Japanese-tagged duck shot in Mississippi Delta
By AL JONES
afjones@sunherald.com
Japanese-tagged duck shot in Mississippi Delta
It's not rare for hunters to harvest a tagged duck, but a recent harvest of a pintail in Ruleville may turn out to be a once-in-a-lifetime achievement.
On Jan. 3, Freddie Scott of LaGrange, Ga., was duck hunting near his lease in Ruleville in the Mississippi Delta.
Instead of bagging a duck designed to help gather information in the Mississippi Flyway Zone, Scott dropped a banded Northern Pintail drake, according to Delta Wildlife Inc., a conservation group based in north Mississippi. The numbers on the tag read "Kankyocho-Tokyo Japan-10A75422."
The Yamashina Institute of Ornithology Bird Migration Research Center confirmed the duck was, indeed, banded near Niigata, Japan, on Feb. 16, 2000.
The pintail was banded by a member of the Japanese Bird Banding Association, on Hyoko Lake, near the northwestern coast of Japan.
It was estimated to be at least 8 years old.
The distance from Niigata, Japan, to Ruleville?
Approximately 6,700 miles.
To reach the Mississippi Delta, the bird likely flew over Alaska instead of going across the Pacific Ocean.
As far as Mississippi Flyway goes, the Ornithology Research Center and Delta Wildlife said in a press release that it is the first time a duck banded in Japan has ever been harvested in the Magnolia State. Before this bird, the only other banded Japan pintails harvested in the United States were in Alaska, Washington, California, Oregon, and Utah.