This is the DiBom Squadcast presented by DotMong Industries.

What's up guys? I hope everyone is doing well as we find ourselves one week closer to waterfowl season.

Today we are going to talk about a hot topic in the waterfowl world and that is

banded birds. And to help me with this, I am joined by the birdiologist, Mr. Brian, Hubert. Brian,

what's up, man? Not much, Asher. How you doing, man? I'm doing good, man. I'm doing good.

So just a quick introduction on my side. For those of you that

don't know, Brian, he's a 12-year waterfowl biologist with the California Waterfowel Association.

Brian, would you mind just telling us a little bit about yourself, your background, and how you ultimately came to become an expert in

this field? Yeah, so just, so the basic background, you know, I grew up in South Lake Tahoe,

small kind of mountain town, didn't really grow up hunting that much. We definitely grew up fishing.

You know, we had a little trout stream in our backyard where we go catch fish right out the

backyard. Grew up in Tahoe, moved to Santa Barbara City College and went to school down there.

Didn't really know what I wanted to do, so I was kind of just bouncing around, having a pretty good time down there in Santa Barbara, not really focused in on school, but trying to, you know, figure out what I want to do. And I more or less moved back home to Tahoe, started salmon fishing with a good friend down by Chico. We used to cruise down there all the time every single weekend during salmon season, camp out on the river, catch salmon.

And I was like, man, I could go to school down here and kind of finish up a degree.

I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but I was kind of getting back into the outdoors and started learning about fishing and fish biology. And I was like, man, that'd be a cool major, you know, study fish. So that all started. And then a good friend of mine, he's like, man, you got to try this waterfowl hunting. I was like, dude, I don't want to go duck hunting. That doesn't sound like fun. And he kept hounding me. And so finally I went, man. And he took me and we went to a refuge.

And, you know, he called in these mallards and they floated right in. I still remember those birds coming in. And ever since that, I was just hooked, man. And he's yelling at me, why didn't you shoot those birds? And I was like, dude, I don't know what I'm doing out here. you know, you got to tell me what to do, man.

So I kind of was, you know, shifting my focus to biology,

and I was at Chico State, and there was a flyer up, and it was like waterfowl ecology class. And I was like, no way, man, there's a class like learning about ducks. I got to get in that class, you know. So I went and talked to the professor, and, you know, he was really strict.

He's like, oh, you're a duck hunter.

Yeah, this isn't really for duck hunters.

This is for biology majors.

And, you know, this is a serious class.

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