I knew I liked taking them off.....

[MarketHunter]

But as it turns out, waterfowl bands are almost as much fun to put on. Thought I'd share a few pics from a recent goose banding project that Jim, Russ, and I got involved in at Point Mouillee State Game Area here in Michigan.



Starting the roundup......



This is just towards the end of the roundup when we had them cornered and were heading the flock towards the pen. The little ones are too young to fly yet, and the adults are changing out their primary feathers so they're flightless. Out of all these birds, only four got up and flew off.



Here's one of us all just as we closed up the pen. I went out with the pen building crew, we set this up on a mud flat they'd been baiting for several days. You'll see me there on your left wearing my ever present bib overalls and duckbill cap. That's Jim just to my left (your right) in the waders and white visor.



We had about 220 in the pen when it was all over. We released about 15 or so right away that were too little to band. There were 17 that had bands on them already, these numbers were recorded and the birds released. We ended up actually banding 209.



Here's one that any fowler worth his salt would love to see over the gunbarrels. Double banded, one federal, and one $100 reward. This was one of the ones we caught that had already been banded previously.



In this one we've started the banding process, I'm in the pen catching geese and handing them out. You can see Jim coming up along behind one of the other guys carrying a goose. He's the one with the white visor and his bald head poking out the top.



There's our friend Russ in the grey DU t-shirt working on the banding line. That's the head biologist (Joe) next to him. You've got to admire two guys who are willing to spend a whole day sticking their fingers up bird assholes.



Heyyyyyy check this out!!!! I don't know who those guys were but they sure are friendly, look at this new bracelet they gave me. And they all kept saying they hoped they'd see me again in the fall for some reason.......

Maybe more pics to add later, Russ is supposed to email me the ones his Dad took. Thanks to the guys off Michigan-Sportsman for posting these originally.

[MarketHunter]

One more:



Russ showing me the finer points of putting on a goose band. I can take one off with my pocket knife in about 2 seconds.

[Don Kaas]

You have always done such a good job of taking the bands off my waterfowl!

[MarketHunter]

I do always give them to you afterwards. Usually......

DLH

[Scott Groff]

Thanks for sharing Destry. Very cool to do the hands on banding with such amazing creatures.

[Ben Yarian]

Thats a true sportsman, being involved with the conservation of the species. Destry you are to be comended

Ben

[Lon E. Morris]

Destry,
Fascinating! Would you describe the technique of catching and holding the goose once they are in the pen? Lon

[MarketHunter]

The small young geese are easy to handle, you can just pick them up and they don't fight much other than the occasional nip to the fingers.

The adults and nearly grown juvenile birds are a different story, they're a little harder to handle. They're easy enough to catch in the small pen, but once you get them picked up they fight you pretty hard sometimes.

The way they showed us to pick them up was to corner them, then slide your fingers along their back and slip them under both wings right at the base. Then you can sort of pick them up like they've got a handle, they can't flap or push with their legs either. Once you get them picked up this way all you have to do is watch out for their beak cause they'll bite a plug of of you.

When you had them off to the banders you fold their head back and put it under their wing. Then the bander holds the bird between their knees to keep the wings down and them from pulling out their head.

The head bander said he'd banded thousands and never had an injury or fatality so I'd say they've got a sound system figured out.


Destry

[Richard Flanders]

That must have been pretty fun for you Destry. Only thing like that I ever did was to collar moose with the USFWS.