moving day sadness...... looking for silver lining

C Can getting delivered  to house all of our donated  items  from the dorm  until we can find a new home for  them and those that will come to use them. Thanks to JPL storage for helping us out.

                                                                       

Yesterday ended a great run for the marsh and its volunteers. Yesterday we had to move our dorm from above the hilliardton community hall. The township had let us  use their upstairs for 2 years which is why we have been able to attract volunteers to the marsh in such great numbers and quality over the past two years. The ability to house volunteers and researchers at the marsh has translated into increased coverage at the nets. We have helped a great number of people interested in banding and extraction either gain their permit or get close to obtaining one. We have also been able to help a number of people go on to get jobs at other research centers and we have been able to attract some international volunteers to the marsh.

volunteers Louis Churman and Mike Werner  lending a hand 

      The biggest thing I am proud of though is that we really arrived as a banding family. Volunteers quickly discovered that coming to the marsh is not just a chance to see and band  so many amazingly beautiful boreal birds but that it is equally important to be immersed in a low key learning environment that stresses congeniality and fun along with doing research and greeting school groups and the public. It was an opportunity to see young people interact and be so thrilled and excited to see new species and to pass their enthusiasm and joy to our visitors. In essence having the ability to house volunteers allows us to be an efficient  bird observatory.... go figure!!!

     The bad news is that we are now in a "c can self storage unit"" all of the bunk beds,  couches,    chairs are now in limbo as are we  until we can forge ahead  with a new plan for housing volunteers.
      The new plan is being debated right now  but needless to say is going to involve a fund raising drive . The board of directors is meeting shortly to determine which one of our options we will pursue in order to deal with this issue. We always knew that the dorm above the community hall would some day come to an end  we were hoping to get one more banding season under our belt before we had to make the move.

    So stay tuned  for an announcement about our new plan and hopefully there are some generous people out there who would like to help us out by making a donation to the cause. Like so many bird observatories housing volunteers is often one of the biggest challenges but once we have this issue taken care of  the marsh will be able to settle into thinking more about research and delivering programs to school groups and the visiting public. The good news for folks in Canada is that the marsh is a registered charity so we can issue tax receipts if people would like to make a donation.  In early January we will be announcing the drive and how benefactors  will be recognized. Until then you can check out our website at www.thehilliardtonmarsh.com Its time to start thinking about banding redpolls and pine grosbeaks  which will hopefully be finding feeders at the marsh soon. Stay tuned for more exciting news at the Hilliardton marsh.

Volunteers of the year Ed and Ethan Quinton back to help move beds this past Wednesday to get ready for the bigger move  yesterday. We took a break from moving long enough to band 1 tree sparrow and retrap 12 chickadees and this 6 year old hairy woodpecker that Ethan is holding . Ethan proving if you keep your eyes closed it doe not hurt