Goose and Duck Reporting
 

Last year I got letter in the mail from the department of the interior harvest surveys with a application for reporting my goose and duck harvests. They had columns for amount of birds, time date and location of kill.... and at the end of the year they asked me to send it in. Now this year they sent me a letter thanking me for participating in the survey and asked if this year they could send me envelopes to enclose particular feathers from birds to age them. So in August they send me about 30 large envelopes asking me to enclose 6 inch tips from 3 flight feathers and all the tail feathers from the geese, and the whole wing cut off from the body of ducks. They say they do this to determine how many young of the year were shot and to age the birds. I also have to fill out all the harvest information. Has this ever happened to anyone? I've never heard of this or talked to anyone that knew anything about it...

RE: Goose and Duck Reporting
 

they do it at the checkstation at the refuges that i hunt, and my old hunting partner did it for manyy years

RE: Goose and Duck Reporting
 

Never had them do that to me with ducks, but i do it every year with turkey.

RE: Goose and Duck Reporting
 

I did it years ago when I was guiding here in Wisc. They seem to change the program a little throughout the years. I no longer do it.

RE: Goose and Duck Reporting
 

They sent me the stuff when I lived in maryland never got around to doing it though.

RE: Goose and Duck Reporting
 

I had them ask me for that info way back when, fairly painless.

RE: Goose and Duck Reporting
 

i seem to get the questionaire yearly and i got the request to cut the wings off and send them to them. not gonna do it this year asdriving back and forth to the post office would kill me in the land shark

RE: Goose and Duck Reporting
 

They tend to put you on that list when you kill a banded bird. Sometimes being a member of DU or Delta or something like that.

You don't have to do it.... but bear in mind that it doesn't exactly take much extra time. The greater the sample pool, the more accurate the harvest data... seasons, limits all that good stuff come directly from this info along with nesting pair and nest success surveys in the spring.

RE: Goose and Duck Reporting
 

Yeah I don't mind doing it at all, I actually think it's kind of cool. So far I'vesent an envelope forI thinkall but 2 or 3 of the geese i shot. (Rushing and cleaning them late at night ) I did recieve the first questionaire the year after I shot 2 bands so that could be why I receieved that stuff. It's funny though my dad also shot 2 bands the same year as me and was never asked for any of this information.

RE: Goose and Duck Reporting
 

yeah last year they sent me the simple questionare survey you mentioned and I think i checked a box to be involved in future surveys. This set me up to get the thirty envelopes of which I have sent in all but a few as well, glad to help out when I can like someone said about the sample size, and it doesnt take to much time

RE: Goose and Duck Reporting
 

Also, they will send you info on the age, species etc of evey bird feathers you send in, which will be cool to see if its anything like the certificate for the banded birds. I shot 2 bands this year and sent in the feathers so hopfully i get some new and different information than what the regular band reporting would be

RE: Goose and Duck Reporting
 

It is kind of neat when you get the information back. it gets to be a pain after a while though. i have done it for the last 2 years. they did not send me any thing this year though. it is an easy way to help them out.

RE: Goose and Duck Reporting
 

Oh they send you back the information from the birds you send in? Thats really cool...I was doing it just because I thought it was nice to be involved and help out but in the back of my mind I was hopeing that they would send me back the information. How long after the season do they send the information back? and what all is on there?

RE: Goose and Duck Reporting
 

I think that it is in april or may i can not remember. they tell you if it is male or female and general age on the ducks and they just give the general age for the geese. i like it because it gives me a general time on the calender for when we started shooting what, that helps with the waterfowl season withdrawl.