2-15 SS Banded Duck

 My boss, Kelly Allen, has 2 fine sons, Austin and Tommy, both of whom have great wives, Rachel and Desiree, and all 4 of them hunt. Not long ago, Desiree shot a duck that was banded and Austin called it in.  I called Austin: “I just happened to call it in when we were out in the duck blind, Tommy’s wife actually shot that bird. The certificate is in my name because I called it in. Presumably the fact that it is a banded duck means that it came from a long distance and it has been around for a while. When you shoot a waterfowl with a band, the neat thing about it is that it was caught when it was just out of the nest or banded at some point in its life, they track all of those bands. And this came from Canada I think and was about 9 years old which is a pretty old duck.  I believe I called on a Sunday and somebody from fish and game answered and you actually talk to someone and asked a series of questions about where you are located and shot it. They will tell you where the bird actually came from along with the age right over the phone. They ask for your e-mail information and then send you a certificate showing where the bird came from and how old it was. That’s kind of like a drivers license for a duck laughter. Bird banding is important for studying the movement, survival and behavior of birds. About 60 million birds representing hundreds of species have been banded in North America since 1904. About 4 million bands have been recovered and reported.