| WOOD DUCK WEEKEND By Darold Givens Memorial weekend meant the annual banding of the woodies (wood ducks). I had a mix of experienced and new workers. My experienced crew consisted of Don Woods, Eric Swanson and Jim Danse. The newbies were Rob Willett and his son, (my grandson, Ryan). We headed out early to the Laughing Mallard Duck Club where there are 43 boxes. This would be the first hands on experience of capturing and banding a hen woodie sitting on a nest. I have side doors on the boxes to make grabbing the hen a little easier but it still takes some skill and experience as my workers will tell you. Almost every one had an episode of having a hen fly away through their fingers. Once the hen was captured, the crew became like a well oiled team and had the bird banded and back on the nest in no time. In one of the boxes, there was a bonus, two barn owl chicks that wanted no part of our team. During the capture to band, we also find birds with old bands. I take down their numbers and record them as ‘recaptured’. This report along with the new banded bird report goes back to California Waterfowl Association and to the Federal Band Recovery Program. Our weekend consisted of also checking Delevan and Sacramento Wildlife refuge and a private area called Gordon’s Pond. We were able to check 120 boxes, install 5 new boxes and band 19 birds. We also found 11 recaptured hens and counted over a thousand eggs sitting in the box, waiting to be hatched. I will return to the boxes in about three weeks to count how many eggs hatched and continue to monitor the progress. |
| Darold's Wood Duck Weekend |
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| Foster City Rod and Gun Club |
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