16 September 2016

18th & 9th Cycle Herrings From E of Chambers Island, Wisconsin

I found 4 banded Herrings on Thursday, 15 September 2016, here on southern Lake Michigan.

Here are the two that obliged, providing full readings:

Adult 0966-44575. Banded as a chick on 17 June 1999, East of Chambers Island, WI.

Adult 1106-08886. Banded as a chick on 17 June 2008, East of Chambers Island, WI.

Unfortunately, the bird of most interest to me - a hatch year - evaded me and took off before I can get to work on it. 

Juvenile Herring with federal band on right leg. Pictured with juvenile LBBG.

An adult type, likely from northern Michigan also got away with 3 missing digits (1146-02***). So 4 banded birds, with a 50% success rate at recording the entire band number. Yes, frustrating at times, but well worth the effort to me. Those banders that insist on not using large, color, field-readable bands must know that so many more data points would be obtained in much less time and effort. I'll leave it at that.