While scanning goose flocks on the day after Christmas, I came across two neck-banded geese, a Ross's with a blue collar with white letters or designs, and a Greater White-fronted Goose (a "Speck") with a red collar and white letters. The Ross's was short and feeding, so I got only a quick look at its neck before it lowered its head and got lost in the crowd. However, the speck was a lot more cooperative, and I could read a vertical Y with two horizontals Ts.
I entered the collar info in to the USGS BBL site and later received the certificate below.
In other words, this goose seems to have made the following journey:
3600 miles/5800km. Pretty amazing stuff. We celebrate many rarities that travel far shorter distances to reach us, and sometimes fail to give our wintering geese the wonder they deserve for being such long distance marvels. A tip of the hat, YTT.
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