I’m not sure of the rates in the last several years. I think year over year they are similar. However, they don’t band snow geese nearly as much as today as they did back in the early days of the conservation order. In 2018, we shot 6,425 snow geese, 5 wore leg bands – 2017 (too young to fly), 2010 (two, 8+ years old), 2009 (9+ years old), 2000 (18+ years old). In 2007 the total harvest was 5653 snow geese with 20 leg bands, seven neck collars, one $20 reward band, and one tarsus band. I don’t have the ages of all the birds from back then; it just wasn’t as easy to look it up as it is now. Back then, you submitted the band number and waited until you got the certificate in the mail. 

If my memory serves me correctly, I think 2007  was the most bands we shot in a single season. Even so, in those early years, it was not uncommon to get ten or more banded snow geese in a single season. We always figured a rate of 1 out of every 300-350 snow geese was a leg band. It is very rare to get a neck collar today, but back then, we shot about one neck collar for every 1500 snow geese harvested. If you do get one today, it is likely on a Ross. 

The one thing that would interest me today would be what % of juvy’s makes it to year 2. We get very few too young to fly bands in the 2-8-year-old range. Sometimes we get birds in that range, but they were already adults when banded. It could be ten years old bird but only wore the band for a couple of them.