PA Goose Banding 07

**David Rearick** · #1 06-26-2007, 10:29 AM

2007 Hunting Journal Entries

DATE: June 16th, 2007

LOCATION: Crawford County PA

SUNRISE/SUNSET: 5:43 AM

WEATHER: Clean and Sunny

TEMPERATURE: 80 Degrees F

WIND: Calm

EQUIPMENT USED: Avery® SS Black T-shirt, Avery® Field Staff Cotton Cap

BANDERS: Erik and Matt Nilsson, Jason Fowler, Avery® Pro-Staffer David Rearick, and Many Others

JOURNAL NOTES:
Every year I try and attend at least one day of banding waterfowl with the PA Game Commission. Not only is it a lot of fun, it is fun to work with the geese, and help give back a little time to the birds we all love to chase come fall. When I was told the dates for this year, I didn’t hesitate to volunteer to join in. I made a few calls to some friends to see if they wanted to help and we set out in the morning for a day full of capturing, releasing, and banding Canada geese in Crawford County.

The day started off quickly and there were a lot of geese loafing on a perfect shoreline. As things typically go, they gave us a quick slip and our plans quickly changed. The 500 sitting on the shore, turned into about 200 in the capture zone. Not wanting to miss the opportunity the panels went up and the birds were quickly caught. After a quick sort to remove the hatch year birds and recaptured, the banding started. When all was said and done, many new birds were sporting jewelry, and vital recapture data was obtained. It had been a great first catch, but we still had more to do for the day.

The next set worked like clockwork. This time there were a lot more first year birds and not as many recaps, but the result was about the same. Things went smoothly and we even caught quite a few tarsus banded birds and one bird with the number completely worn off of an old band. After capture number two we had 310 new birds, over 50 recaptures, and had field our quota for the area. It was only 11 AM and we had made quick work of getting the birds captured, banded, and released safely. Now it was time to break for lunch and then head on two our second banding area.

After a quick lunch we made our way to a new area in hopes of capturing the rest of the areas needed numbers. It didn’t take long until we had out birds on the shore, completely surrounded. These birds proved to be a little feistier than the first two groups and there were a good number of little peeps in the group. After closing off their escape routes, removing the yearlings, and checking for recaps, it was clear this was the best catch yet. Easily estimated at over 200 birds, this was one large gaggle of geese. The sun was directly over head and it was taking its toll on both the birds and the volunteers. After banding over 150 birds PA Game Commission Migratory Game Bird Biologist Kevin Jacobs, who was heading up the operation, decided to let the rest of the birds go as they were clearly showing stress from the heat and capture. That would be the last capture of the day, as in just over 5 hours, we had captured, banded, and released close to 500 birds, plus re-captures from previous bands. It was a great day to be out giving back to a great resource and meeting new people who value conservation as much as we do.

Putting the yaks in the water to round them up...

Up on shore....

Getting the bodies and panels in place...

Bringing the panels together.....

Got Ya!

Separating out the little guys...

Kevin Jacobs performing gender identification...

Matt Nilsson releasing a newly banded juvenile...