Matthew Finley shot this mallard drake in Stuttgart, Arkansas. It was banded near Houghton, South Dakota, with a standard aluminum band and a green aluminum band worth a $100 reward.

In the lexicon of waterfowling they're sometimes referred to as jewelry--those bands of silver sometimes sported by our web-footed quarry. That name is appropriate because they denote something rare or unusual. One out of a thousand, maybe far fewer ducks and geese will carry them. They are to the waterfowler what big antlers are to the deer hunter, or long spurs to the turkey hunter: trophies, badges of distinction.

But they are far more than that, for each one has a story to tell. They tie their wearer to a particular place and time, and their recovery is even more revealing for it signifies a journey, a passage.

Last year, Wildfowl invited its readers to share their bands, and the stories of their original owners passages. The response was overwhelming, and far exceeded our capacity to acknowledge all of your contributions. Thus, we felt it appropriate to devote a special feature to the passages, the birds that made them and the hunters who ultimately ended them.

A REWARDING EXPERIENCE
Shooting a banded duck or goose is reward enough, but a few lucky waterfowlers are pleasantly surprised when they find additional reward bands. On the last day of Washington's duck season (01-26-03) Ed Degroot downed a mallard drake that sported two bands. One was a standard, numbered aluminum band. The other was a green aluminum band indicating a $100 reward. Earlier in the season (October 22), Don Davidson (Klamath Falls, OR) also bagged a reward-banded mallard drake. Ironically, it was banded near Lake Klamath, California, and shot in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Maybe the duck got lost and misread the signs.

Those were but a few examples. Others include Richard Carlin (Bicklin, KS), who shot a reward-banded mallard drake last November in Pratt, Kansas, that was banded near Scandia, Alberta. Scott Stewart shot one a year earlier in Fruitland, Idaho, that was similarly banded, a year earlier, in the same location. Ryan Houser (Parker, CO) shot one in Belvue, Kansas, that was banded two days earlier, in Seven Persons, Alberta. Scott Thoele (Fenton, MO) shot one in McCrory, Arkansas, that was banded near East Millis Lake, Northwest Territories; and Matthew Finley (Little Rock, AR) shot one in Stuttgart, Arkansas, that was banded near Houghton, South Dakota.

The purpose of the reward band project is to learn what effect, if any, the switch to phone-in/e-mail band reporting had on band reporting rates. Formerly, leg bands were inscribed with an identification number and a request that the person recovering the band mail the recovery information to the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service. In 1996, the standard aluminum leg bands were changed to carry a toll-free telephone number for reporting band recoveries. Biologists know how many birds of a particular species and population are fitted with standard aluminum bands and with reward bands. By comparing the reporting rates of each, they can assess overall reporting rates for both, then compare those to previous rates to see what effect the switch to phone/e-mail reporting may have had on return rates.

NECK COLLARS
Though they don't earn any cash rewards, another type of jewelry that increases the trophy status of geese is a neck collar. We've received dozens of reports on collars in an array of colors. Anthony March (Markelton, PA) shot a Canada goose in Espyville, Pennsylvania, with an orange collar. Derl Wuertzer (Dubuque, IA) shot a blue goose in Slater, Missouri, with a green neck collar, while his hunting partner Alan Dooley (Dubuque, IA) shot a red-collared lesser snow goose in Triplett, Missouri. And Kelly Block (Breckenridge, CO) shot a Ross's goose with a yellow collar.

Both the colors and the number/letter codes have significance. Yellow and orange collars with three digits are from the Arctic Goose Joint Venture. Large Canada geese typically get four-digit collars of various colors, except in the Atlantic Flyway, where they're fitted with flexible, three-digit "bib-type" collars, which were developed to reduce icing problems for geese that winter in northern areas.

Meanwhile, orange and blue collars are widely used in the Mississippi Flyway as part of an extensive effort to track the populations and movements of Canada Geese. Orange collars are used in the Canadian portion of the flyway and blue collars are used in the U.S. portion. Green collars are reserved largely, though not exclusively for trumpeter swans, and red neck collars have been used on swans, white-fronted, snow and dusky Canada geese.

LONG DISTANCE
Of course one of the main purposes for the banding program is to track the passages of migrating waterfowl, and some of those passages are quite long. From the great state of Texas come several examples. Mitch Bryant (Katy, TX) downed a hen redhead in Hockley that was banded in Mirror, Alberta, and Jeffery Hobday (Temple, TX) downed a lesser snow goose in Collegeport that was banded near Churchill, Manitoba. A Ross's goose banded on the northwest coast of Hudson Bay, Northwest Territories, made it all the way to Pottsboro before Bill Massenburg, Jr. (Denison, TX) shot it. Another contender for our longest trip was a drake mallard that Bill Bird (Edmond, OK) shot at Kaw Lake, Oklahoma. It was banded near Fort Norman, Northwest Territories, and was at least seven years old when it succumbed to a dose of cold steel. Over on the left coast, Paul Mazzilli (Stockton, CA) shot a pintail in Rio Vista, California, that was banded west of Fairbanks, Alaska, and John Meyer (Carmichael, CA) shot a lesser snow goose in Gridley, California, that was banded in Cape Simpson, Alaska. Meyer commented the goose "was skin and bones, no meat at all. Must have just come down from Alaska."

These are just a sampling of some of our long-distance migrants, but provide insight into how season lengths and limits are set. A late spring or a dry summer in northern Canada could profoundly affect hunting conditions in Texas or southern California. Furthermore, those high arctic nesters have to run a gauntlet of guns before they ever reach their wintering grounds.

SHORT DISTANCE
At the other end of the spectrum are our short migrants and residents. Resident Canada geese have become a plague in some areas. However, while their numbers soared, some of the eastern migrant Canada goose populations dropped considerably. Biologists were faced with the challenge of loosening seasons on residents while restricting hunting mortality on migrants until their populations could recover. Band returns were extremely helpful to them in this effort.

We could have devoted an entire "Passages" column to Rusty Martensen of Lanoka Harbor, New Jersey. Last year alone he bagged a dozen banded Canadas in two different New Jersey towns. All were taken either during the early or late resident goose seasons, and seven were banded in either New York or New Jersey. He also bagged five banded Canadas the year before in his home state. And Rick Trujillo (Casper, WY) shot a Canada goose that was banded 6/18/1992, four miles north of Casper, and recovered 1/11/2003, five miles west of Casper. That was one old bird.