SREL Reprint #3344

Recoveries of Ring-necked Ducks banded on the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site, South Carolina

Robert A. Kennamer

University of Georgia, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, P.O. Drawer E, Aiken, South Carolina 29802

Introduction: Each year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Canadian Wildlife Service and state and provincial wildlife management agencies band about 300,000 migratory game birds (USFWS 2001). These management agencies, ornithological institutions, researchers, and private individuals also band another 700,000 non-game birds annually. These banded birds and their subsequent recoveries are an important data source used in the management of migratory birds (Nichols 1996). For example, band recovery data are frequently used as a source of information to delineate continental bird migration corridors (Bellrose 1980) and to monitor aspects of hunting pressure on game birds (e.g., Chu and Hestbeck 1989). Particularly in the case of game birds such as waterfowl, large-scale, federally mandated harvests dramatically increase the potential for sufficient numbers of band recoveries to be made to be especially useful in these processes. Annually, 87% of all recoveries reported to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Bird Banding Lab are from waterfowl (USFWS 2001).
The Savannah River Site (SRS), bordered by the Savannah River and located in Aiken and Barnwell Counties of west-central South Carolina is a 780 km2 (300 mi2) tract closed to public access and under control of the U.S. Department of Energy. Extensive natural areas and pine plantations surround former nuclear production facilities of the SRS (White and Gaines 2000). Included within the SRS are more than 1,400 ha (3,458 acres) of reservoir habitat that has been regionally important as an inland refuge for several migrating, diving duck species, including the Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris; Mayer et al 1986). Over a period of 11 years beginning in 1985, Ring-necked Ducks were captured, banded, and released on SRS reservoirs. For the purpose of this study, subsequent recoveries of banded birds as a consequence of harvest activities, incidental encounters, or banding efforts conducted elsewhere, provided the data necessary to examine the origins and migratory routes of these birds, and suggest which demographic segments of the population might be subjected to differential hunting pressures.

SREL Reprint #3344

Kennamer, R. A. 2003. Recoveries of Ring-necked Ducks banded on the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site, South Carolina. The Oriole 68(2003): 8-14.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).