Banding Day!

Before I begin my report, I'd like to thank the members of the Birdcam team and Kodak.com for the great priviledge that they extended to me in asking me to name one of this year's eyases. For the past three years I have had the good fortune to be able to watch Mariah and Kaver in person, as they teach generation after generation to fly, hunt, and survive in an unforgiving world. I have always thought my nearness was more than reward enough. I was humbled by the honor they gave me.

Eyas Extraction

The Birdcam team asked me if I would like to participate this year, helping with some photographic duties, and also to act as a "decoy" during the eyas extraction and return period. I was, of course, more than happy to oblige, and I hope I can bring some sense of the excitement I felt to you through these reports.
We ascended into the superstructure of the Kodak tower steeple around 10:00, and split into two teams. Matt Bernius, a videographer named Thom and I exited to the ledge above the 19th floor, where the KODAK sign is affixed to the building. Our job was to lure Mariah from her perch near the nest box, to make it easier for the eyases to be extracted. Shortly after our arrival, the Eyas Extraction Team was to file out onto the Playpen level to begin the work of removing the eyases. I took the picture at the left using the 1.7x teleconverter for my DX6490, but after attempting to follow Mariah's speeding form through the clear morning air, I abandoned it, relying entirely upon the camera's 10x optical zoom lens to capture the remainder of my shots. She was so hard to track, in fact, that many of the shots I took ended up looking something like this:

Mariah came out aggressive, and stayed aggressive, striking the helmets of several Eyas Extraction Team members early on:

Needless to say, the team wasted as little time as possible collecting the eyases. They were placed in buckets for the trip down to the lobby:


Meanwhile, a small crew was left in the Playpen to perform some maintenance. Unfortunately, the crew was too small to keep a lookout for the darting, aggressive Mariah, so BART member Kenn Martinez asked me to lend a hand. Eager to get up close and personal with the action, I agreed. Boy, was I in for a shock. As soon as I stepped out into the Playpen, Mariah came at us. I kept track of her, and between taking pictures, told Brad Carney (who had been invited to attend by BART) and a Kodak electrician named Bob when to duck. She struck my hard hat with a solid thump on one of her passes. After that, I ducked a lot quicker! It was amazing to see the fierceness in her eyes as she flew within inches on her attack runs, one of which you can see in the photo at the left. I kept shooting, but had to duck on each pass. Once, as I was ducking, I turned my head violently away as she rushed toward us. I looked back out at her just in time to see something drop from Mariah's talons. At the same instant, I realized I was no longer wearing my glasses! I followed their descent to the top of one of the Kodak buildings, and a shiver coursed down my spine. She had come within inches of my face with those needle-sharp talons!

As soon as Brad and Bob finished their work, we beat a hasty retreat. As we were leaving, Brad was struck in the back by Mariah. She rent his cotton shirt as easily as if it were paper. We needed no more coaxing then, to get inside, and away from her wrath.

Eyas Banding

Down in the lobby, Each eyas was inspected for general health, and size measurements were taken using a leg gauge to deterimine the gender of the bird. The BART members worked frantically behind the scenes, with Kenn Martinez typing away on his computer to keep the cameras up and running. Birdman provided Discussion Board updates as each eyas received it's name. I shot some pictures of the eyases, and Cornpoppy, AKA Kodak.com manager Tom Hoehn provided live commentary. Barbara and Mike from the DEC also took questions from the audience, and kept everyone informed. Marianna O'brien kept track of each eyas as it was named, completing a line on the Name Chart, which you see completed. Here are pictures of the eyases during their banding:


After he was banded, Grissom took a tour outside in his orange bucket, so that the watchers who couldn't get into the Kodak lobby had a chance to see an eyas, live and up close.


Alkyonis gets measured and banded


Barbara Loucks holds Pride, about to receive her bands


Hafoc receives his DEC band from Mike Allen


Gahastey leaves a little "poop art" on the banding table to show her displeasure

I was fortunate to shoot a 751KB video of Gahastey receiving her band as Tom Hoehn describes the work performed by the Birdcam Transmitter Taskforce, which submitted Gahastey's name:


Once all the eyases had been banded, they were placed back into buckets for the return trip to the nestbox. Here, Barbara and Mike pose for a picture on the way to the elevator:

Note the face shield on Mike's heavy duty helmet.

Eyas Return

On the return trip, I was once again assigned to the KODAK sign level as a ledge decoy, but this time, I was joined by fellow Birdcam fan Carol P, and a couple of folks from Kodak's executive staff. We spread out, and right away Mariah was back on the attack. Luckily, it was much harder for her to get at us in our relatively protected positions, but despite that we did a lot of ducking until the Eyas Replacement Team made their appearance.


Of course, Mariah turned her attention to them immediately:


I shot a 1MB Quicktime video of Mariah harrassing the members of the Eyas Return Team:



BART member Matt Bernius gives the thumbs up, even as Mariah swoops by for another attack.

On the return trip, Kaver made his appearance. Though not nearly as aggressive as Mariah, he kept up a steady kakking to echo hers:




Mariah shows Kaver how it's done.


Kaver likes flying "High Cover"

All I can say is that this was one of the most exciting days of my life. The weather was incredible, and the experience was without equal. I can only hope for another opportunity as exhilarating as this one at some future date.