This past weekend Allison Nelson (remember her thrush project??) and I road tripped up to Humboldt, CA to share our research at the 2014 Meeting of the Western Bird Banding Association (WBBA.)
The conference spanned from September 18-21 and saying it was bird-heavy is an understatement! We were there with representatives from all of the major banding stations up and down the West Coast and even inland into the Southern US a bit (a couple Arizona and New Mexico folks were in attendance.)
Both HBBO and WBBA use a bird in their logo that should be familiar to you at this point!
Most of the conference took place at the Humboldt Bay Bird Observatory (HBBO) on the
Humboldt Bay Wildlife Refuge:
Friday
After a nice meet-and-greet dinner Thursday night the conference kicked off bright and early with a morning of banding at HBBO. Even though most of us in attendance were experienced bird banders, it's always interesting to watch how other stations operate. For example, at the station I work at (Coyote Creek) we score fat on a 0-7 scale, 0 being none and 7 being 'very excessive.' HBBO uses a 'none-full' scale - the bird either had no fat, half fat, or full fat.
Even though we have different methodologies we share many of the same species. Below are two yellow warblers - one from HBBO (top) and one from Coyote Creek (bottom):
There's only so many people that can pack into a banding station so some of us departed for a guided walk of the local dunes. The Lanphere Dunes on the Humboldt Bay Wildlife Refuge contain some of the most eerie and beautiful habitat I've ever seen.
Animal tracks were very easy to spot in the wet sand. This skunk left his footprints behind:
And of course:
This was a bird conference after all!
In the afternoon there were a series of workshops, including one led by Allison on bleeding techniques and geolocators.
One helpful workshop was on bird first aid. It is very rare but if we do come across an injured bird – either as a result of netting or if it had a previous injury – it is our responsibility as banders and conservationists to do all that is in our power to help that bird. In this workshop we learned how to splint a broken leg, how to calm a stressed bird, and how to tend to a dislocated limb. Obviously we didn’t have any birds to work with so we splinted broken reeds for practice.
One helpful workshop was on bird first aid. It is very rare but if we do come across an injured bird – either as a result of netting or if it had a previous injury – it is our responsibility as banders and conservationists to do all that is in our power to help that bird. In this workshop we learned how to splint a broken leg, how to calm a stressed bird, and how to tend to a dislocated limb. Obviously we didn’t have any birds to work with so we splinted broken reeds for practice.
Saturday
Saturday was the presentation and poster day. The day was
packed with presentations on everything from nesting habits, molt patterns, and
aging techniques of birds from Canada to South America.
Allison gave a great update on her hermit thrush geolocator
project. Two years ago she put geolocators on birds in both the South and North
Bay. Last year, some of those birds were recaptured and their geolocators
removed. Turns out the South Bay birds fly further north and travel faster than
the hermit thrushes in the North Bay. It’s right around the time of year that
we will be seeing the hermit thrushes migrate back in and we’re hoping to round
up the remaining geolocators.
On Saturday evening there was a social and poster session.
Only three of us had posters so we certainly got a bit of foot traffic! Though
my project is still in the early stage and there aren’t too many conclusions to
draw just yet, I had a great time discussing my methodology and initial data
analysis.
C.J. Ralph, head of the HBBO and chair of the conference, stopped by for an engaging explanation:
C.J. Ralph, head of the HBBO and chair of the conference, stopped by for an engaging explanation:
Sunday
Sunday morning Allison went on a birding tour in the Humboldt County mountains while I spent some time with our host's chickens:
Before hitting the road for our 5 hour drive home we stopped by downtown Arcata to check out the North Country Fair:
Arcata is just quirky like that.
All in all it was a successful and informative trip. Allison was even elected and unanimously approved to the HBBO board! Next year's WBBA meeting will be hosted by the Vancouver Avian Research Centre so we'll be heading north of the border!
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