Bands

[WNM]

My last duck band was 2004. At least 3500 ducks ago.

I saw a friend from high school on social media kill his first band a few weeks ago. He started hunting relatively recently and said the "band was hard earned." I chuckled. This would make him cry.

Were bands such a big deal before they were social media trophies? There are "Band Hunters" Facebook groups and barrel sticks all over the place now.

[nitro5x6's]

Big deal to those who don't have and covet them.

[skrimp]

The most I've ever seen was a friend in Arkansas. He hunts every day of the season and has for 40+ years. He has a shoe box well over half full but has never turned one in and doesn't have any on his lanyard. He's killed about as many ducks as old age has.
For myself, Ive averaged about one a year for the past 40 years I've hunted ducks.

[Coot_Commander]

I think of bands as like old people telling you a summary of their life.You just never know what they got to say about all their life experiences and where they’ve been. But in each word you read off that band report,your mind is constantly racing thinking about all the sites and scary encounters they had to avoid for them to end up in front of you.

[willk]

I find it funny when the first thing people ask is any bands?" It's even funnier when people are disappointed about it.

[2thDoc]

i water-swatted a wood duck in front of RocknRye on his birthday before daylight one time. It was banded. We always called that the "Birthday Hole" and invited him back every year.

i dont keep track as well as yall but i have other bands with other memories.

I remember going on a pretty good retrieve for a fellow hunter who had a third nut or something (hernia) and it was a banded teal. i was lucky to get that duck and he was excited.

I had the same friend shoot four ringnecks last weekend and one of them was banded.....

[nitro5x6's]

A fella from " Up North" came to MS to hunt at the famous Beaver Dam Hunt Club. His truck was all wrapped and he had a vanity license plate with his name on it. He thought right highly of himself. After the hunt he was escorted to the Blue and White in Tunica for a nice breakfast. Had his lanyard of fancy calls and bands. Hung it from the rear view mirror and strutted into the restaurant.

Came out later to find a broken window and no lanyard.

[Mars Bluff]

Congrats! I shot my first wood duck at twelve. I am now 47 & have killed hundreds of wood ducks with a few other species mixed in. I have NEVER gotten a band. Been on three hunts where one was shot but never by me. When & if I do, y'all gonna hear all about it!

[HEAD]

So the landowner across the road from where I hunt killed a banded bird this morning....3 in 3 days within 3/4 of a mile from each other

[TreyMo]

So the landowner across the road from where I hunt killed a banded bird this morning....3 in 3 days within 3/4 of a mile from each other

We killed one in your spot on Christmas Eve morning

[HEAD]

We killed one in your spot on Christmas Eve morning

Forgot about that

[2thDoc]

all different banding locations and times? thats cool stuff....

[DUCK BUSTER 68]

Ive killed a few over the years...mallards from Ontario(2),ohio,wisconsin and a wood duck from Ontario , and been on several more hunts where bands were killed . Couple years back,me and a buddy each killed a banded mallard , then a week later,went back and my dad killed 2 banded mallards in the same morning...that tripped me out .

[nitro5x6's]

I have a gravel bar on a river in WA that has brought me three bands.

[Carolina Counsel]

Definitely a combination of luck and numbers, but more luck. I love to duck hunt, but just don't get many opportunities- maybe 2-3 hunts per season now, but used to take at least one out of state hunt per year. Probably killed around 500 ducks in my entire life. I've killed three banded ducks, a woody, GWT, and a mallard that was banded 17 years earlier. That's what I call luck.

[TreyMo]

all different banding locations and times? thats cool stuff....

The one we killed in the same place as Head was banded in 2013 in Louisiana.

[JABIII]

Australia to kill pigeon that crossed Pacific from Oregon

A racing pigeon has survived an extraordinary 8,000-mile Pacific Ocean crossing from the United States to find a new home in Australia. Now authorities consider the bird a quarantine risk and plan to kill it.

Kevin Celli-Bird said Thursday he discovered the exhausted bird that arrived in his Melbourne backyard on Dec. 26 had disappeared from a race in the U.S. state of Oregon on Oct. 29.

Experts suspect the pigeon that Celli-Bird has named Joe, after the U.S. president-elect, hitched a ride on a cargo ship to cross the Pacific.

Joe’s feat has attracted the attention of the Australian media but also of the notoriously strict Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service.

Celli-Bird said quarantine authorities called him on Thursday to ask him to catch the bird.

“They say if it is from America, then they’re concerned about bird diseases,” he said. “They wanted to know if I could help them out. I said, ’To be honest, I can’t catch it. I can get within 500 mil (millimeters or 20 inches) of it and then it moves.’”

