Posted 9:28 pm Sunday, January 01, 2012
Duck Bands Are More Than Hunter Bling
The pictures told a fascinating tale, but left much to be answered.
Two hunters, dressed in camo, Michael Stern and Ben Phillips were holding banded wood ducks taken on a private lake in East Texas. According to the accompanying information, the ducks were shot a year apart by the hunters.
Making the story even more interesting, after reporting the banding information, they learned the birds were banded the same year, 2009, less than 400 miles apart in Illinois.
One can only wonder what eventually brought those birds to wood duck drakes to the same pond in East Texas a year apart, or had they both been there the year before?
Waterfowl bands have been around in some form or fashion since 1902, but it would be 20 years later before the first major North American banding program began.
Two hunters, dressed in camo, Michael Stern and Ben Phillips were holding banded wood ducks taken on a private lake in East Texas. According to the accompanying information, the ducks were shot a year apart by the hunters.
Making the story even more interesting, after reporting the banding information, they learned the birds were banded the same year, 2009, less than 400 miles apart in Illinois.
One can only wonder what eventually brought those birds to wood duck drakes to the same pond in East Texas a year apart, or had they both been there the year before?
Waterfowl bands have been around in some form or fashion since 1902, but it would be 20 years later before the first major North American banding program began.
There are hundreds of dozens of bird species besides ducks and geese that are banded. For hunters, however, the Holy Grail is the waterfowl band from the U.S. Department of the Interiors Bird Banding Laboratory and their counterparts in Canada. Between 1960 and 2011 more than 12 million ducks and almost 5 million geese were banded.
Trophies to hunters, they are known to swing off one duck or goose if they spot the shiny bling hanging from the leg of another. Less than 2 million of the duck and about 1.2 million of the goose bands have been recovered. The hunters’ wood duck bands are two of just more than 5,000 that have been recovered and reported in Texas in 52 years that data is available.
Combining all species, Texas hunters have averaged recovering about 1,700 bands annually in recent years. About a quarter of the bands reported each year by Texas hunters are taken from mallards, trailed by blue-winged teal, mottled ducks and snow geese.
Trophies to hunters, they are known to swing off one duck or goose if they spot the shiny bling hanging from the leg of another. Less than 2 million of the duck and about 1.2 million of the goose bands have been recovered. The hunters’ wood duck bands are two of just more than 5,000 that have been recovered and reported in Texas in 52 years that data is available.
Combining all species, Texas hunters have averaged recovering about 1,700 bands annually in recent years. About a quarter of the bands reported each year by Texas hunters are taken from mallards, trailed by blue-winged teal, mottled ducks and snow geese.
The banding process includes detailed record-keeping including the banded bird’s species, age when banded and location. More than 200,000 ducks and about 150,000 geese and swans are banded annually in North America. Mallards are the most common with more than 7 million over time.
With each reported band, biologists can determine a number of things including dispersal, migration, life span, survival rates and population growth. From this they are able to not only monitor species, but also develop the data used for determining waterfowl seasons across the country’s four waterfowl flyways.
However, a growing trade for unreported bands could cloud the data in the future.
“We are currently concerned about ‘band lust’ where hunters, buy, sell and trade both reported and unreported bands on the Internet with no accountability. This could have huge impacts to the data set,” said Kevin Kraai, Texas Parks and Wildlife waterfowl program leader.
He explained the concern would be if a hunter buying the band reports it being taken from somewhere it wasn’t. This could show increased harvest where it doesn’t exist.
With each reported band, biologists can determine a number of things including dispersal, migration, life span, survival rates and population growth. From this they are able to not only monitor species, but also develop the data used for determining waterfowl seasons across the country’s four waterfowl flyways.
However, a growing trade for unreported bands could cloud the data in the future.
“We are currently concerned about ‘band lust’ where hunters, buy, sell and trade both reported and unreported bands on the Internet with no accountability. This could have huge impacts to the data set,” said Kevin Kraai, Texas Parks and Wildlife waterfowl program leader.
He explained the concern would be if a hunter buying the band reports it being taken from somewhere it wasn’t. This could show increased harvest where it doesn’t exist.
Biologists are also worried about hunters targeting banded birds instead of them being recovered as a part of the incidental harvest. Kraai said this practice could also skew harvest data for an area.
Another concern is counterfit bands, that also occasionally get reported to the BBL. Even those selling unreported bands are concerned their product is being tainted by counterfits.
The solution down the road may be switching from banding to GPS technolgy in which biologists could track the birds in live time using satellites.
Another concern is counterfit bands, that also occasionally get reported to the BBL. Even those selling unreported bands are concerned their product is being tainted by counterfits.
The solution down the road may be switching from banding to GPS technolgy in which biologists could track the birds in live time using satellites.
While duck hunters often realize they are facing veterans when they run into a flock of ducks that just won’t decoy, they probably are thinking the birds are just a couple of seasons old. That may not be the case according to the banding results. Stern and Phillips’ wood ducks were just a year or two old, but according to the BBL the oldest recorded is a woody that was 22 years, 6 months when it was shot.
That particular duck was banded in Oregon in 1962 and taken by a hunter in California in 1984.
The oldest banded mallard reported was 27 years, 7 months, and the old blue-winged teal was 23-3. That particular duck was banded in Saskatchewan in 1983 and shot in Cuba in 2005.
If the teal had made the annual 4,000-mile roundtrip annually it would have flown over 92,000 miles in just migration.
The oldest banded waterfowl reported is a Canada goose banded in 1969 when Richard Nixon was in office and shot 30 years and 3 months later in 2001, just months after George W. Bush had moved into the White House.
While most bands become little more than hunter jewelry to be worn on their call lanyard, some help pay for duck hunting. When a duck is double banded, one of the bands often offers a cash reward for reporting it. Today a duck with a reward band could be worth up to $100.
Have a comment or opinion on this story, contact Outdoor Editor Steve Knight by email at outdoor@tylerpaper.com.
That particular duck was banded in Oregon in 1962 and taken by a hunter in California in 1984.
The oldest banded mallard reported was 27 years, 7 months, and the old blue-winged teal was 23-3. That particular duck was banded in Saskatchewan in 1983 and shot in Cuba in 2005.
If the teal had made the annual 4,000-mile roundtrip annually it would have flown over 92,000 miles in just migration.
The oldest banded waterfowl reported is a Canada goose banded in 1969 when Richard Nixon was in office and shot 30 years and 3 months later in 2001, just months after George W. Bush had moved into the White House.
While most bands become little more than hunter jewelry to be worn on their call lanyard, some help pay for duck hunting. When a duck is double banded, one of the bands often offers a cash reward for reporting it. Today a duck with a reward band could be worth up to $100.
Have a comment or opinion on this story, contact Outdoor Editor Steve Knight by email at outdoor@tylerpaper.com.
