2020 collection plans

My return to research class at good o'l PHS has greeted me with piles of self-imposed paperwork, permits upon ethics forms upon "Imnotsureexactlywhatthisisorwhatimsupposedtodowithit" forms.

However, if all goes well, all of this should allow me to complete my collection plans for 2020:

Return to castle island:

Yep, I'm (hopefully) going back to Boston to further investigate Caste Island's tumbling pigeons. With my newly learned skills of bow-net use I learned in Florida, I will hopefully be going back this fall or next spring (when there will hopefully be less grouchy people to step in my trap). I am especially hoping to catch up with this guy, the caste island banded roller:

 

the "caste island banded roller" is a domestic pigeon from the breed "birmingham roller" it is typically believed that rollers of any kind are completely incapable of survival int he wild, so I would want to get more information on this bird. "banded" refers to the faded lavender ring on it's leg.

I plan to catch a few more pigeons, perhaps even taking DNA samples to see how some of the juveniles in the park are related to domestic rollers, if at all. I would also like to film these guys rolling, and document when and why they do it, but that might be a bit of a stretch, as filming any bird in flight is incredibly difficult to do.

Fairmount park, PA:

This one is going to be hard. first, I need to get a whole new Pennsylvania wildlife collection permit. If I get that, I need to find a feeding flock of pigeons in the massive urban expanse of Fairmount park Philadelphia (the only public place I can find in Pennsylvania  that has any chance of having pigeon flocks). If I get that far, I need to trap pigeons( of they aren't too wary) without having a replay of the chaos of dealing with people in Boston.....or worse.

It would help if I could trap the feral pigeons at the Philadelphia Zoo, but the ethics that zoos put over any study of animals within there grounds is tough to get through.............

Washington D.C, National Mall:

I've already filled out the ethics form for this one, and it was crazy. It took me an entire Sunday to complete the national park service institutional animal care and use committee (NPS IACUC) ethics form. I understand why the NPS puts so much protection over it's wildlife, one misplaced study could destroy a population of a mores sensitive species, and people propose frightening unethical studies all the time. However, stuff like this is always harder than it seems, and for this reason, and the security sensitivity of the national mall in Washington D.C, I give myself about 30% odds of getting permission to collect.

However, if I do, catching pigeons should not be a problem. After a trip to D.C, I saw the pigeons there to be so tame that I could have caught them by hand. the photo below is from the national mall and shows perfect trapping conditions. A large flock of pigeons tame enough to photograph and in a public area..... all right on the National Mall!

 

For those who don't know, the National mall is a large stretch of lawn with monuments and buildings in Washington D.C (the capital city of the united states) it is managed by the united states national park service, the same organization that manages more well known parks like Yellowstone.

Outer Banks, North Carolina:

It's South Carolina BUT NORTH (if anyone got my "Up" reference I congratulate you). I hope that my collecting in North Carolina will go like it did in South Carolina, but unlike south carolina, I need a permit. I am currently waiting on the permit to go through.... and I have my fingers crossed that I will be approved. Again, even if I get my permit, I have no guarantees that any of my three potential collection sites will have any trappable pigeons, so again, fingers crossed.

 

I know it's a stretch, but all of these floofkins where photographed at one of my collecting sites the day this lab note was written.....its hard not to get my hopes up.

Museums and bird rescues:

Ok, this one's a bit more iffy, But I Realllllly hope to get to the field museum In Chicago, where a simply MASSIVE bird skin collection is kept. This would mean I would be adding Chicago to my study area, but it would be interesting to see how birds further west are adapting.

I would also like to visit the wild bird fund in New York city. Although I did not originally want to take measurements at a bird rescue I may may not have any choice if I can't get a New York collection permit, which is unlikely, I will be working on it though, so if possible I might be catching pigeon in central park!