Banding Sea Ducks

[Bill Embacher]

I spent the past two days helping with banding sea ducks in Rhode Island. It is not an easy ordeal to begin with, setting up floating mist nets is a time consuming project in itself, coupled yesterday with a blown forcast (called for 5-10, ended up being closer to a sustained 15 on the water) and this was our first time doing it all on our own, as a couple of the guys had helped out up in Mass in the past couple weeks. Anyway, here are a couple of pics of Josh and I setting the net taken by my brother:

here is the net all set up:

We had eider land short, fly over, fly around, just ignore us....everything but go into the net. We suspect the higher than expected wind made the net dance a bit, making it more visable to the birds. Here is a shot of a Juve drake with the net in the background:

So, we licked our wounds, learned from our mistakes, and had a better day this morning....how could you not love a day that starts like this (again all photos courtesy of my brother)

myself at helm....

didn't take any action shots today, but actually had some birds work the net!! We only ended up catching 2, but we were more than pleased, baby steps! Next week should be better! We believe these are the first two eider ever banded in Rhode Island, if anybody knows better (KMueller perhaps yourself or Charlie Allen might know?) we would like to know.
Myself (left, with bedhead) and my brother with our trophies!! Photo by Josh B.

Me with hen:

My brother releasing a drake:

Hopefully next week we can get our hands on some scoter!

 

[Csamor]

looks cool--why not use swim traps? We banded bills once using dive/swim traps---looks like Tiverton? Awesome pics and great work--keep it up-wish I had the time

 

[Brad Bortner]

We use gill nets to catch molters. Use the boats to herd them towards the gill net (marked with decoys). When they are just in front of the net you fire a shell cracker and motor in. They dive and swim into the net.

 

[Bill Embacher]

CS, we are banding wherever we find birds, different spot every day. We don't have swim in traps, how big were the ones you used on scaup?

Brad, that is a great way to do it, we heard there was methodology being used that incorporated a gill net but we weren't sure how. It doesn't do us any good since we dont have birds when they are molting.

 

[Csamor]

We were using 5x5 with a 2' opening for the dive thru---we modeled off an old project banding cans down south in the 70's--We would bait the harbor floor and the birds would feed into the traps---that technique probably wouldn't work for the time of year and species you guys are targeting---keep up the good work---any birds with rope, line or other fishing equipment-----those birds turn up with the craziest attachments---fishin line and hooks seem to be in about 10 percent of the birds --escpically the birds in PTJ--also have shot birds with ropes and hard plastic bands around their bodies---they get into all kinds of fishing debris were they feed-----great work

 

[Al Hansen]

What a great series of shots. You sure worked hard to do that compared to the conventional "set out the feed and then using the rocket nets to snare the ducks" method.
Al

 

[Scott Farris]

Bill aren't you supposed to be carving? Seriously great shots and sounds like it's even more fun than goose banding! You guys do get involved in some neat projects. Keep the photos coming.

Scott

 

[Andrew]

Great story and pics... thanks for sharing....

 

[Bill Gass]

Wow great pics, setting dekes in windy conditions can be tough enough let alone trap nets.

Bill G.

 

[Capt. Brian Rhodes]

NIce pics guys. Cool stuff.

Thanks for sharing.