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WESTERN BIRD BANDING ASSOCIATION ANNUAL MEETING

DAVIS, CALIFORNIA - September 14 - 17, 2022

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Also featured is a full schedule of keynote speakers
and scientific talks given by ornithologists, ecologists, students, and banders on current topics and recent innovations. Special awards will be given for student presentations.

 

We will also be holding our regular auction so bring your bird related items to donate.

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Registration

Please use the registration form available at https://forms.gle/KpHpeCugWD2pbEtz5 to register. Registration costs are $50 for non-students and $35 for students. Delicious meals will be provided at minimal cost but options and rates are yet to be determined. 

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Call for papers

The call for papers is now open. We invite abstract submissions for oral presentations, workshops, and posters. While banding birds constitutes much of what we do, the WBBA and its members encompass much more within ornithology, and ever year we showcase this fact at our annual meetings. Instructions on how to submit abstracts is available by clicking here.

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Field Trips

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Join us at our first in person meeting in far too long! This year's Annual Meeting will be held at the beautiful Putah Creek Lodge on the campus of
the University of California, Davis. The lodge is located amidst riparian & oak forests - an especially birdy setting, during an especially birdy time. Mid-September is the height of the migration season in California’s Central Valley, with nearby wildlife refuges and migration “hot spots” featuring special birds such as the Yellow-billed Magpie, Lewis’s Woodpecker, and myriad species of waterfowl and shorebirds. The nearby Sacramento Airport is an active hub with about 10 airlines & many daily flights coming in from around the country.  

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We will have active workshops featuring the latest & greatest gear and techniques in field ornithology and banding, such as hummingbird banding, nanotags, Autonomous Recording Units, remote cameras, raptor traps, molt techniques,  museum collections specimen preparation, and feather sampling. There will be an in-depth, hands-on specimen examination and behind-the-scenes tour at the campus Museum of Wildlife & Fish Biology.

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We are excited to return to in-person meetings for another reason: to afford WBBA members a selection of tailored, private field trips to nearby active bird monitoring operations - which present exceptional birding opportunities for migrating passerines and waterfowl! More information will be available soon.

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Housing Options

​Within 10-15 minutes of the lodge are many hotels, bed & breakfasts to choose from for accomodation - along with a campsite. We advise attendees to make reservations as early as possible, as students will be returning/moving in to school that same week - meaning their parents are likely to book many of the same lodging spaces convenient to the WBBA meeting.

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​​Hotels and Motels
  On campus hotel.  Hyatt Place UC Davis (173 Old Davis Road Extension, Davis).
  Davis accommodations. There are many, many others in town starting at $60 to $70 per room double occupancy, and up, with many at about $100.


   VRBO and Air BnB

Their websites have some rentals that can accommodate several people at comparable rates to motels and hotels.


Camping
       West Sacramento -- SacWest RV Park & Campground 3951 Lake Rd, West Sacramento, CA 95691 Phone: (916) 371-6771.  About 15 minutes from campus.  Includes about 10 camping sites, cabins (without bath or kitchen), cottages with both, and  RV sites.
       Lake Solano County Park, near the town of Winters (about 20 minutes from campus).  This site has 44 sites, 16 of these tent sites, and is also a great birding area, particularly during migration. Reservations can be made at https://parkreservations.solanocounty.com/reservation/camping/index.asp

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Local and Program Committees

Steve Albert (IBP), Jennifer C. Brown (USFWS), Andrew Engilis (UC Davis), Danielle Kaschube (IBP), Lisa Tell (UC Davis), and C.J. Ralph (KBO, HBBO).

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Final Schedule for WBBA Annual Meeting at Davis, California

September 14-17, 2022

For downloadable program click here.

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Contacts for questions about the program
Andrew Engilis, Jr - aengilisjr@ucdavis.edu
Steve Albert - salbert@birdpop.org
CJ Ralph - cjralph@humboldt1.com

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For WBBA meeting UC Davis map click here.

For UC Davis Arboretum map click here.

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Day 1 September 14 (Wednesday)  – Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology /Mathematics Courtyard

3:00-5:00 pm Arrival and check in. Birding on campus, check out Putah Creek Lodge
5:00 - 6:00 Registration, museum tours, and social
6:00 - 8:00 Dinner

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Day 2  September 15 (Thursday) -- Putah Creek Lodge

7:00 am Arboretum Bird Walk (lead by Museum Staff)
8:00 - 9:00 Registration, coffee and tea
9:00 - 12:00 Scientific Talks

9:00 - 9:30 FEATURED SPEAKER: Andy Engilis. Jr. Curator MWFB. Documenting avian diversity in a forgotten landscape: the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology research programs in the
Sacramento Valley

9:30 - 10:15 KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Peter Pyle, Biologist Institute for Bird Populations. Update on
Identification Guide to North American Birds, Part 1, 2nd Edition

10:15-10:30 Ed Pandolfino. Using song dialectics to assess the migration strategy of the
Golden-crowned Sparrow

10:30 - 10:45 BREAK

10:45 - 11:00 Daniel Karp, Co-managing produce farms for conservation and food production on the California Central Coast
11:00 -11:15 Dan Wenny, Development of an online data entry program for banding data
11:15 - 11:30 Danielle Kaschube, Accessing two new websites for analyzing and disseminating data
from the Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) program

