Wascana MAPS hoody & t-shirt

We are selling hoody's and t-shirts to help support and promote the Wascana MAPS program! Hoody's are dark grey with our Wascana MAPS logo and are $35, while the t-shirts are an olive-green colour with the Wascana MAPS logo on it for $20. 

All funds raised with these shirts will go to buying new mist nets, repairing old nets, buying new banding equipment as needed, and various other small needs to keep the program running. No funds will be used as payment to banders or anyone else - this will continue to be a completely volunteer run program.

The Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship program is administered by the Institute of Bird Populations in California. The Wascana MAPS station is one of 500 stations in North America, and 1 of 4 now in Saskatchewan. I started the program in Wascana Marsh in 2010, while I was park Naturalist at Wascana Centre. When I left Wascana in the fall of 2013, I did not want to see the program end, so I took it on strictly as a volunteer. Besides assistance from Wascana's ecologist, I now rely solely on volunteers to help make this program a success. I am so grateful to so many people's commitment to bird conservation in Regina!

Our logo is of a Yellow Warbler, based off a photo of one of our long term volunteers, Kim Mann and created by Karen Kolkman of Annaheim, SK. The Yellow Warbler is the most regularly bird we catch, we have banded 696 at Wascana MAPS since 2010.

Some of the successes we have had since beginning in 2010 are:

• 2319 individual birds have been banded at Wascana MAPS comprised of 49 different species! 
• 113 of those birds have returned to Wascana Marsh in later years! 
• Five birds captured in 2014, were originally banded in the Habitat Conservation Area in 2010, making some of those birds at least 6 years old! 
• Wascana MAPS has the only banding record of a Sedge Wren in Saskatchewan's banding history and only the 3rd banding record of a Black-billed Cuckoo!
• Our data is utilized by the Institute of Bird Populations in California to determine songbird population trends!
• Our ongoing efforts are contributing to bird conservation across North America!

A male Yellow-headed Blackbird, captured at the Wascana MAPS station.

Check out #WascanaMAPS on twitter to see many of the species we have banded.

If you have never been to Wascana MAPS, I encourage you help us promote this program by ordering a shirt and showing your commitment to bird conservation!

To order a hoody or t-shirt, send me an email at clarkejared AT hotmail dot com. Our order will be placed at the end of March. 

A Nelson's Sparrow captured at the Wascana MAPS station.