Q&A with Chloe St. Germain-Vermillion, Coastal Bird Technician

How would you describe your job as Coastal Bird Technician to someone who's never heard of it?  

As a coastal bird technician most of my job has to do with monitoring shorebirds. That work varies depending on the time of year. In the breeding season, I'm counting the number of birds nesting on the beach and how many babies they're having. Basically: how are the birds doing? Are they having nest success? Are the chicks surviving to the point where they can fly?

During that time, I'm also advocating for the birds — making the communities aware of the work that's happening and making sure they're respecting and helping us protect the birds nesting there. So: monitoring shorebird populations and advocating for their continued protection. And getting bit by lots of mosquitoes. 

What's one project or moment from your time At Audubon Delta that you're especially proud of?

One of my proudest moments was seeing the first chick I ever banded myself come back. It's kind of full circle, because I've seen her every year since I banded her. She still has all her color bands, and she's come back to the area where she was banded — now she's a breeding female. It's a really cool moment, because it always takes me back to that first year of working here, and that first bird.

You recently attended a Hummingbird banding workshop hosted by the Hummingbird Conservation Network and the Southwestern Research Station. Can you share a little bit about your experience?

It was a 10-day workshop in the Chiricahuas, a mountain range in southeast Arizona. We stayed at the Southwestern Research Station. The first few days we learned how to handle hummingbirds — the grips, taking measurements, etc – and how to make the bands, which is very involved. For hummingbirds, the bands are printed on an aluminum sheet, and you have to cut out strips, cut the bands from the strips, and form them into semicircles. There's a lot of fine adjustment — sanding, making sure there are no scratches or grooves, making sure the band is legible. Hummingbirds are very delicate, so you don't want to accidentally make a band that's too wide or too long or scratch it. A lot goes into it.

From there, we started the actual work – trapping, banding, measuring, processing. We banded at several sites: the research station and a couple of houses that are birding hotspots. One of those houses consistently gets Lucifer Hummingbirds, which was very exciting because they are so rare.  

There was also a monitoring component. This is part of the Hummingbird Monitoring Network, so while we were banding, they were also counting birds at the feeders — doing a general census during migration — and we got to see a little of how that works.

What's the most surprising thing you learned there?

Honestly, the supplies. Everything for hummingbird banding is almost DIY. Besides the aluminum sheet with the bands printed on it, everything is something people have just engineered themselves -- the banding pliers, the formers you use to shape the bands, the shears to cut out the strips, etc.

That was really surprising to me — how niche all the equipment is, and that it's not necessarily easy to procure or to find someone who's making the things you need. Hummingbird banding is still relatively new compared to other banding, and it's so specialized because their anatomy is totally different. They're the tiniest birds in the world.

How do you see those skills or insights carrying back to your work here in the Delta?

One of the reasons I wanted to apply to this workshop is that we don't currently have a hummingbird bander on staff here in the Delta. There was interest in getting me trained so I could help with things like migration monitoring at festivals. Plus, the connection of meeting other people within the birding community and the National Audubon Society itself.  

What's your favorite bird, and why? And it is a hard question?

It is! I feel like I rotate through birds. The one I've been on lately is the American Dipper. I don't know if I have a specific favorite, but I do love American Dippers — dippers in general.

They're very round and they do this really cute behavior where they bob up and down. And they're the only aquatic songbirds — semi-aquatic, but they hunt in the water. They're very cute, and they have a really interesting foraging style.

What's one thing you wish more people in our region knew about coastal birds or how to help them?

One thing people can do that makes a real impact when they go to the beach is give birds space. It’s about understanding bird behavior and what it looks like when they're stressed. Just because birds are made to fly doesn't mean they like to fly.

If you're getting close to a flock and they fly away, that's too close. If they're moving away from you, don't flush them — give them space, let them rest. A lot of the birds you're seeing right now are migrating, so if you see them on the beach, they're resting and foraging and trying to get their energy up. They’ve got a long way to go – some of them are traveling all the way to the tip of South America.