Written by Conor Harrison, Lone Star Outdoor News
Houston hunter Will Reich loves to get out and hunt waterfowl.
And every waterfowl hunter relishes shooting a duck with a band.
However, Reich harvested a redhead while hunting with family near Altair that had one of the most unique bands any hunter will ever find.
“We were having a great hunt,” Reich said. “There were teal and geese all over the place. I got out of the blind to collect a teal and eight or nine redheads came screaming over top. I knocked one down and went to pick him up.”
When Reich got to the downed bird, he noticed something unusual around the duck’s midsection, behind the neck and in front of the wings.
“There was only about an inch of it showing, and I thought it was a blade of grass at first,” he said. “I started prying it away and it looked like a rubber gasket ring. I thought it might be some kind of weird band and actually checked it to see if it had any numbers or contact information, but it had nothing.”
Reich said the redhead must have dived through the rubber ring and gotten it lodged where it could not free itself. And it had been there a while.
“The duck had a normal flight,” he said. “It didn’t look like it was impeding him in any way. The skin was starting to attach to it and the feathers were growing around it.”
Like any good waterfowl hunter, Reich kept the unique band as a keepsake.
“He rounded out the limit and I kept the ring,” he said. “This has got to be one of the rarest ducks out there — I don’t think anyone else has killed one with a band like this one had.”
Photo by Will Reich