He said quarantine authorities were now considering contracting a professional bird catcher.

The Agriculture Department, which is responsible for biosecurity, said the pigeon was “not permitted to remain in Australia” because it "could compromise Australia's food security and our wild bird populations.”

“It poses a direct biosecurity risk to Australian birdlife and our poultry industry,” a department statement said.

In 2015, the government threatened to euthanize two Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, after they were smuggled into the country by Hollywood star Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard.

Faced with a 50-hour deadline to leave Australia, the dogs made it out in a chartered jet.

Pigeons are an unusual sight in Celli-Bird’s backyard in suburban Officer, where Australian native doves are far more common.

“It rocked up at our place on Boxing Day. I’ve got a fountain in the backyard and it was having a drink and a wash. He was pretty emaciated so I crushed up a dry biscuit and left it out there for him,” Celli-Bird said.

“Next day, he rocked back up at our water feature, so I wandered out to have a look at him because he was fairly weak and he didn’t seem that afraid of me and I saw he had a blue band on his leg. Obviously, he belongs to someone, so I managed to catch him,” he added.

Celli-Bird, who says he has no interest in birds “apart from my last name,” said he could no longer catch the pigeon with his bare hands since it had regained its strength.

He said the Oklahoma-based American Racing Pigeon Union had confirmed that Joe was registered to an owner in Montgomery, Alabama.

Celli-Bird said he had attempted to contact the owner but had so far been unable to get through.

The bird spends every day in the backyard, sometimes sitting side-by-side with a native dove on a pergola. Celli-Bird has been feeding it pigeon food from within days of its arrival.

“I think that he just decided that since I’ve given him some food and he’s got a spot to drink, that’s home,” he said.

Australian National Pigeon Association secretary Brad Turner said he had heard of cases of Chinese racing pigeons reaching the Australian west coast aboard cargo ships, a far shorter voyage.

Turner said there were genuine fears pigeons from the United States could carry exotic diseases and he agreed Joe should be destroyed.

"While it sounds harsh to the normal person — they’d hear that and go: ‘this is cruel,’ and everything else — I’d think you’d find that A.Q.I.S. and those sort of people would give their wholehearted support for the idea,” Turner said, referring to the quarantine service.

It is claimed that the greatest long-distance flight recorded by a pigeon is one that started at Arras in France and ended in Saigon, Vietnam, back in 1931, according to pigeonpedia.com. The distance was 7,200 miles and took 24 days.

There are some known instances of long-distance flights but whether these are one-offs performed by the marathon runners of the pigeon world or they are feats that could be achieved by the average pigeon is not known.

https://www.wyff4.com/article/austra...regon/35215233

[sprigdog]

I saw a friend from high school on social media kill his first band a few weeks ago. He started hunting relatively recently and said the "band was hard earned." I chuckled. This would make him cry.

Were bands such a big deal before they were social media trophies? There are "Band Hunters" Facebook groups and barrel sticks all over the place now.

Bands were way cooler before the inter web. We would call up on a rotary phone. Something like 1-800-Avise band. I forget.
Then you’d get a certificate in the mail weeks later telling you all about the bird.
The only way you could tell anyone you shot a banded bird was picking up the phone(landline) and telling folks.
It was actually cooler in my opinion.

Back to Jabs pigeon.

I have this job where Albatross flock around the boat. Non stop. I’d bet 10% of them are banded. I sit in the wheelhouse and think of ways.
Midway Island. 3000 miles away. I want one.

[Duckman#1]

Bands are pure luck. That is the magic of geography, i.e. being near a banding site or under a major wintering area.

Near a banding sight works well. We were about 1 mile from one this morning, didn’t know it at the time. Killed a limit of geese and 25 ducks. 9 of the ducks were banded. 4 out of one flock
039177DF-72AF-4C9C-AF54-C465884B8460.jpeg

[duckshootringer55]

A fella from " Up North" came to MS to hunt at the famous Beaver Dam Hunt Club. His truck was all wrapped and he had a vanity license plate with his name on it. He thought right highly of himself. After the hunt he was escorted to the Blue and White in Tunica for a nice breakfast. Had his lanyard of fancy calls and bands. Hung it from the rear view mirror and strutted into the restaurant.

Came out later to find a broken window and no lanyard.

My dad used to have about 20 federal bands. left them hanging on mirror like he always did, someone broke window and took them all. Gun was left on the backseat in the wide open. Some kid just wanted the bands I guess. It’s pretty sad to me how someone could do that! another persons bands would not interest me!