Collared Geese

[Nimrod]

Today i decided to drive to do a little scouting for geese and hit the honey hole, i have never seen a callared bird i'n a public land setting tell today, i saw  callard geese I'm hoping tomorro i can join the i got a callar club  

[ducks55]

Waass that?

[Tealer]

They collar a ton of birds out along the coast. They are try to get hunters to thin the cross bred western/dusky combo. They bounce around a lot though, good luck!

[ducks55]

Ohh got it.

[Ellensburg]

post some pics of collard geese guys!

[teal101]

All the birds that were white callared primarily looked as duskys... But our considered westskies the only way to tell the difference I've Hurd is by bill lenth or or course the shiny white callar

White collared geese are not Dusky.  Dusky have red collars. 

[chester]

Knock as many of those white collars down as you can. DONT SHOOT ANYTHING IN THAT GROUP WITHOUT ONE. even though its a cross. they can mark it as a dusky without having records saying otherwise. Dont shut me down please. 

[Tealer]

Knock as many of those white collars down as you can. DONT SHOOT ANYTHING IN THAT GROUP WITHOUT ONE. even though its a cross. they can mark it as a dusky without having records saying otherwise. Dont shut me down please. 

Pretty much, kinda worries when I hunt out there.

[CP]

A white collared goose is considered a western. 

[thebrad]

The white collars are only on the western Canada.  It has nothing to do with cross breeding.  Red and Green are Duskys.  Also, if you are hunting goose areas 2A or 2B you have to complete a goose identification class so you do not shoot a Dusky.  They then give you a punch card and you have to have your birds checked at one of their check stations after each hunt.  If you shoot a Ducky you are done for the year.  Not sure what they do if you get caught hunting without you punch card, but I am sure it would not be good.

[goosegunner]

The white collars are only on the western Canada.  It has nothing to do with cross breeding.  Red and Green are Duskys.

 

   NOT TRUE.... the white collars started as the color for the western Canada goose. But they were finding not all the Duskys were migrating back up north and were CROSS BREEDING with the local westerns along the coast and lower Columbia river. The cross bred geese are referred to as WUSKY'S.  They were big western goose size but had dark colored breast so hunters were passing on killing them. So what fish and game started doing was putting WHITE COLLARS on all the cross bred young geese they can trap so hunters new they were ok to harvest. Go take a look a Dave Smith's website in the photo gallery that guy has killed a ton of em. you can see how some are really really dark and others not so much. And yes the Red and Green collars are on the true Dusky's

[Madison]

You guys are partially right on this...


These dark geese that are located on the lower columbia are decendants from an illconcieved idea by the WDFW in the wake of the earth quake that decimated the dusky habitat at the mouth of the copper river in AK.  In trying to breed more duskies, they bred some dark geese with westerns and created the dilemma we now face today, with these dark birds that are local geese.  Often refered to as Wuskies or Weskies, these dark geese are non-migrating birds. 
In the summer when the geese are molting the WDFW uses a helicopter to capture birds in the lower columbia area and fits the adults with white collars or black radio collars.  They band the young that may not be able to wear a collar at that time. 
This is so that hunters can distinguish the local birds from the migrating duskies that frequent the area, as well as allow biologists to identify dark geese as locals so that they are not counted in the dusky numbers.

The white collars are shootable but like was mentioned be careful of your shots on these birds.  They fly in mixed flocks of duskies, wuskies with collars and those without.  An unbanded wuskie will get you punched at the check station.  And from experience i know that a banded bird still can lead you a punched card. 
Be careful down there and please take only responsible shots. 
Dont shut us down.