Banding and Migration

The earliest bander in the Old Crow area was Mrs. A. B. Thornthwaite, the wife of an RCMP officer at Old Crow. She banded 151 individuals of six species of passerine birds in 1930, and two individuals of one species in 1931 (Rand 1946). Species banded were Canada jay, pipit, tree sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, fox sparrow, and snow bunting. There are no records of returns from this early banding program.

Most banding in the Old Crow Flats and the Special Management Area has been of waterfowl. No banding programs have been carried out within Vuntut National Park. Banding studies of waterfowl of the Old Crow Flats have shown that the migration of these birds is along all four of the North American Flyways: Pacific, Central, Mississippi, and Atlantic ( Figure 11.6, from Hawkings 1999). There are two major migration routes out of the Old Crow Basin; one crosses the Yukon Flats southwestward to the Pacific coast and the Pacific flyway, the other begins with a strong eastward movement into the central and Atlantic flyways (Mossop and Hayes 1977). Some species such as green-winged teal and mallard apparently use both routes.

Some returns from the waterfowl banding program are mapped in Figure 11.6. These include lesser and greater scaup returns from the U.S.A. southeast of the Great Lakes and from Louisiana on the Gulf of Mexico (Mossop 1976), ring-necked duck from southern Manitoba, and American wigeon from Washington and California in the west (Mossop 1976) and the Gulf of Mexico in the east. Banding returns show that most mallards and American wigeon head down the Pacific coast to winter anywhere from Alaska to California.

Several hundred white-fronted geese captured on the Old Crow Flats were fitted with numbered and colour-coded neck bands. Banding returns show that greater white-fronted geese banded on the Flats appear to follow the central flyway through the Canadian prairies to the central United States (Hawkings 1999).

A three-year banding program (1994 to 1996) was initiated on the Old Crow Flats to gather information to help develop a management plan for the Old Crow SMA. One of the targeted species was the northern pintail. With up to 400 birds banded each year, returns were numerous enough to demonstrate that the pintails use the central flyway. Pintails probably fly south along the Mackenzie and Athabasca valleys, across the prairies to the central U.S., mix with pintails from other breeding areas, then head west to California or east to Louisiana and Texas (Hughes 1999).

Since the mid 1970s, over 2000 Barrow's goldeneye have been banded on the Old Crow Flats and 38 banded birds have been recovered (van de Wetering 1997). All recoveries of banded goldeneyes have come from Alaska, most from near Kodiak Island. From these banding returns, it appears that the goldeneyes which moult on the Old Crow Flats spend their winters along the Alaskan coast.

Few tundra swans have been banded in the Old Crow Flats, however, tundra swans banded elsewhere have been observed in the Flats (Hawkings 1999). Most of the the neck-banded swans seen on the Flats are birds banded in Alaska (Minto Flats, Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge), but some come from British Columbia (Powell River), and and a few from western U.S.A. (Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho). Two swans banded on the Flats were recovered on the east coast of the United States, with one swan return from North Carolina (Mossop 1976).

Banding recoveries of young peregrines at Lesser Slave Lake in Alberta and in Maryland, U.S.A., in fall of 1978 confirm that the young peregrines from the Old Crow-Porcupine River area migrate southeast to the eastern coast of North America (Mossop 1978).