Maybe you have gone birding and seen a bird with a band on it, or been strolling the beach in southern California and seen a banded Snowy Plover? If so, consider yourself lucky! Seeing a banded bird (especially if you don’t know where to look) is a bit of a rare sight, even though the USGS’s Bird Banding Lab (BBL) works around the clock to help manage and keep track of all the bands that researchers use as well as all the band “returns” that get reported back to the BBL when birds with bands are spotted.
On October 22-23rd the Oiled Wildlife Care Network hosted its biennial conference, Oilapalooza! This two-day conference is hosted by OWCN for its Network of Member Organizations and consists of lectures, interactive activities, and hands-on workshops. This year we held the conference at our home base in Davis, CA. We had over 175 attendees (between our in-person and virtual opportunities) from greater than 35 of OWCN’s Member Organizations, as well as some affiliated agencies and colleagues.
For those who may have missed OWCN’s previous blog about me joining OWCN, I would like to briefly introduce/ re-introduce myself. I am Danny Vickers; I am OWCN’s most recent hire (August 21st marked two months!) and have replaced Tim (recently retired) as the new Care Facilities Specialist. I am a California native originally from Placer County. My educational background is in natural and biological sciences, wildlife management and animal science. I hold a bachelor’s degree from UC Davis in Animal Science where I concentrated my studies in Livestock Management.
