handy. We capitalized on this and headed toward our last destination of the day.
As we bounced around in the buggy, descending down the mountain, we discussed the future and vision that they had for the fine arts program at JSU. We kicked around some ways that Paint Rock can help them present their ideas of intertwining science and art in expressions that can be enjoyed by the public.
We finally pulled off of the gravel road and weaved our way through trees and tall grass to get to the last spot: an old cave with a fascinating history. The deep cavern had served as a concert venue for bluegrass bands in its past, and additionally as a fallout shelter in case of a nuclear attack. Now the cavity is simply a home to those creatures who’d rather not be seen by the world. We ran into one of these shy souls when we came upon a small screech owl staring right at us. As a reminder of his talent for stealth, the petite predator practically disappeared before our eyes, exiting our view just as quickly as he had entered it.
Wrapping up, we could all agree that the day owed us nothing. By the time we parted ways our camera rolls were full, and intentions were laid out for what looks to be a bright future in the way of relations between Paint Rock and the fine arts program of Jacksonville State University.
Paint Rock features prominently in Alabama Public Television’s newest video on the diversity of Alabama. It is very compelling! You can watch the video here if you missed it last night. (And thanks to Brian Keener for putting all this together.)
