Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 10:38:24 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Kathy Klimkiewicz Subject: Chan Robbins' Albatross Capture/Recapture Project MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS As many of you know, the Bird Banding Laboratory is re-engineering their systems and programs. These are exciting times for us and for banders and researchers in North America. One of the most exciting projects is the development of guidelines and software that will enable banders to submit recaptures to BBL. This is especially exciting for nongame research as it will enable researchers to obtain survival rates, recruitment rates, and other important demographic parameters for nongame species! BBL successfully competed for a $30,000 grant and we have hired a post doctoral biologist, Paul Doherty, who is working on the design and implementation of the BBL recapture/resighting database. We need data sets to test the programs. One data set that holds exciting possibilities is the ALBATROSS data from Chan Robbins' Pacific Project work with Laysan and Black-footed Albatross. Albatross are among the longest-lived birds, routinely living more than 40 years. In the 1950s and 1960s Chan went to Midway Island to band albatross. During that time period, and since then, many banded albatross have been recaptured. With these data we can estimate survivorship. With the advent of long-line fishing techniques, which may impact albatross survivorship, this data set has increased in importance. Unfortunately much of this data exists only on paper and must be keyed into a computer data set before the data can be used for analysis. There are tens of thousands of records and this amount is beyond what can be handled by one person in a timely fashion. BBL IS LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS TO HELP WITH THIS EFFORT. THIS IS A WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY TO HELP CHAN ROBBINS! Paul has developed a program to facilitate data entry. Volunteers can work in BBL, or after getting acquainted with the program, could take it home and enter data at home. BBL is open from 7:00 am to 6:30 pm Monday through Friday and you would be welcome during this time. It would be preferable for you to work in at least 2-hour blocks on a consistent schedule; however, we are flexible. You would be contributing to the conservation of these unique birds, will have a better understanding of what the BBL does, and will be able to interact with wildlife biologists on staff. If interested, please contact: Paul Doherty Bird Banding Laboratory USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center 12100 Beech Forest Road Laurel, MD 20708-4037 Ph. 301-497-5796 (leave a voice mail message if Paul is not in his office) Fax 301-497-5717 Email Paul_Doherty@usgs.gov ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================