Atlantic Brant study, very cool.

B

Bill Abbate

Active member
Atlantic Brant Research Update
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Last winter, DEC began a multi-year cooperative research effort with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Canadian Wildlife Service to better understand Atlantic brant migration chronology and breeding propensity. In total, DEC staff and research cooperators have put out 30 GPS transmitters and nearly 400 geolocators.

What should I do if I encounter a marked Atlantic brant and how can I help?

1. Birds with tarsal band or backpack transmitter shot or found dead: Please contact Ted Nichols (NJDEP) at 609-628-3218 or e-mail Josh Stiller at: joshua.stiller@dec.ny.gov. In order to obtain any previous location data from a geolocator or backpack transmitter, we need to get the device in hand. The information obtained from these marking units is vital to the success of the study. Further, if not damaged, the devices can be reused on new birds. Hunters who want to retain one of the marking devices as a "keepsake" will be provided with a "dummy" unit which will be a casing of the real device.

2. Sight record of live birds with color leg bands: If you see colored bands in the field, please report the observation to the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center Bird Banding Laboratory. The bands will have a one or three-digit alphanumeric code. These re-sighting records of the colored leg bands is very helpful to the project.

3. Birds with leg band only, shot or found dead: Report to Patuxent Wildlife Research Center Bird Banding Laboratory.
 
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Transmitter studies aren't cheap but they're a great management tool. Hopefully they figure things out. I've always wanted to go on a "brant" hunt.
 
tod osier said:
no way I'm giving up a transmitter if I get one.
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We had a guy like you on a fish telemetry study up here about 10 years ago. The study was tracking brook trout to gage their response to variable flows below a dam. The tags had a "mortality" signal that would be triggered if they were stationary for long enough. These tags shows up in a lot of places--osprey nests, an otter den, the bottom of a lake 20 miles downstream.

One day the crew was flying to find "lost" tags that could not be located by boat or on foot, and they found a tag in the parking lot of the only bar near the river. A quick radio call to the crew on the ground, and they tracked it right to a cooler in the back of someone's truck.

He claimed he hadn't noticed the 8" long wire antennae hanging out the trout's vent.

The USFWS got another guy when one their tagged salmon (listed as endangered) was "lost", and the active tag was tracked to someone's freezer.
 
Jeff,
we have had similar events happen on radio tagged fish studies in the Northwest and Alaska. It is always interesting how that tagged fish made its way to that parking lot. Some studies provide a monetary incentive to encourage folks to turn in tags. I caught a radio tagged steelhead with a $10 return on it. I knew the biologist, so it was even more fun to collect that bill. I'm sure that Tod would turn it in and get that "dummy" tag to weigh down his brant call, even without the monetary incentive.
 
RD Nelle said:
Jeff,
we have had similar events happen on radio tagged fish studies in the Northwest and Alaska. It is always interesting how that tagged fish made its way to that parking lot. Some studies provide a monetary incentive to encourage folks to turn in tags. I caught a radio tagged steelhead with a $10 return on it. I knew the biologist, so it was even more fun to collect that bill. I'm sure that Tod would turn it in and get that "dummy" tag to weigh down his brant call, even without the monetary incentive.
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If they want those transmitters back they should put a special purple 500 dollar reward band on those suckers.
 
Craig F said:
Transmitter is going to look awesome on my lanyard
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Not to mention the gigantic plastic leg band too.

I will say that the leg bands will make them easy to target. I?ve seen most of the regular bands on brant I?ve shot. Not early enough to target them, but as I shot and they folded. That plastic band is a freaking beacon.
 
Craig -

Read the article What's On Your Lanyard, in the Sept./Oct. 2018 DU magazine.

Buck Gardner shot a duck with a transmitter. He turned it in at a NWR. They gave him a old housing from a different transmitter to keep.

Hope ya get one.


Best
Vince
 
Vince Pagliaroli said:
Craig -

Read the article What's On Your Lanyard, in the Sept./Oct. 2018 DU magazine.

Buck Gardner shot a duck with a transmitter. He turned it in at a NWR. They gave him a old housing from a different transmitter to keep.

Hope ya get one.


Best
Vince
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These ones have solar panels, I am going to use it charge my cell phone.
 
I have shot three double banded brant, all three I saw the bands before I shot. The stainless ones practically glow in the sunshine.
 
Cool Study! I'm glad you posted this up. I read it myself today and was going to do the same. My son is working on his degree in wildlife management and was helping band and putting transmitters on wood ducks at his college last month. He was telling me they cost about a thousand dollars per transmitter. I asked him if the transmitters would have a serial number or some way to contact Fish and Wildlife or the DEC to return the transmitters and he said no. You would think they would put out a "return to address" or call in number for any transmitter found on a bird sort of like calling in a duck band. Then if the transmitter had a serial number on it it could be returned to the original group using them.
 
zane Every said:
Cool Study! I'm glad you posted this up. I read it myself today and was going to do the same. My son is working on his degree in wildlife management and was helping band and putting transmitters on wood ducks at his college last month. He was telling me they cost about a thousand dollars per transmitter. I asked him if the transmitters would have a serial number or some way to contact Fish and Wildlife or the DEC to return the transmitters and he said no. You would think they would put out a "return to address" or call in number for any transmitter found on a bird sort of like calling in a duck band. Then if the transmitter had a serial number on it it could be returned to the original group using them.
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Wow, $1,000 per is some serious money. I would have guessed much less with all the cheap miniature electronic stuff that's available. Hope it helps the bird population, those brant are among my favorite waterfowl.
 
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