25 year old goose band

[REVIER]

This is pretty cool because you can track the history.
Imprinted with AVISE BIRD BAND WASHINGTON DC. and a set of numbers.
A federal goose band, not the most common thing we can locate and dig up for sure, and very collectible.
Look them up on eBay, modern replicas are cheap, the real ones can go for a crazy amount of money.
The older they are the more they are asking.

If you are a hunter and bag a bird with one of these that will give you big time bragging rights because they are so rare.
I will throw up some numbers and other info below.

The cool thing is you can go to a government website and plug in the numbers and the will instantly tell you about this particular bird.
Then they will send you an e mail or a certificate in snail mail which I assume most hunters want to go with this little trophy.

My goose was banded in 1988 in Karnak ND.
The bird was young and couldn't fly yet when the band was put on, but he learned to fly eventually because I am 700 miles south of that location.
Who knows where else this bird traveled in his life?

This website has a ton of info and where you can report these bands to get the info.
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bbl/homepage/otherbnd.cfm

One page has numbers listed on different birds that have been banded from present day back to 1960.
In that time the records say 4,905,300 geese were banded, so far only 1,220,090 of those bands have been reported.
With mine there is one more.

Duck numbers are even higher.
12,207,426 bands....only 1,996,522 reports.

Is it any wonder these things are so cherished by fowl hunters when they get one?

I didn't kill a bird to get mine, I simply dug it up in the woods, but a real one is still a rare thing to get your hands on so I am a very happy camper.

Info on different wording on these over the years....


Federal Bands

Federal bands issued in the USA and Canada have 8 or 9 numbers with a legend indicating WRITE BIRD BAND LAUREL MD 20708 and WWW.REPORTBAND.GOV. The older bands had the legend WRITE BIRD BAND LAUREL MD 20708 or AVISE BIRD BAND WASH DC. Avise loosely means advise in several language

 

[doc holiday]

Neat I've collected a couple over the years and wrote in and got the bird's history.Very interesting.

 

[Woodchuck]

WAY COOL !!!

 

[3RINGER]

Interesting find and research

 

[mudpuppy]

Hey! I found one last Fall in the water...called it in, got a certificate in the mail and whatnot...also a canada goose, tagged up in the high marshes of Canada ...

The people at the bird band place dont hear from very many detectorists...generally hunters they said...
Mud

 

[Power Guy]

Nice finds. Just one question....What did you do with the Goose?

 

[REVIER]

This is funny, and just plain weird.
I found this thing by itself in the woods about 4-5" deep with no bones in the vicinity.
In researching this I have seen a few other threads about other hunters, detector types, digging up these things from time to time.
One guy on another forum found one with a leg bone still in it.
He brought it home and his wife, yea, I said his wife, liked it so much she made a shadowbox display and put in their living room.
It would be a cold day in you know where when my wife would even think about doing something like this.
Here is a pic...like I said, just weird.

 

[senda]

nice find !!
is one of the things I would like to find. A few years ago I found one, on a beach, a British cormoran dead. Report the finding to the British Museum with all data and they answered gently, I kept the ring and skull ... all the bones were overworked.
thanks for sharing

 

[mudpuppy]

Mine was empty...down in the water...that said, I like that one with the bone still in it! My Wife collects all the bones too...She's got a bear skull sitting on her desk right now in fact!, a whole pail full of Blue Heron skulls and bones we found underneath a nesting site...box turtle shells, all sorts of bones, buckets of beach glass, stones and bones!...I'll get a picture, she has them scattered all over the house as decorations and conversation pieces...I suppose someday if she outlives me, my skull be used as a pencil holder or paperweight or something!
Mud

 

[mudpuppy]

Lookie Here! Snake bones scattered around on her sewing machine even! Shes got skulls from mouse to moose, even frog bones and fish bones! Feathers and fur! All over the place!
The more I look around, its like I'm living with a cave troll!
Mud

 

[senda]

Mud Yes, I know what it is .... skulls, bones, teeth, bones of mammals, birds and fish ... this is a small sample where the band the bird and its skull is. I have a cow skull also ...

Cheers for your wives suffered
senda

 

[JimmyCT]

Neat find REVIER.

Mud & Senda, that is quite the bone collection you two have going there!


My skull will hold the kitchen knives

Mine was empty...down in the water...that said, I like that one with the bone still in it! My Wife collects all the bones too...She's got a bear skull sitting on her desk right now in fact!, a whole pail full of Blue Heron skulls and bones we found underneath a nesting site...box turtle shells, all sorts of bones, buckets of beach glass, stones and bones!...I'll get a picture, she has them scattered all over the house as decorations and conversation pieces...I suppose someday if she outlives me, my skull be used as a pencil holder or paperweight or something!:rofl:
Mud

 

[greaser]

Neat find REVIER.

Mud & Senda, that is quite the bone collection you two have going there!


My skull will hold the kitchen knives

Mine was empty...down in the water...that said, I like that one with the bone still in it! My Wife collects all the bones too...She's got a bear skull sitting on her desk right now in fact!, a whole pail full of Blue Heron skulls and bones we found underneath a nesting site...box turtle shells, all sorts of bones, buckets of beach glass, stones and bones!...I'll get a picture, she has them scattered all over the house as decorations and conversation pieces...I suppose someday if she outlives me, my skull be used as a pencil holder or paperweight or something!:rofl:
Mud

Before or after you die?????? LOL

 

[Dig This]

Cool