16-year-old high school student Sam Lewis is for the birds - literally. That's why the Appleby College student loves bird banding.
While attending Fern Hill Elementary School in Oakville, Sam Lewis discovered a bird banding station through a field studies program, which opened his eyes to a new world of possibilities.
"The whole tactile nature of it was really kind of something I would've never really expected," said Lewis. "I had no idea bird banding existed beforehand, but handling something so up close and personal like that was really special and from there, I wanted to pursue it further, and I guess I definitely did."
"I was given the opportunity to release a Blue Jay, which was the first time I ever handled a bird whatsoever and it was immediately quite striking."
Lewis got involved as a volunteer at a bird banding station and is on his way to becoming a certified Ontario bird bander. His love for bird banding takes early mornings and long hours with "standard protocol" taking up to six hours at the station.
Bird banding is a data collection method used to identify and track different bird species for research purposes. To begin a bird banding session, Lewis and his team open nets at sunrise and conduct "net checks," extracting any birds that are caught. When a bird is seen in the net, it is brought to the station for processing.
A unique nine-digit band is assigned and placed on the bird so it can be identified if it is caught again. The bird's age and sex are identified if possible, and wing measurements, mass, and the amount of fat and muscle are recorded. Once processed, the birds are released.
When the birds are caught again, the nine-digit code allows banders to identify them and gather trends and data.
According to Lewis, the data he and his team collect is placed into a global database that connects millions of data points between thousands of different bird observatories.
"That can be used in all sorts of manners whether it's conservation research or anything else from a vast array of research, and there's also different kinds of banding, what I've just described is migration monitoring," said Lewis.
Lewis says he is very passionate about biology and is looking to study it further when he goes off to University. "I'm really interested in doing a lot more research, I'm taking a handful of research courses in high school right now and so far they've really interested me," he said.
While his plans post-secondary remain unconfirmed, Lewis is dedicated to continuing his work in bird banding and biological research.