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Showing posts with label Band Report. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Band Report. Show all posts

Friday, March 22, 2019

Another Middle-aged Visitor from Canada

I have a lot of photos of Redheads, but somehow I can't resist....

We found another neck band tagged Canada Goose yesterday, this time down on the Mohawk . It was pouring rain and not easy to get a readable photo but we did.

Lesser Scaup as well
I have been struggling to decide whether the birds we see are Greater
or Lesser Scaup. Worrying about bill nails and head notches and feather patterns
Then I read this article that says that male Greater have only green iridescence on their heads
Never purple. Made this guy a lot easier.....Lesser

Turned in a band report and was not surprised to discover that this goose came from the same place in Canada and was banded by the same man as last week's bird. The tag was the same color...white on orange...as the 12-year-old male we found last week...and very close to the same number series.



This bird was a female thirteen years of age, also banded when too young to fly.

How cool is it to see a single bird....or maybe two or even three, although we still haven't heard on the bird with the red or pink tag....among tens of thousands and to know where they were hatched?



There are indeed thousands of geese in the valley this week. Guesstimating counts for eBird reports is an interesting challenge. I imagine many of them are on their way to Canada along with the banded ones. I  don't think I will ever grow tired of hearing their wild cries as they fly overhead or launch into the air when an eagle passes over on the river.

Interesting tourists indeed.


Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Not a Youth by any Means


Turns out that goose number Y5Y1 was middle aged for his species, Canada Goose, and hatched in Varennes, Quebec, which is near Montreal. 

He was banded in 2007 on July 6th while still too young to fly, and was discovered at that time to be male. The ubiquitous high-flying honkers average 10-24 years in the wild.


No Cigar
I tried many times to get a photo of geese against the moon
This is as good as it got, even though there were thousands passing through

I love finding neck banded birds and discovering their history from subsequent band reports. Most of the ones we have found so far were banded near Cobleskill, or near Lykers, where we bird extensively, but this guy is a bit more well traveled. 

Can't wait to read the report on the other banded goose we found the same day. We often find two banded birds together.....