The Lesser Snow Goose Banding Program


As part of a joint Canada and United States initiative to improve management and monitoring of lesser snow geese, the Hudson Bay Project team resumed their long-term banding program in the La Perouse Bay and Cape Churchill region of Hudson Bay. As part of that program, nearly 4000 adults have been marked with neck collars at La Perouse Bay.

 

This goose, photographed minutes after collaring, wasted no time getting back to feeding.

 

The neck collars are all like this one:

neck band

At La Perouse Bay, the RED collars with WHITE letters all have an orientation letter (P in this case) and two additional letters. The additional letters are read from bottom to top so that this collar would be reported as PAT (poppa-alpha-tango). The complete set of letters and digits (some stylized) are:

A B C D E F H J K L M N P R T U V X Y Z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Collars are being applied across the Arctic and although the letters and orientation are the same, colors for other sites include green, blue, yellow, black and white.

The resighting, recovery and recapture of birds with these collars will help us estimate rates of adult survival and both the timing and pattern of migration. If you see, find or recover one of these collars, please notify us immediately. The information we need includes the exact letters on the collar, the date you obtained that information, the location, the color of the goose (to check our records) and your name, address and email.

The best way to submit this information is through the Canadian Wildlife Service white goose banding site reached here in english and here in french.

Alternatively, you can mail the information to: RF Rockwell, Ornithology Department, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th, New York, NY 10024. You can also phone in your information to 212.769.5793. Or, you can email the information: