The other day I posted on reporting neck-collared Canada Geese. Since then, I’ve come across another group of geese near home, of which ten had collars. Remarkably (or not, site fidelity is one thing we learn from these types of resighting projects), seven of them were geese I had previously seen and reported in past years.
One was a white-collared goose (here she is). I originally saw her here in town December 29, 2004. She had been collared in extreme northern Ohio in 2001.
The rest were all orange-collared geese. One had a collar that looked very faded, and its leg band was also very worn. A check of my records indicated I had seen it here in November 2003. It had been banded (like all the orange-collared geese I’ve found) on Akimiski Island, Nunavut. And yes, it was old; it was originally collared in July 1994.
The five other familiar geese I had found all together here in town on December 20, 2004. Once again, they were hanging around with each other. And they had all been collared and banded on the same day — July 26, 2001 as adults on Akimiski Island!
It will take a few weeks for me to hear about the remaining three geese. The codes on the collars were a different alphanumeric sequence, so while I fully expect them to be Akimiski birds, they will be from a different time. One of them (left), I’m going to bet, will also be an older bird, as it has the same faded collar and worn leg band as the other old one.
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As a hummingbird bander, I love hearing about foreign encounters of banded birds. Unfortunately, it happens only rarely with hummers, partly because the bands can't be read out of the hand, and partly because there are so few of us, spread too thinly. Keep the tales coming.
1) Yay for the goose photos!
2) Coincidentally I just found this photo through Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/courtney__/45686159/
I think it's from Massachusetts.