The Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation is excited to introduce our two, new seasonal passerine bird banders! Dakota Vaccaro and Vicki Morgan will be joining our team this summer and will be tasked with leading our Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) stations and with banding nestling and adult Mountain Bluebirds in Grand Teton National Park and the National Elk Refuge. Both have extensive backgrounds in avian research across the Country, and we feel lucky to have them on board. Please join us in welcoming them both to our organization and to the Jackson community. Don’t hesitate to introduce yourself this summer if you run into them on a JHWF project or out on the trails!
Dakota Vaccaro with a Northern Flicker
Dakota Vaccaro recently graduated from University of Montana with a B.S in wildlife biology and minor in ecological restoration. She has always been fascinated with wildlife and was inspired by her ornithologist grandmother to follow in her footsteps. Her prior work experience encompassed a wide variety of wildlife jobs and research projects, from studying sharp-tailed grouse for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, to running bird banding stations for the University of Montana bird ecology lab. For the last two years, Dakota has been conducting her own original research on the impacts of wildfire on wildlife occupancy. She is a huge advocate for increased environmental education and has even taught multiple survival and nature camps/classes to youth of all ages. In her spare time, Dakota enjoys hiking, photography and birding.
Vicki Moran with a Barred Owl
After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Asheville with a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Vicki Morgan has been working as a roaming biologist and bird bander across the United States. Her past wildlife-related jobs were in areas such as South Carolina, Illinois, American Samoa, Washington DC, NYC, Maryland, and Montana, where she studied and banded birds ranging from hummingbirds to hawks. Vicki has been an avid birder from a young age, and she also enjoys expressing her love of nature through art (fun fact: Vicki actually Minored in ceramics). While in Jackson, she is hoping to explore the Tetons and learn more about the local birds.
