Just wanted to report a very cool finding from an hour ago. On my first pass up north I found a dead northern gannet (Morus bassanus). The bird had a large metal band on it's left thigh, partially embedded in its skin. Knowing how important it is to researchers to hear reports about their tagged animals, I recorded the tag number and typed it into the bird banding website (USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center). It returned some really awesome information! This adult gannet was tagged in 1988 in Labrador, Canada.
It just goes to show how much you can learn by paying attention to tags and reporting the information you find (and although it's sad news, something tells me the researchers who tagged this bird will be very happy to hear that I found it).
