I'd rather it be a band on a nicer bird that I'm reporting, never having done this before, but I suppose I should think instead of the scientific or research value. How an understanding of this one mute swan's behavior might help to protect less beautiful, but more endangered waterfowl species.Click for a prior rant on mute swans.
;-)
I've been bothered to notice mute swans on my local rivers lately. Every spot with open water that I visited today had a bunch of them. There were quite a few sleeping on the ice mixed in among the gulls, too. At least they're mostly civil to the other waterfowl at this time of year and tame enough (big, too!) to pose for my camera.
My favorite complaint while chasing ducks is that the prettiest ones are the first to fly away. Not so with a mute swan.
Anyone else ever reported a banded bird? Do they really send a certificate, like they promise? Anyone else find this form long and overly intimidating?
5 comments:
I reported some banded Canada geese from my local park in December. I haven't gotten any certificates yet, though. I did get an email saying that the geese were banded in NJ, but they couldn't send any more information because there was either a discrepancy in the data or the bander hadn't sent in the complete forms yet.
I reported a banded Red knot I saw at Nickerson Beach on Long Island this past summer and I did receive a certificate in the mail. I don't have it handy but I recall the bird was banded in Delaware a year or two back and it gave the name of the bander. Very cool!
Although the bands aren't as beautiful as the bird, they are important. We get several banded birds in the Bird TLC clinic every year and report them to USF&G or ADF&G. We don't expect a certificate but as an individual it would be neat.
I reported some collared Canada's once, and I got an email.
A certificate? Who says you get a certificate? I was robbed!
The form is very, very intimidating. But there are a bizillion types of bands and number combinations, so I guess it has to be complicated.
I've reported banded Canada Geese and did get a certificate once.-It is interesting to see where they banded them but sometimes it's just a couple of towns over from where you saw it.
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