DVOC Main Page > Field Trips 2004 > Bosque del Apache Field Trip > Snow Goose Banding

Field Trip Leader - Adrian Binns Assisted by Bert Filemyr and Martin Selzer

Origin of Snow Geese seen on the DVOC trip to Bosque del Apache, December 2004
by Colin Campbell

I frequently read neckbands of members of the Greater Snow Goose flocks which winter in Delaware and send them in to the USGS. They invariably return the information that all banded birds are female and derive from the breeding flock on SW Bylot Island, Northwest Territories (NT), at the north end of Baffin Island at about 73 deg N. I was interested therefore to learn of the origins of the neckbanded Lesser Snow Goose and Ross's Goose which were read via telescope during the Club's trip to Bosque del Apache, NM on the 6 December 2004. All were banded by Dr R.T.Alisauskas of Saskatoon.

The results are tabulated below, broken down by age and sex (aren't we all?).

The results show that both species came from two breeding regions, denoted as Johnson Point, NT and Simpson River, NT. Johnson Point is on Banks Island (on the Prince of Wales Strait, separating Banks from Victoria Island) at 72 deg N 118 deg W. I have not been able to determine the precise location of the Simpson River; there's Fort Simpson, Simpson Bay, Simpson Island, Simpson Lake, Simpson Strait ..... but no River, as yet. As two of the 'date banded' from the two locations are just 4 days apart, the mysterious Simpson River can't be too far from Johnson Point, probably on Banks Island too.