Five dollars puts you at the bird-banding table on Sunday morning
Migration is on, and the Ijams Park banding crew lets visitors stand at the table while they work — and hand you the bird to release. It is the cheapest ticket of the weekend.
- When
- Sun Sep 20 · 8–9:30 AM
- Where
- Meet at the Mead's Quarry lot · 3526 Island Home Ave
- Cost
- $5 — and that includes your parking
- The walk
- About 500 feet downhill on uneven trail; the table is shaded, with seating
- Net runs
- Optional, off-trail — wear long pants and closed shoes
- Waiver
- One assumption-of-risk form per calendar year
- Rain
- Cancelled if it rains, with refunds — Sunday's chance is slight
The Ijams Park community science team runs its banding station on Sunday morning from eight to nine thirty, and five dollars gets you a place at the table. Trained staff and volunteers catch songbirds in fine mist nets, record the data, fit a numbered leg band, and let them go — and visitors get to see the birds in the hand and release them afterward.
What the station is actually for
The station opened in early 2025 to study how resident and migratory songbirds use fruiting plants through the year, with a particular interest in which birds eat and spread native versus non-native invasive species. The crew bands at sites across the park before and after invasive plant removal to see what changes. All of it runs under a federally authorized banding permit issued by the USGS Bird Banding Laboratory.
The practical part
You meet in the Mead's Quarry gravel lot — there should be a staff member there to point you down — and walk about five hundred feet downhill on uneven trail to the table, which is shaded and has seating. The walk back is short and mostly uphill. Net runs are optional and go off-trail through unmaintained brush and over one small stream, so long pants and real shoes if you want to go along. The five dollars covers parking, so don't pay at the lot.