11:30 - 11:45 Austin Spence, Putah Creek’s role in understanding the connection between bird
communities and food safety

11:45 -12:00 Frank Fabbro, Impressions of an undergraduate at the Yosemite MAPS Station

12:00 - 1:30 Lunch
1:00 - 4:00 WBBA Board Meeting (Board members only) Putah Creek Lodge

- or -

1:30 - 4:30 Workshops (Held at the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology) - 15 minute walk from
Putah Creek Lodge

1:30 - 2:30 WORKSHOP: Rebecca Duerr, DVM and Jennifer Brown USFWS Supervisory Wildlife
Biologist
, Avian First Aid, what banders need to know
2:30 - 4:30 WORKSHOP: Andrew Engilis, Jr, Curator, UC Davis Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, Working with specimens gives insights and tools to assess molt, age, and species
Identification of North American birds

5:30 - 7:30 Social and Dinner – held at Putah Creek Lodge
7:30 - 8:15 KEYNOTE Speaker: Lisa Tell, Professor UC Davis Veterinary Medicine. Recent advances
in hummingbird research

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Day 3  September 16 (Friday) – Putah Creek Lodge

7:00 am Local Birdwalk (lead by Museum staff)
8:00 - 8:45 Coffee and Tea
8:45 -12:00 Scientific Talks

8:45 - 9:15 FEATURED SPEAKER, Breanna Martinico, Human-Wildlife Interactions Advisor, University of California Cooperative Extension. Long-term banding records of nestling Barn Owls reveal variation in breeding phenology across California
9:15 - 9:30 Chrissy Kondrat, The Western Motus Initiative
9:30 - 9:45 Ben Vernasco, Understanding the specialized ecology and natural history of an alpine endemic songbird in the Alps of Oregon
9:45 - 10:00 Colin Woolley, Moonlight drives nocturnal vertical flight dynamics in Black Swifts
10:00 -10:15 Jason Riggio, Impact of changing climate on cavity-nesting songbirds
10:15 -10:30 Danielle Fradet, Estimating avian occupancy in a heterogeneous landscape using autonomous recording units

10:30 - 10:45 BREAK

10:45 -11:00 Katherine Larson, Vertical territories of birds in old-growth trees
11::00 -11:15 Walter Sakai, The return of banded birds after a chaparral fire
11:15 -11:30 Allison Nelson, Pre and post fire distribution of Hermit Thrush in California’s Big Basin
11:30 -12:00 FEATURED SPEAKER: Cyndi Smith, Into the streams and rivers: monitoring Harlequin Duck on its breeding grounds

12:00 -1:30 Lunch
1:30 - 4:00 Scientific Talks

1:30 - 1:45 Holly Garrod, Efforts to standardize bird banding across the Caribbean Region
1:45 - 2:00 Cyndi Smith, 20-year trends at Canadian Migration Monitoring Network stations
2:00 - 2:15 Ryan Bourbour, Beak and talon swabs reveal dietary trends of Sharp-shinned Hawks banded during fall migration
2:15 - 2:30 Tania Romero, Bear Divide: banding at a unique migration concentration in mountains near Los Angeles
2:30 - 2:45 Jayde Blair, Bear Divide: preliminary results of diurnal spring passerine species’
composition, timing, and demographics during migration.

2:45 - 3:00 Break

3:00 - 4:00 WORKSHOP: Christina Kondrat, Arizona Game and Fish Biologist. Motus Backpack
application workshop
5:00 - 6:00 Silent Auction, Social
6:00 - 7:30 Dinner
7:30 - 9:00 Evening Program

8:00 - 8:30 FEATURED SPEAKER: Bob Meese, Banding a boatload of Tricolored Blackbirds, and whatyou learn by doing so

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Day 4  September 17 (Saturday)– Field Day

7:00 am Trip to the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area and the South Fork Preserve along Putah Creek.

Meet at the Yolo Bypass parking lot A at 7 am. The group will depart the parking lot at 7:15 am. Since much of this will be birding by car, carpooling is highly encouraged to limit the length of the "car train".
 

We will begin our morning at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, which offers easy access to world class birdwatching along the Pacific Flyway just on the outskirts of Davis. Depending on water levels, shorebirds and waterfowl may be abundant. The bypass is also great to find hawks, sparrows, rails, and migrating songbirds. We will follow the auto tour route making various stops along the way at different parking lots, viewing areas, and dirt walking trails.
 

We will break for lunch in the bypass. Picnic tables and bathrooms are available.
 

After lunch, we will visit one of several riparian areas along Putah Creek. The exact location will be determined based on heat, and bird activity at various sites. This is a great time of year to search for vagrants along the creek.
 

Extreme heat (>100 degrees F) is not uncommon this time of year. Should such conditions prevail, we will likely cancel the South Fork Preserve portion of the trip and end after lunch.
 

7:00 am Field Trip to Stone Lakes NWR led by Stan Wright.

Stone Lakes NWR is located south of South of Sacramento, near Elk Grove and is 30 minutes from UC Davis by car. It protects a mix of grasslands, riparian and managed wetland habitats. The areas that will be visited are behind locked gates, and so would provide a new birding experience for some. If this trip goes, we will provide details for signing up as well as meeting time and place. There will be a limited number of participants allowed on this trip. More details will follow. 

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For more information and to get on the meeting's mailing list, contact Danielle Kaschube at dkaschube@birdpop.org

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