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Bird Banding in Dolly Sods September 2011

Entrance to bird banding station at Dolly Sods

Merlin captured at Dolly Sods and about to be freed

Busy scene at Dolly Sods bird banding station

As if Dolly Sods wasn’t fascinating and beautiful enough, there’s an extra special attraction that happens every year in the fall, when birds migrate. Within the Wilderness Area area across from the Red Creek Campground, bird enthusiasts from the state’s Brooks Bird Club (among others)  maintain a banding station along the Allegheny Front. The fine nets that are strewn along the rock outcroppings temporarily capture migrating birds as they travel up over the Alleghenies on their way south.

After gently extracting the captured birds,  the volunteers who staff the station gather information to identify and track the various migratory species. The afternoon these photos were taken they had caught a beautiful Merlin, a type of falcon with a mottled breast and bright yellow feet.
After the birds are caught and observed some are banded and then released to continue their migratory journey.

The bird banding station in Dolly Sods operates throughout September and early October. It makes a great day trip for visitors to Canaan Valley and Davis, WV. And it’s just one of many fascinating reasons for exploring our beautiful West Virginia highlands.

Nets along the Allegheny Front capture migrating birds at Dolly Sods

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 30th, 2011 at 11:00 am and is filed under Davis West Virginia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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