Every June, Michigan DNR staff and assorted volunteers band canada geese at Pte. Mouillee State Game Area. I started hunting there last year and got to love the place. I'm not going to give up my little marshes and potholes in the nearby rec areas, but something about big marsh hunting makes it engrossing. Maybe the sheer number and variety of ducks on the wing, maybe a frustration at failing to call them in that leads to determination, maybe just the openness or expanse of them--so many possibilities to explore. Whatever its appeal, Mouillee is a place I want to get as involved with as I can. Went on a cleanup there last year, also to an open house just before waterfowl season started. I wish there was a conservation group dedicated to it, such as other major waterfowling sites (Fish Point, Shiawassee) have.
For now I'll settle for the odd volunteer project. Notice about the banding day went up on Michigan Sportsman (see link at right) a couple weeks ago; last Thursday I was finally able to confirm, and on Friday night I got to bed early and set the alarm for 4 AM (shades of duck season!). I made it to the area's headquarters minutes before the scheduled 6 AM start time, though we lingered a bit before getting started.
The banding process worked like this: DNR employees and volunteers would take kayaks out into the marsh in areas where geese were sighted and drive them onto land in a spot of high ground. Once there, folding pens we set up and volunteers would drive the geese into the pen; other volunteers formed a cordon stretching back from the edges of the pen to prevent the geese from running off. Two DNR workers stayed in the pen after the geese were in and the gates were shut to pick up birds and hand them to volunteers to carry over to the banders. They would clip on the band, record its number, then turn the goose loose.
The geese ranged from babies still in fuzz to old veterans with necks as thick as a swan's. And most were quite docile when picked up, which surprised me a little since they can be nasty tempered, even aggressive when I run across them along rivers or lakeshores. The little ones put up no fight at all. The guys in the pen just handed them off to whoever was nearby and they were as compliant as kittens in the hands of whoever carried them to the banders. The adults often did struggle a bit, so the DNR workers would fold the head of each goose under one of its wings before giving it to someone.
There were a lot of kids there, members of a boy scout troop and children of some of the adult volunteers. They carried most of the geese to the banders. A little wary of the geese at first, they were eager to do the job once they saw the geese weren't going to hurt them. Larger, feistier geese were handed off to adults. Toward the end of the day I took one that had bitten one of the guys working in the pen. It struggled as he passed it to me, then settled down for a while. There was a backup of geese ready for banding, so I had to hold it for five minutes. It was quiet for a while, but about a minute before I got to the bander it started thrashing around. I kept my arms firmly around; I actually appreciated feeling its struggles. Usually when I pick up a wild animal it's dead or shortly will be. Feeling the warmth and the full strength of one of the creatures than helps give me life was satisfying in some undefinable way.
Much as I enjoyed the day, my services weren't especially needed. There were at least forty people out there, and many of them spent a large share of the morning standing around. There wasn't much they could do unless they forced themselves into the action. The kids took care of most of the work, and they probably needed the experience more.
The head biologist at Mouillee said geese banded there have been recovered from Saskatchewan to Alabama. Very few things I do will have an impact felt that widely. So my contributions, however meager, were worth the early wakeup and the hour's drive.
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