Taking a look at Shari's photo of the metal ring, I agree it is BTO (as in 'British Trust for Ornithology') but rather than 'MAY', suggest that the lower letters are NAT (as in Nat. Hist.) referring to the Natural History Museum in London. These two organizations oversee ringing (banding) projects in the UK.
Blimey! This is looking more and more promising and hopefully Steve Percival will respond to Shari's message shortly. Here is a photo of a UK-style ring that helps orientate the lettering. http://www.jesseshunting.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/21076/size/big/cat/ There are only two prior band recoveries of wild Barnacle Goose in North America, both from Canada. 1. Newfoundland 1981, banded on Svalbard in 1977. 2. Ottawa River, Ontario 2005, banded in Scotland in 2004. Getting the unique numbers that will unambiguously ID this individual would be a triumph but combination of 3-letter code and 3 ring combination may be sufficient. Cheers, Angus -- Angus Wilson New York City & The Springs, NY, USA http://birdingtotheend.blogspot.com/ -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
