Transcript: Jarrod Studies Birds

JARROD SANTORA (professor, college of staten island): My name is Jarrod Santora. I’m twenty-four years old and I study birds.

JARROD: I know that they’re up to something. I knew that they’ve been doing it for thousands of years. Since 1997 I’ve been banding birds out here.

JARROD: It’s kind of hard to get used to at first. We’re up at four o’clock, usually in the morning, and coming out to set up the nets before dawn, before the sun comes up, before the birds start getting active.

JARROD: Being quiet, listening to the birds that are giving calls around you, watching the sun come up…

JARROD: Birds fly into the nets, I take them out and I measure them. Just like I’d measure a carrot or something, I measure the birds. I get an idea of how big it is, you know, what color it is, what time of the year it is…

JARROD: Trying to get a bird to go into the net, I may use some sort of “Cpish” call. And there’s all types of like, you know, hand kissing that you do.

JARROD: You can do all of these squeak sounds that may bring them in or you can do… Sometimes you do a screech owl call like, (whistling).