Let's see em... oldest?, most unique?, favorite?...
I've been lucky enough to collect a few over the years and most have a memory behind them. I could tell you about the green neck collar I collected 20 years ago on an impromptu jump shoot or the band I found on a road killed bird on I-75 just south of Detroit... yes, I pulled over and almost got killed in traffic and I'd do it again tomorrow!
However, the band that stands out the most for me is my dad's Jack Miner band that he killed on a foggy, drizzly October morning in the eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I was only a kid and it seems like I was on that hunt but like the morning in question my recollection is a bit misty. The bird was a loner and came sailing out of the fog and mist, much like Coleridge's Albatross, and was reduced to possession with one shot from my father's Remington 3200 Magnum. With a single glance my dad knew what he was looking at, Jack Miner bands are not only rare but quite possibly the Holy Grail of bird bands. They are longer than normal bands and each carries, a Bible verse. When he first began banding birds Mr. Miner called them the "missionaries of the air." Needless to say, that band is special.
If there is one band, that I one day hope to inherit, that means more to me than any other it is my father's Miner band, Bible verse and all. What about you?
I've been lucky enough to collect a few over the years and most have a memory behind them. I could tell you about the green neck collar I collected 20 years ago on an impromptu jump shoot or the band I found on a road killed bird on I-75 just south of Detroit... yes, I pulled over and almost got killed in traffic and I'd do it again tomorrow!
However, the band that stands out the most for me is my dad's Jack Miner band that he killed on a foggy, drizzly October morning in the eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I was only a kid and it seems like I was on that hunt but like the morning in question my recollection is a bit misty. The bird was a loner and came sailing out of the fog and mist, much like Coleridge's Albatross, and was reduced to possession with one shot from my father's Remington 3200 Magnum. With a single glance my dad knew what he was looking at, Jack Miner bands are not only rare but quite possibly the Holy Grail of bird bands. They are longer than normal bands and each carries, a Bible verse. When he first began banding birds Mr. Miner called them the "missionaries of the air." Needless to say, that band is special.
If there is one band, that I one day hope to inherit, that means more to me than any other it is my father's Miner band, Bible verse and all. What about you?
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