Jon Anderson wrote:

> I would be amazed that the Bird Banding Lab has stopped coordinating
> color-marking. Just a few short years ago, Dan Bystrak of the BBL was
> still color-marking/neck collaring/patagial marking/etc coordinator for them
> back in Laurel, Maryland.

I have heard from two sources (one Fish & Wildlife) that the Bird Banding Lab
(BBL) does not coordinate the color banding for geese. Since this is not
first hand information, there may be some qualifiers, etc, etc. I suppose Mary
Gustafson, Mary_Gustafson at nbs.gov would be the authoritative source on this.
I know BBL coordinates the work on shorebirds.

I have sent in a few neck-collar sightings and have received no reply yet - I
presume the original bander is responsible for notifying me, rather than BBL.
It could be that the scheme and sequence numbers are registered with BBL but
the specifics, ie which collar corresponds to which bird are left to the
bander - same set up as in the UK.

So I suppose it is more exact to say there may be no central reporting rather
than coordinating, as all color-banding must be registered with the BBL.

But then again it begs the question as why there are lots of different
addresses to write to when reporting canada goose collars rather than simply
sending them to the BBL - less overhead and less stress for BBL ?

Stuart
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