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Leg bands are often placed on birds that provide valuable data for a variety of different conservation research. In the Canadian Sub-arctic, the artist was fortunate to assist with research projects involving Canadian Geese by assisting a research crew with their banding study. A helicopter is used to traverse this vast landscape. Once the geese are found the helicopter lands and the crew heads out to round up a group of geese which are walked into a pen system that is set up involving two pens. The geese are walked into the pens as this happens in summer when they are moulting and are flightless due to lack of flight feathers.
In this painting the person in the pen on the left is capturing geese and handing them over to the people sitting in the pen on the right. These people are placing leg bands on the birds while sexing and aging (adult or gosling) them. The person standing is handing out leg bands from the racks leaning on the “banding box”. The person sitting on the far right with the face/dust mask on is recording data that is associated with each band (each band has a unique number). Once the geese are banded they are released into the pen on the right. After all geese in the group are banded and in the pen on the right, they get released back into the wild as a group. Sometimes geese find openings in the mesh netting of the pen and escape such as the one making a run for it in the foreground of this painting!
Working in this remote region involves many risks, some involve wildlife such as Polar bears. While working in this region a gun is required to be with the crew at all times for protection. In this painting the research crew is oblivious to an unwelcome guest arriving…
This is a contrived scene and the artist never experienced immediate danger such as this. Although a scene like this can play out in reality, it likely will not happen as research crews are very experienced and aware of their surroundings and danger long before they head into the field. This painting was created to portray a unique aspect of conservation and some of the real risks involved when working in remote areas.
