Black Brant Research AuctionThis auction was established to raise funds for maintaining the long term (over 60 years) banding program at the Tutakoke River Black Brant colony on the coastal Yukon Kuskokwim Delta in southwest Alaska. This banding program was initiated by waterfowl biologists at the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge in the 1950’s. Jim Sedinger enhanced the banding program starting in 1984 with the use of plastic tarsal bands which allow resighting of individual brant throughout the annual cycle without having to recapture the brant. Jim was a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks from 1986 through 2001 and moved to the University of Reno Nevada in 2001 and will retire in 2018. In 2016, Mark Lindberg, a past Jim Sedinger PhD student, and also worked on black brant for his PhD work, backfilled Jim’s position at UAF in 2001 and is leading the Black Brant research as of 2017. The main goal of this page is to raise funding to continue this important banding project on Black Brant with the ultimate goal of conserving Black Brant and the training of students.
AUCTION IS NOW OPEN UNTIL 5p (Alaska Time) on 7 April.We are very excited to announce that the BidPal Auction site for Black Brant Research is now posted! Please visit the website linked below.
https://one.bidpal.net/blackbrant2018/welcomeFrom this site you can make an online donation or review and bid on the 9 hunts we are auctioning (see featured items link). The auction will be active for bidding at 8a on 2 April and will close at 5p (Alaska time) on 7 April, but you can review and start watching hunts now. We will also draw winners for the raffle on 7 April when the auction closes. Auction winners need to pay for their hunt by 15 April and payments can be made through the auction site and we need payments for raffle tickets by 7 April to be eligible for the draw.
Please read terms and conditions of each hunt carefully before bidding and please post questions about hunts or the auction here so everyone can see our response. In general, if a hunt doesn't list a feature (e.g., lodging, transportation), it isn't provided. Good luck and please remember that this is a fund raiser. Minimum bids are half the value of a hunt.
Thanks to everyone who has supported our effort so far! We are a go for the 2018 field season (35th) and the level of funding will dictate how much we can do while we are out there.