6,700 Miles...As the Duck Flies...

[Meister Jaeger]

My buddy in Colorado emailed this story the other day; an amazing story indeed. My son and I used Google Earth to 'fly over' from Japan to Louisiana....Wow....wonder if he made the journey more than once?


Banded in Japan, killed in the Delta
Pintail duck an amazing story

• January 20, 2008



Special to The Clarion-Ledger
Freddie Scott (above) of LaGrange , Ga. , was duck hunting with his son, Freddie III, on Jan. 2 near Ruleville in the Mississippi Delta when he killed a pintail duck that was banded.

When Freddie Scott's retriever brought him the duck he shot Jan. 2 near Ruleville, the hunter was happy to find a band on one of its legs.

For the unknowing, a banded bird is considered a trophy in duck hunting. Each of the metal tags carries contact information that can lead the shooter to the person(s) who put it there.




Bands are then usually wrapped around a duck call lanyard, forming what each hunter hopes will become a many-jeweled band of honor during his or her career.

Scott, of LaGrange , Ga. , had recovered a goose band, but had none from a duck before spotting the one wrapped around the pintail's dangling appendage that day in the Delta.

"I told my son, 'that bird's banded,' " Scott said, "and because he hadn't shot, that it was surely mine. I remembered right after I shot the duck that I looked over and Freddie III was messing with a jammed shotgun.

"Then I moved over to the corner of the blind where was some light coming in so I could read it, and that's when I saw it."

The first word he saw - JAPAN .

"There was no phone number like you usually see on a band," Scott said. "There was just a series of numbers and the words ' Kankyocho-Tokyo Japan ,' " he said. "I said out loud 'this ain't right,' and I started thinking somebody was playing a trick."

Who, the dog? Well, no.

Back in Georgia two days later, he began his research.

FREQUENT FLYER MILES
Unsuccessful, Scott got in touch with biologist Jeffrey Lee at the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Pearl .

"I figured I killed it in Mississippi , I'd be best to start there,” Scott said.

Good idea. Lee took over the research.

"I contacted several other biologists and finally the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center 's Bird Banding Laboratory (in Maryland )," Lee said. "Patuxent referred me to the Yamashina Institute of Ornithology Bird Migration Research Center in Konoyama , Japan ."

Lee fired off an e-mail and within 24 hours, he had his answer. Indeed the bird had been banded in Japan , by Ryuhei Honma, a member of the Japanese Bird Banding Association, on Hyoko Lake near the country's northwestern coast.

Furthermore, Honma had banded the bird on Feb. 16 - in the year 2000.

Lee said wild pintails average 2 to 3 years.

"Because the bird was said to have been at least a year old when banded, that means it had to be at least 8 years old," Lee said. "They also said that prior to this, Utah was the farthest a Japan band had been collected."

By GPS, Hyoko Lake is more than 6,700 miles from Ruleville , Miss. , as the, uh, duck flies.

"I immediately went to all the people who'd been kidding me about it and proved to them it was real," Scott said.

Thoughts of birds being able to carry the Asian-based avian bird flu did occur to Scott, but he quickly brushed it aside.

"We had a bunch of people at our camp near Ruleville that week and we divvied up the birds so nobody knows who ate it," Scott said. "But I told them, 'hey, any bird that has flown that many miles darn sure ain't sick."

Makes sense.

[Crashin' Bait]

He must have gotten on the wrong runway up in the arctic.

[Cliff D.]

Good tailwind.

[HonkerKnocker]

Thats too cool...Talk about frequent flyer miles!!!

[Tar Heel]

Further evidence that PT's are capable of, and do, change their migrational patterns due to habitat availability. Many folks believe that the reduced numbers of PT in North America are not applicable to the Pac. Flyway. Our birds are not as stressed as those in other flyways, as they breed in Alaska and tundra habitat, where drought and loss of nesting habitat isn't as big an issue. Other Flyways' PT's shift to the Pac, as the other flyways have reduced available nesting habitat, and we have good wintering grounds that aren't polluted and ruined by coastal estary developments.You have to wonder where the PT we shoot (and aren't allowed to shoot)here in the Northwest have been in their lifetimes.