FORT MORGAN, Ala. — Almost invisible, black Japanese silk nets strung across clearings near Fort Morgan wait for the unwary. It isn’t long before volunteers are bringing the birds captured in the nets to a banding table.

Called “mist nets,” they have a pocket woven into the bottom where the birds fall so they are not hurt.

The birds, now shocked into submission but otherwise unharmed, are placed in net bags. They are removed from the bags by a quick and careful volunteer, banded, weighed measured and its sex and species recorded.

Then the bird is handed to one of the other volunteers to display to an admiring crowd. After a look, some oohs and ahhs from the visitors, the bird, a little outraged, is allowed to fly free. Some visitors are allowed to hold the birds, being carefully schooled by the volunteers in how to handle them.

The banding process does not hurt the birds either, and lets other ornithologists know where that bird has been found before. That enables them to track migrating patterns and provides other information about birds.

One bird captured had been banded around 20 years ago.

The birds won’t remember much, said Scott Weidensaul, an ornithologist from Pennsylvania who had come to Fort Morgan for the banding the first weekend of April.

“A bird’s life is one long encounter with death-defying escapes,” Weidensaul said. “They will go back to doing what they were doing before they were captured.”

Weidensaul may be optimistic about what the birds remember. One mockingbird let its displeasure be known in no uncertain terms from the safety of a nearby bush after it was released.

Unfilled hummingbird feeders on display at the vendor tables were being investigated by a variety of hummingbirds. If you like to see what you have in your backyard, or to learn more about the birds that call the area a temporary home, this is the place for you.

The nets and volunteers from the Hummer Bird Study Group are part of a twice-a-year census at Fort Morgan. The next will be Oct. 8-18, in time to catch the fall migration. Visitors are welcome to come and see the banding and learn about the birds that travel through southern Alabama.

Fort Morgan, according to the HBSG, is the stopping off point for many birds as they migrate south for the winter. Last fall, 1,467 birds from 81 species were caught at Fort Morgan.

“I’ve been here four times and each time is as exciting as the first,” said Rose Smith of Cullman, Ala.

And while the birds must fly over the Gulf of Mexico to reach their winter homes, the birds face other dangers.

“The number of birds we are catching is decreasing, said Weidensaul. “They are losing tropical habitat and habitat here.”