Ted Murphy-Kelly knew he wanted to be a bird-bander when he was in grade seven, but it was another 20 years before he had a chance to learn the trade.

It wasn't lack of enthusiasm that held him up. Murphy-Kelly has what he calls "a passion for banding." However, becoming a qualified bird-bander is a long and tightly-controlled process.

"The observatories that are available to train volunteers are few and far between," he says.

He finally got a chance to serve his apprenticeship as a bird-bander when he moved to Toronto in his thirties. He started volunteering with the Long Point Bird Observatory on Lake Erie, a couple of hours away, and then shifted to the Toronto Bird Observatory on the city's waterfront.

For two years, during the spring and fall migrations, Murphy-Kelly went banding every weekend and as many weekdays as he could spare from work. He set mist-nets, identified and measured birds, recorded the information, and clipped identity tags to their tiny legs before gently setting them free to continue their journeys.

At the end of that time, he was eligible for a subpermit, issued by the Canadian Wildlife Service, which allowed him to band birds under the direct supervision of a full permit-holder.

The apprenticeship process is used throughout North America, Murphy-Kelly says. In Europe, a more formal training program with standardized courses is in place for bird-banders.

"I think that is coming here in the near future, to mirror a lot of the European countries that already have that standard," he says.

When Murphy-Kelly moved to the Yukon a couple of years ago, he decided to apply for a full permit so that he could continue enjoying his passion in the north. Now he's setting up a migratory bird banding station near Watson Lake, on Albert Creek near where it drains into the Liard River.

Last year, he financed it on his own. This year the operation has financial support from the Canadian Wildlife Service, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, the Yukon Environment Department, the Yukon Bird Club, the Yukon Conservation Society, and Julia Onions, a private donor from Ontario. The observatory is actually a project of the South East Yukon Proper Land Use Society, which hired Murphy-Kelly as project leader.

Murphy-Kelly's bird observatory could become the most northerly location in the Canadian Migration Monitoring Network, a volunteer-fueled program to track bird numbers and behaviour, especially during the spring and fall migrations.

"To properly conserve and protect bird species, we need to know what is happening to their populations," the organization explains on its web site. "Such baseline information is crucial for bird conservation, to know how to direct our efforts."

Some of the birds that pass through the Watson Lake area are quite special, says Murphy-Kelly.

"The Watson Lake area hosts many neotropical and near-neotropical migrants that are at the northwestern extent of their range," he says. "Examples of these are Magnolia Warbler, Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, White-Throated Sparrow, and American Redstart."

Standardized methods of banding, measuring, and counting, mean the information collected in Canada can be linked with information from other parts of the Americas where the birds also spend part of their year. Much of the research into standardizing methods took place at Long Point Bird Observatory where Murphy-Kelly began his career.

The standardized methods are now in use throughout the Canadian Migration Monitoring Network, providing important baseline data on population trends of northern breeding birds. Murphy-Kelly's fledgling operation in the southeast Yukon is contributing to that baseline data, as well as expanding our knowledge of Yukon birds.

For general information about bird banding, contact the Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada, Yukon Region, at (867) 393-6700, or the Yukon Government's Wildlife Viewing Program at (867) 667-5331. To learn about the Canadian Migration Monitoring Network, go to http://www.bsc-eoc.org/national/cmmn.html