Stuart:
> 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 ?

Jon:
>My correspondance from BBL on this subject is that they WANT the
>reports. Often, a State or University researcher will send out a flyer
>describing the banding project with a local contact address on it. In
>those circumstances, I will notify the BBL with a cc: going to the local
>contact.

This is true of folks putting on normal USF&W aluminum bands, as
well. We get the names, address and phone number of folks who
turn in our raptor bands, and usually the person who runs our
banding outfit calls or writes them. This is how, for instance,
we find out that a majority of our raptor recoveries from Mexico are
shot - even though raptors are protected in Mexico, enforcement
(at least in our recovery areas) is non-existent, and they're
not afraid to say "it was chasing my chickens and I shot it".

Which doesn't bother us particularly - these folks are generally
very poor and don't even have phones.

Since our recovery rate is so low, we might as well get as much
information on each recovery as possible.

- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>