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Killed two banded mallards this season that were both banded in 2010, Hatch estimate 2009 or earlier. One banded in Saskatchewan, one banded in Nodak. Wild.

That is pretty cool information. I would think a duck can live a long life in 12 years

That's a bunch of miles up and down the flyway.

Those birds must have run the gauntlet a time or two. Surviving that many seasons they probably saw more than a few spreads.

That's pretty cool. I haven't shot a banded duck in at least a decade. I was out with a couple guys from Capable Partners of whom one took a banded woodie. We tried pulling the info up on the Internet but the site was down. It was in eclipse so the bird was at least a year old.

I have shot a lot of banded geese though the vast majority have been in the early season and were locally banded. Some years more banded than unbranded geese were shot in the early season.

I shot one banded Sandhill crane in 1996. It had both a leg and a neck band. It had been tagged 8 years earlier in Manitoba and shot in Texas. It is the only banded crane I have seen though the outfitter had seen two others.

Cool stuff, I have only killed a few banded ducks and one Canadian goose that was banded. Don't remember the details on the ducks but the goose was banded two years earlier in Saskatchewan. I was hunting in southern IL. and one pit dumped 2 geese and another one came over out pit. I was the only one that shot so their was no question about how killed it. Our guide called the other pit and told them that our goose was banded and the other pit that killed said both their geese were banded as well. Crazy that of the 3 geese all were banded.

It is common to band geese in the late summer during the molt as the birds can't fly and can be herded into encloses to be banded. The young are old enough to also be banded so whole families are often banded together. I have seen where over 100 birds were gathered up and banded in one place in an afternoon. That many frightened birds in such a small area leaves a big mess too!

This has taken much of the mystique away from banded geese shot locally as so many have been tagged. Get outstate where this is not so prevalent and much of the magic returns. Locally banded geese have decreased a little in the last decade as there is such an abundance of them that the round up often ends with birds in freezer bags rather than bands.

The poor hatch and the decent winter weather this year pushed some mature birds down. We killed 3 banded birds this year in our group, which is highly unusual. We have a spot where we've been hunting over 20 years and have killed over 7K ducks and never killed a band until this year.

Cookie has several images of banded birds (Pintail, Snow Geese, Swan, Sand Hills, etc), but one can never quite read all of the numbers. Neat though, that the data can now be found online.