uralists.) 
     
    
   
   
    
     Aspit, 
     
    
   
   
    
     read the lette 
     
     mechanically i 
     
     had been throwing scraps to the gulls 
     
     nudged her companion and said, "Would 
     
     you look at that poor thing's neck. I 
     
     don't know how it can swallow." 
     
    

    
     Instinctively I shrank from this 
     
     indignant woman. Although I never 
     
     liked the look of the neck bands, 
     
     always attributed my distaste to a 
     
     transference of human feelings about 
     
     constrictions around the neck. But, 
     
     like most birders, I had no reason to 
     
     believe that the neck bands were 
     
     harmful. Casual observation of neck- 
     
     banded birds had tended to support 
     
     banders' claims that the birds func- 
     
     tioned normally and were as strong 
     
     and healthy as their unbanded kin. 
     
     Rumours of other problems with the 
     
     collars had lodged, like a raspberry 
     
     seed in a tooth, somewhere at the 
     
     back of my mind. Although I was not 
     
     totally comfortable with the neck 
     
     bands, I never gave them serious 
     
     thought until November 21, 1987. 
     
    

    
     On that day, in Ottawa, balmy 
     
     fall weather suddenly gave way to 
     
     freezing temperatures and ferocious 
     
     -winds. Sitting on the edge of the ice 
     
     in the Ottawa River, facing the wind 
     
     and spray, neck-banded Canada geese 
     
     began to accumulate layers of ice on 
     
     their collars. Eventually more than a 
     
     dozen drowned, their heads pulled un— 
     
     derwater by the weight of their icy 
     
     collars. Ice on the neck band chopped 
     
     off one of the surviving geese weigh- 
     
     ed 3 kilograms. 
     
    

    
     The original decision to band 
     
     Canada geese was made because of con— 
     
     cern over a drop in the species' pop— 
     
    
   
   
    
     Gmc u Mm 
     
    
   
   
    
     I 
     
    
   
   
    
     In the shelter created by a small, 
     
     a flock of Canada geese came skidding to a 
     
     stop on the water. 
     
     [band with black markings, 
     
     of the flock. With my binoculars I could easily 
     
    
   
   
    
     r 
     
     1'1 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     From neck collars 
     
    
   
   
    
     BY MARION STREBIG 
     
    
   
   
    
     (Now is the time of year that we see collared 
     
     Canada Geese on P.E.I. This story was originally 
     
     published in the Spring 1988 edition of Seasons, 
     
     a publication of the Federation of Ontario Nat— 
     
    
   
   
    
     man—made 
     
    
   
   
    
     One, wearing a yellow neck 
     
     stood out from the rest 
     
    
   
   
    
     sequence, which I jotted down 
     
    

    
     my notebook. Nearby, a woman who 
     
     ulation in the carolinas. Increas- 
     
     ed hunting pressure at the South- 
     
     ern end of their migration route 
     
     had been put forward as one pos- 
     
     sible explanation of this decline. 
     
     If these states were to take the 
     
     steps necessary to rebuild winter— 
     
     ing populations, data would be 
     
     needed to provide a better under— 
     
     standing of migration patterns, 
     
     wintering distribution and survi- 
     
     val rate of the geese in the At- 
     
     lantic Flyway. The resulting in— 
     
     formation was to be used to ad- 
     
     dress inadequacies of migration 
     
     and wintering habitat and to estab- 
     
     lish annual hunting rates in line 
     
     wwith existing habitat conditions, 
     
     the distribution of the birds and 
     
     their reproductive potential. 
     
    

    
     Accordingly, between 1983 and 
     
     1986 more than 25,000 Canada geese 
     
     in the Atlantic Flyway were banded 
     
     with yellow collars imprinted with 
     
     black letters. Taking part were the 
     
     United States Fish and Wildlife 
     
     Service and agencies in New York, 
     
     Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, 
     
     Delaware, and North and South 
     
     Carolina. ' 
     
    

    
     From the point of View of the 
     
     agencies collecting data, the col— 
     
     lars are attractive because they 
     
     get ten times as many returns as 
     
     leg bands (only 4-6 leg bands out 
     
     of 100 are returned), and because 
     
     the birds are observed alive and 
     
     interacting normally with the flock. 
     
     Two or three sightings of the same 
     
     bird are often reported in a single