In 2012 and 2013 with great thanks to a funding grant from the Western Canada Turfgrass Association (2012) and staff time donated by LaHawk Ltd and Wise Wildlife Control (2012 and 2013), we were able to mark geese wtih leg bands. The leg band data will be used to help us better understand questions on local movements and nesting patterns of geese. They will also contribute to our understanding of population size and survival.
We captured geese during our “goose-round-ups” in the last week of June. During June and July geese are generally flightless as they go through their annual moult (time when they replace all their flight feathers). Our team was able to corral geese into pens and quickly apply bands. Two leg bands were applied to each goose–a standard US Fish and Wildlife Service-Canadian National Bird Banding Office metal leg-band was applied to to the right leg and a coloured plastic leg band was applied to the left. The metal band is engraved with a unique code.
In 2012 geese were marked with RED bands in Penticton; GREEN bands in Kelowna, WHITE bands in Vernon. In 2013 all the bands were YELLOW, but with alphanumeric codes which can be read from a distance with binoculars or a spotting scope (read from the ground up)