Band Tales: Double-Double-Double

A lucky father and son duo bag some consecutive bands.

May 22, 2021 By Bob Humphrey

Resident Canada goose seasons are intended to help control nuisance populations. Biologists band a lot of these birds in order to document their relatively localized movements so band recoveries are somewhat commonplace and not particularly noteworthy, most of the time. Every so often something peculiar happens.

As a seasoned waterfowler, Dennis Day has developed certain habits. “The first thing I do when picking up a downed bird or taking one from my Labrador is look at the legs,” he says. The bands are always a pleasant surprise and sometimes the band reports make them even more valuable.

The Hunt

Over a 16-month period he and his son, Matthew, collected five geese banded on the same day, three of which were harvested on the same day. The following season the dynamic duo collected six birds, also banded on the same day and less than 131 numbers apart. In a prior season, they collected four on the same day, all banded on the same day and the bands were less than 70 numbers apart.

Of them all, three pairs particularly stand out. The first came from a location Day discovered through years of floating local rivers with his sons. Wading 50 yards down a feeder creak and sneaking through an eight-foot diameter drain culvert gets them in a basin less than 20 yards from the main river. “It is the ultimate jump shooting spot,” says Day. It was on such a hunt that he collected two birds, banded on the same day and with consecutive band numbers.

The second and third pair were taken with more traditional methods including a boat, decoys and a sign-up system for designated blind locations. “These spots at this time of the season are hit or miss, but when they are on, they are spot on,” says Day. They were on for one particular early September hunt when Day again collected two birds on the same day, banded on the same day and also with consecutive numbers.

The story doesn’t end there. The following year, the duo again wreaked havoc on the local geese, collecting so many bands that it wasn’t until after the season was over that they compared and realized one of Matthew's bands and one of Dennis’ were also in sequence.