Pioneer Bird Observatories

Abstract

THE first bird observatory for making day to day records of passing birds and marking migrating species with numbered aluminium rings in the adult stage, where mortality is much less than in the nestling stage, was formed at the beginning of the present century by Prof. Thienemann at Rossitten, East Prussia, followed shortly after by Prof. Rudolf Drost's observatory at Heligoland. In the United States, the first bird-ringing or ‘banding’ station was established by S. Prentiss Baldwin on a 100-acre farm at Cleveland, Ohio, with a winter branch at Thomasville, Georgia, but the United States Bureau of Animal Biology now maintains two bird observatories, at Berkeley, California, for migration and waterfowl studies, and North Eastham, Massachusetts, for migration, in addition to general observation reserves for birds and mammals. In the British Isles the first permanent bird observatory and ringing station was established on Skokholm Island, off Pembrokeshire, in 1932, though since 1927 the Oxford University Ornithological Society has maintained a trapping station at Christ Church meadow and in the Museum grounds. In Denmark, Mr. P. Skov-gaard has maintained ringing stations near Copenhagen, and in Russia, the Institut Lesnov carries on the work near Leningrad. In France, the Ministry of Agriculture recently commenced bird migration studies at the Institut des Recherches Agronomiques, at Versailles.