# Banded Scaup



## Honkin (Feb 11, 2008)

I took Gee LaDouche and his buddy layout hunting Friday and they shot a banded scaup. I didn't get a pic. I thought with a little coaxing they would post a pic.
The bird also had a pin through it's nose with orange plastic on one side and purple on the other. Show us a picture Gee.


----------



## Gee LeDouche (Sep 21, 2007)

Yeah,, sorry it took me so long. I've been having some internet troubles. Cant seem to stay connected. Anywho. Here is the story. 

Honkin and I have been talking for a week or two about getting together for a layout hunt. We scheduled a day to get together and he asked me if I had a friend who would like to come along for a layout hunt also, since he had one of his BFO's with him. I got a friend of mine who had never even heard of a layout boat before, let alone hunt out of one. We all met up at this last friday, and Honkin had already set up the dec's and his layout boat out. Honkin was a very generous host and took my friend (Whom I've lovingly nick named him "Nancy" and after the way he shot friday he earned that name!!  ) out to the BFO layout boat first, then came back to pick me and my little marsh rat up. Before we got back out to the spread, Nancy had already greased a hen ruddy and he had the biggest smile on his face. So he was up on me 1-0.. Well, we got my little rig all set up and I got in and soon after that I started whackin the birds too. Honkin was more than generous to run the tender boat for Nancy and myself. It was fast and furious for about the first hour or hour and a half. Nancy said that he wanted nothing more than to shoot a nice, full color drake bufflehead. As we get flock after flock of buffleheads, sometimes landing in the decoy spread, Nancy's shooting couldnt have been worse! I watched as he missed drake after drake and flock after flock of nice buffys. I on the other hand, shot at everything I thought was in range and ended up dropping 6 immature drake buffys. By this time I had 6 and he only had 2 or 3 birds. A nice flock of 4 birds came in, Nancy hopped up and shot once, I hopped up and shot twice and one sailed out about 100+ yards and dropped, dead as a doornail. Honkin motored over and picked up the bird. While he was going to pick it up I said to Nancy "Well, I'm not exactly sure who got that one and since I'm up 6 to your 3 you can take this one" and I mumble "unless its banded" under my breath.. He said ok. Honkin gets back and tells us about the trophy we had just downed. It was a Banded Scaup with a purple and orange nosering. man, I was kicking myself for giving that one to Nancy big time! but I bit my tounge and wasnt about to get in an arguement over it, since we both didnt know who had hit it. That was the highlight of our hunt. We stayed out a little longer and he ended up with 5 or 6 and I ended up with 6 myself. I think the final count was 2 scaup, 2 or 3 ruddys and 7 immature buffys. All in all a really great hunt! We couldnt have done it without Honkin and his BFO layout boat! Nancy was telling me that he plans to purchase one of those BFO's as soon as he can scrape the money together.. and how it was easily the funnest hunt this year, if not the funnest hunt of his entire life! Pics to come soon!!


----------



## gooseblaster (Sep 2, 2009)

Sound like a great time! Congrats on the trophy!


----------



## Bhilly81 (Oct 18, 2009)

yea sounds fun lets see the pics


----------



## Gee LeDouche (Sep 21, 2007)

Not the best pictures I;ve ever taken, but you get the hint 









Shot at 2010-11-14









Shot at 2010-11-14









Shot at 2010-11-14


----------



## duck jerky (Sep 8, 2007)

Congrats. Any info on when and where it was banded?


----------



## Bhilly81 (Oct 18, 2009)

wow now thats weird and cool a neat little trophy


----------



## Skye Hansen (Mar 23, 2009)

Never seen that before. Let us know what that means and where it was banded. Congrats


----------



## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

Wow!


----------



## hamernhonkers (Sep 28, 2007)

Very cool. Tracy aviary???


----------



## Honkin (Feb 11, 2008)

Thanks for the pics Gee. That was a fun shoot.


----------



## stuckduck (Jan 31, 2008)

That is awesome!!!!

i believe the colors in the bill band has to do with nesting study!!! I'm sure Kev would know. what a trophy!! Congrats!!


----------



## Billcollector (Oct 31, 2007)

Very cool!!!

It's called a nasal saddle. Its different from others I have seen, but I'm sure it is basically the same thing. It is used as a marker to be seen, and identified from a distance. I'm not sure of the significance of this one but it is probably some kind of nesting, or migration study


----------



## Donttreadonme (Sep 11, 2007)

Billcollector is correct. That is a huge prize in deed. Just think about how rare it is to get a banded duck in the first place, then to get one with a nasal saddle as well. That is truly once in a lifetime IMO. Congratulations and I hope your buddy is putting it on the wall.


----------



## Gee LeDouche (Sep 21, 2007)

Joel Draxler said:


> Billcollector is correct. That is a huge prize in deed. Just think about how rare it is to get a banded duck in the first place, then to get one with a nasal saddle as well. That is truly once in a lifetime IMO. Congratulations and I hope your buddy is putting it on the wall.


Yeah, he says he's going to. We'll see. If he doesnt, I sure would like to..


----------



## Bottomwatcher (Jan 21, 2009)

Incredible. Once in a lifetime bird. Congrats.


----------



## tjr (Jun 16, 2010)

The nose marker is a tag often used by wildlife biologists for individual resighting. It makes recapture unnecessary in order to study site fidelity, survival, or brood success. I know a couple biologists in Montana that tag scaup that way and wouldn't be suprised if it came from Red Rock Lake NWR in MT. Cool find!


----------



## Billcollector (Oct 31, 2007)

Had a little luck myself today. Figured i would dig up this thread i posted in a few years ago


----------



## nk1nk (Nov 15, 2011)

Yep, I will bet money it came from red rock lakes montana. My neighbor shot one a month ago and and the band info had not been sent in yet by the biologists so we made some phone calls and this is what we recieved


Those birds were banded in Montana at Red Rock Lakes NWR just prior to the season (which is why we're still working on getting the banding data to the bird banding lab...). The refuge is in the Centennial Valley east of Monida, Montana, only a few miles from Idaho as a scaup flies. We banded ~1100 ducklings this year, with ~175 females also receiving nasal markers. Give me a shout and I can fill you in on the various aspects of the scaup work we're doing here at the refuge. 

Cheers,

Jeff Warren


also I thought they were called saddles also but a different biologist sent me this

Thanks for your email and info on the 2 banded scaup that you shot in Idaho.

I have not used the band prefix 1206 so it is not one of my birds; furthermore, the female in your photo has what is called a nasal disk not a nasal saddle. 

I prefer to use nasal saddles or disks because they have fewer sharp points/edges that tend to get vegetation, fish line and other stuff stuck on them, which may impact behavior and survival of marked birds. Generally, waterfowl researchers that mark birds with nasal saddles or disks are using them to identify individuals at a distance with a spotting scope for behavioral and reproductive studies. With the disk, they would use different color and shape combinations on each side of the bill to individually mark birds; there also could have be some letter or number codes on the disk, as is typically used on nasal saddle to increase the number of individually identifiable combinations to allow identification of a large number of individuals.


hope this info is helpful and congrats on the band and nasal marker!!

Nick


----------



## nk1nk (Nov 15, 2011)

Just for reference this is a nasal saddle








and this is the bird my neighbor shot a month ago









Nick


----------



## Billcollector (Oct 31, 2007)

Thanks for the info. I just left him a voicemail. Ill let you know what he says


----------



## Gee LeDouche (Sep 21, 2007)

Very cool! Thanks for posting guys!


----------



## dkhntrdstn (Sep 7, 2007)

congrats.


----------

