15 years ago today….

Molly 2007 Thanksgiving morning..on a local metro mess lake. It was the only bird I shot that morning, boy did my wife give me an earful for hunting thanksgiving morning. RIP Molly 2015.

Great pic. I've learned the earful isn't worth it, especially on a slow day.

Pre kids I hunted every thanksgiving. Haven’t done so since.

Maybe one day

Is that bird banded ?

I thought the same, but I think its just a feather.

Yes, my first band. It made my day.

Congrats, the best 1 bird day you could have!

You never forget your first. Lots of feelings come back looking at this photo and story. Will never forget my first band, my first lab that retrieved it, and the memories that came around that first band. Still to date, maybe one of the coolest bands I ever killed was my first. Only had 1 number legible, and being the first, I didnt want to send it off but really wanted to know where it came from. My grandfather (retired police dept) was on his death bed and told me to run to the store and get hydrochloric acid, a wooden dowel and clear plastic cups. We put in a 50/50 of water and acid, wrapped the band on the dowel, stirred and sure as can be, the etching bubbled and I got all the numbers off that band. Ran it under water to stop reaction, reported the numbers and it came back as a 14 year old band. Grandpa died a few days later but told me this is how they would get vin numbers off cars that were stolen and they scraped off the vin on the old aluminum vins on cars. The pooch went on to fetch 38 more bands before I had to put her down, but gosh, even though its physically the lightest in the collection, that first one holds a lot of weight.

First band in 94, don’t even remember it to be honest. Second band 10 years later…….I am due

I've hunted 52 years and still haven't shot a banded bird. I'm really due and I feel this is the year it will happen.

Nice greenhead, Molly was a good girl.

Longest streak I have gone is 4 years without one. Finally broke that streak last year with my brand new pup's 4th hunt, late january pintail that was a 12 year old band. Most killed in a season is 14. I really started adding band counts to the lanyards when I learned to truly band hunt. Got to a point where we could sack up a few hundred mallard and geese a season. The scenery, the passion, the drive never gets old but in some ways, it got repetitive. It wasn't until I started pigeon hunting and learned the art of picking out racing pigeons, that I realized how good my eyes were. Always knew I had 20/13 vision and could see things across rooms that other people couldnt, but this made me realize I could pick up on oddities out of flocks of birds. Decoying really became a passion, I started getting ducks into chip shot range and started really watching legs. Geese were really easy to find because of the black legs. Mallard took some tuning but you can see them in the right light. To date, I have successfully called 14 mallard bands, 3 hybrids (pintail x mallard), 19 goose bands (2 of those are cackler bands). With both cack bands, we let 1000's come in and out of the decoys, and I mean thousands before we actually found those 2. I really don't shoot many cacks and always wait for big geese, so it isn't near as hard to sit back and watch the show.

Most "band hunters" get kind of a bad wrap, and rightfully so, because many would shoot birds in flocks with high power rifles. Never have I done this and it has always been over a decoy spread. Patience is the biggest thing and when you learn to hunt in a way that gets birds that close, it really brings a new light to the sport and is quite beautiful in a lot of ways. I try not to boast about it, I try not make it a big deal, and out of all the leg bands successfully called, less than half have made it to my lanyard. I don't even have social media because that isn't what waterfowl is about for me. I enjoy watching the guy next to me shoot them just as much as I like seeing them. The pigeon lanyard is one to be desired though, as many didn't take to it like I did. The racing community probably isn't overly happy to hear about this but I have 120-140 pigeon bands on a lanyard and was able to put that together in 6 years before the dairy finally shut down.

Again though, bands are bands. They excite me a ton, and I love when I shoot one, but it isn't what it is about. I think hybrids and odd ball birds get me more excited than a band. Watching someone shoot their first band is probably more of a joy than me shooting one now. I taught a younger kid how to slow down and decoy and in just a few years, I think his lanyard has almost as many as mine in a fraction of the time. I also called a hen mallard band for an old timer who had never killed one in 32 years of fowl hunting. We were picking off mallard drakes and then a hen came right in. I told him to shoot her, that she was banded. He said, green heads only. I chuckled a little and said, if he doesn't shoot her when she lifts out of the decoys, I will because she has a band on that left leg (I was guessing on the leg, but I definitely saw the silver when she back peddled that split second down in the decoys). All it took, he pulled the trigger as she lifted out and she was banded on that left leg. The excitement in that old man, I will NEVER forget.

Does anyone know if there are any banding sites in texas?

Hagerman?
Anahauc?
Or any of the other refuges in Texas?

And if they don't, does anyone know why not?

Don’t know, all I know is we shot some fairly regularly growing up in Iowa, shot 4 in my 4 years in Kansas, have been in TX since 06 and not only haven’t shot one but haven’t seen one in any group ever.

Great story

Banded ducks in texas are deffiantly few and far between. I feel partly bc there are no local banding effort that I am aware of. Sure would like to see texas band more ducks during the winter. But I have heard that in general there is less and less of a banding effort bc technological advancements with the GPS data they can gather off the GPS'd birds far outweighs what they were getting from banded birds.

There are quite a few banding sites in Texas. Anahuac bands lots of snow geese, or at least they used to. Cattail Marsh in Beaumont bands hundreds if not thousands of teal every spring, as well as all of their by catch. There is a banding program tracking the pintail migration in the panhandle. We had a USFWS picking up ducks from us the other day in the panhandle to test for Avian flu and he said there is a big program starting this year in Amarillo banding the lesser canada geese. Those are just a few I know of.

We shoot150-250 ducks a year in N TX. Don’t know many that have recovered bands here. Includes groups that hunt primarily Mallards on or very near the Red River

From what I understand mallards and BWT are the 2 most commonly banded ducks. Problem is mallards don't come to Texas anymore like they use to and our BWT are only here for a few weeks in NTX and typically not in great numbers either.

My only band was a Mallard Drake shot on the OK side of the Red. But, to your point, that was probably 30 years ago.

Molly was a good dog. I’ll never forget that THF duck hunt where they put us together in the same blind. You and your Molly, and me with mine. What a smart idea that was. Not. You dropped a bird and said, “Molly”. Both dogs instantly hit the water. Then I say, “Molly, heal”, and they are both looking at us like what the heck is going on. I remember taking my Molly and setting up a little ways down so they weren’t so confused. Good times

My only other band, teal 2015 opener. Molly passed 2 months later…

Sorry to hear bro. I remember the 1st pics of her that you showed. Where did the time go? My oldest lab is about 7-8 months older than Molly, and that time will come soon enough for her. Heart breaking for sure. RIP

It’s NEVER EASY and good dogs should out live us. Still carry my first around on my lanyard. Had her cremated and put a few of her ashes on this little mini shotgun shell, sealed with super glue. She hangs on the lanyard so she can still be close to the heart on every hunt.

Add a few of her hrc bands just above her in memory of some of her accomplishments. Might take those off though, I still have her collar that had all of them on their, might just put them back on the collar.