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Meet Our Banders
 
Fred Bassett
Fred Bassett is a certified master bird bander who has worked with birds for over twenty years. Fred travels each summer to study hummingbirds in western states and has done research in Alaska and Canada. Fred has banded more than 35,000 hummingbirds in more than 1,000 locations from Miami, Florida to Haines, Alaska. During the winter he documents western hummingbirds wintering in south Alabama and Florida, and the last fifteen winters he has captured more than 2,000 hummingbirds of ten different species in that area. Contact Fred at fhound@aol.com or (334) 868-9658.
 
 
Fred Dietrich
Fred Dietrich is from Tallahassee, FL and has helped Fred Bassett since 2001 when he first banded in Tallahassee. He has also helped trap hummingbirds for bander training in Elkins, WV since 2004 and has now taken over hummingbird bander training at that location. Fred completed his hummingbird bander training and received his federal certification in the summer of 2009. In June 2010, Fred received word that a female rufous he banded in Tallahassee had been recaptured in Chenega Bay, AK, more than 3,500 miles away. This is the longest ever documented migration route of any hummingbird species. Fred bands winter hummingbirds around Tallahassee, Florida and up into southern Georgia. Contact Fred at fdietrich@gmail.com or (850) 591-7430.
 
 
 
 
Mary Wilson
Mary Wilson, a master bird bander, worked with all types of birds for over 20 years at the Hummer/Bird Study Group banding station at Fort Morgan, AL. Mary has banded all types of birds at her home in Hollins, AL for over fifteen years. Her banding projects at her home include a MAPS (Monitoring Avian Production and Survivability) station, banding Saw-whet owls, and banding over 10,000 Ruby-throated hummingbirds. Mary bands winter hummingbirds in central Alabama including the south side of Birmingham and in the Apalachicola, FL area. Contact Mary at wilwarb@aol.com or (256) 391-7645
 
 
 
 
 
Doreen Cubie
Doreen Cubie, a master bird bander, lives in Bluffton, South Carolina, and has been studying wintering hummingbirds in the southeastern U.S. since 2005. In the summer of 2010, she also launched a multi-year research project in Canada to investigate Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, at the northern and western edge of their breeding range. Doreen is a freelance journalist and writes for National Wildlife, Wilderness, and other national magazines. Her work can be seen at www.doreencubie.com.
 
 
 
 
Donna Carroll
Donna Carroll has been a federally licensed bird bander with a specialty in hummingbirds for 25+ years, first as a sub-permit holder under her dad, Bob Sargent, and now holding a sub-permit under Fred Bassett. She was a founding officer of the now defunct non-profit bird conservation group, The Hummer/Bird Study Group (HBSG) and sat on its board of directors for the entirety of its existence. The majority of her experience was banding migratory songbirds for two decades at the HBSG banding station at Fort Morgan, Alabama, and documented hundreds of wintering hummingbirds in Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia as well as a second state record Rufous Hummingbird in northern Ohio. Donna currently lives in Anniston, Alabama, where she bands Ruby-throated and wintering hummers in northern Alabama. Contact her at cell:(205) 229-4970, home: (256) 238-6490 or redwitch@aol.com.

 
 
Emma Rhodes
Emma is an avian biologist and Master Bander from Alabama. She has been an avid birder since she was seven and in 2009, while in high school, she began her banding training with the Hummer/Bird Study Group in Fort Morgan, Alabama. Emma has been monitoring hummingbirds as well as coastal bird species since 2014 working alongside various nonprofit organizations in Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, and the Bahamas. She received her BS in Biology (with a minor in GIS) at the University of South Alabama where her undergraduate research was focused on avian window strike mortality. Emma is currently focused on expanding her migratory bird research as a PhD student at Auburn University and with the organization she co-founded, Banding Coalition of the Americas (BCA). BCA is an organization dedicated to bird research and outreach throughout the Americas. Emma is passionate about science outreach and using research to help connect people with the natural world. We are happy to have Emma join the Hummingbird Research team to assist in hummingbird conservation and research. Contact Emma at (251) 597-4782 or Emmarhodes09@gmail.com
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Donna