No, not the racing pigeon kind......although that thread a few years ago was pretty funny and epic.

Since duck season is almost upon us and I know it's usually on a lot of guy's bucket lists to get one I was just curious what OB posters had one (or more). I searched back a few years (and saw the racing pigeon thread that was good for some laughs) but didnt see one more recent than 2008ish.

Was on a work trip hunting the gulf coast two years ago and someone in our group shot a redhead hen out of a big group that came in to the decoys along with several other birds, so nobody really knew who exactly shot it. My coworker got to call that one in so its their name on the certificate. Was banded in South Dakota in 2014 I think, so it had survived for a few years.

This year while dove hunting opening day on our farm near Caldwell I shot a double. Picked up the first bird that I had been aiming at, then walked over to pick up the bonus bird and saw a glint of metal. Turned out to be an awesome day of almost a full limit (could've easily gotten the full 15 if I had gone back in the afternoon) which is really hard to do at our place. Was hatched early this year and banded in late June from Temple so he didnt live nearly as long as the duck.

Last year shot my first banded birds. This blue wing, tagged in Krotz Springs, LA and a Bluebill tagged in Illinois (cant find pictures)

agfan2013 said:

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This year while dove hunting opening day on our farm near Caldwell I shot a double. Picked up the first bird that I had been aiming at, then walked over to pick up the bonus bird and saw a glint of metal. Turned out to be an awesome day of almost a full limit (could've easily gotten the full 15 if I had gone back in the afternoon) which is really hard to do at our place. Was hatched early this year and banded in late June so he didnt live nearly as long as the duck.

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A guy in our group shot a banded dove last year. Banded in SE Nebraska and killed in the Panhandle. It was a few months old also. Most of the dove in the sky are young like that. Those things are prolific breeders and they don't live very long compared to waterfowl.

I shot a banded Ross a couple years ago on opening weekend. Every other bird we shot that morning was a BWT, except this one lone goose flying around lost. It was at least a five year old bird all the way from Nunavut, which is like more than a thousand miles North of the Canadian border.

I shot a banded Greater Canada the year before that. A two year old bird, banded in Utah.

The year I hunted the most, we killed over 400 ducks and geese hunting with at least 4 guys most days without ever seeing a single band. I somehow got lucky twice after I stopped hunting every weekend. It's really a cool deal when you get your hands on a band.

I gave up fighting Imgur or I'd post the pictures.

https://texags.com/forums/34/topics/2575875/2#discussion

Found the first band thread.

Very cool thread. On geese, dont they sometimes double band them with the metal leg one and sort of fabric one that goes around the neck? I think I've seen something like that before.

And that makes sense about doves and how quickly they breed. Still very cool but to me a duck or goose is would be more awesome because they've traveled much farther and usually lived longer. I hope I can get me one to myself someday.

We call those neck collars. I'm a duck hunter that sometimes goes goose hunting, so I've not hunted enough geese to have seen a neck collared goose. But I know a guy in Lubbock that has two dozen of the damn things...blue, yellow, white, pink, you name it. He can tell you where all the different colors of neck bands come from and where you have to go to find them.

You can read the numbers off those neck bands with a spotting scope if the birds are close enough to the road. There was a neck banded Canada using some of the water inside the city limits in Lubbock. This guy called in the band and ended up having a conversation with the person who banded that bird. The bird spent its summers actually in the field behind the bander's house. They called each other every fall when the bird would get from Montana to Lubbock and again in the spring when it got back to Montana. That went on for three or four years and then the guy I know in Lubbock shot that bird over his decoys in a field on the edge of town. He patterned that bird and killed it even after watching it for years, the guy is nuts about geese.

Shot this neck collered speck last season was pretty easy to pick out when it came into decoys. The red gave it away.
I also have a collard snow goose that was green and a white collared cackler that was shot in panhandle.

Used to collar quite a few doves around DFW. Most that were reported being killed were up around Celina, or about mid Ellis County. Had several killed in Mexico, and one shot in Kansas about 3 years after getting banded.

DUman08 said:

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Shot this neck collered speck last season was pretty easy to pick out when it came into decoys. The red gave it away.
I also have a collard snow goose that was green and a white collared cackler that was shot in panhandle.

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What is this? A picture for ants??

I know damn Imgur mobile

I have 3 and a 4th one from when I was 9/10 years old and didnt know what it was so I let someone else take it. Also have two goose bands I've photographed and got all the numbers while in Boston. Then another goose band I was 2 numbers short of at Lake Tahoe. Then there's the ones I've lost in a draw (group bird) or just been in the blind when they were shot.

0- A banded woodduck that I let someone else have no picture just time memory

1st



2nd



3rd



All the geese
Tahoe




Bostonx2






In blind for

I've been on 2 hunts were guys shot banded ducks, but alas I haven't been able to get one.

I shot a banded goose a few years ago. I was wearing blaze orange.

I shot a banded mourning dove and a whitewing on opening day a few years ago near Creedmore. I saw the glint of silver as my lab was bringing back a bird. Dug through my bag and found the second one. They were banded by a biologist in their backyard in south Austin a few months before. My bother shot a banded woodduck in Louisiana a while back, I don't remember where it was banded.

We have banded probably close to 200 white wing doves in our backyard in west Houston over the last 5-6 years. Last I had heard one had been recovered as far away as Brenham.

I shot this double banded Ross goose about 10 years ago in Sealy. He was banded several years prior in Manitoba. Also shot a snow goose when I was 16 years old that had a leg band. He was banded 12 years prior in NWT and had an estimated age of 14 years old when I shot him. Lot of migration miles on that bird!

Is that a Barasingha?

Awesome trophy wall/room!

Thanks! It's actually a caribou.

Original thread, complete with "texaspigeonracer" troll

Shot one on my first ever duck hunt. I must of been 10 or so and didn't know any better my 20+ year old cousin claimed it as his. It was years before i realized what it was all about. Way too late now...