As the sun climbed into the eastern sky, its reflection creeping over the calm waters of the Rappahannock River near Tappahannock, Virginia, a caravan of biologists, technicians and volunteers led by VDGIF’s Ben Lewis and Dr. Gary Costanzo, convoyed out of a parking lot and onto Rt. 17 to head to the first of seven locations that the crew would visit in an effort to band resident Canada geese.
Lewis and Costanzo, VDGIF’s waterfowl biologists, along with district biologists from around the state, lead an annual effort to band roughly 1% of the state’s resident goose population, which is approximately 150,000 birds. This effort includes locating, capturing, banding and recording data from the bands of Canada geese throughout Virginia. Biologists keep track of the number of geese they capture at each site, the number of recaptures (geese that had been tagged previously), the number of adults or juveniles (which indicates the reproductive rates for this year’s population and they notate the band numbers.
If the geese are harvested by hunters, the numbers on the bands should be entered by hunters at the USGS www.reportbands.gov website and a location notated allowing biologists to keep a pulse on the non-migratory population of the geese here in Virginia. Sometimes, geese are recaptured and biologists keep track of those geese too. So, how do the biologists capture the geese?
Because the geese molt during the early summer, they don’t fly or at least they don’t fly very well. Geese are very gregarious animals meaning they tend to stick with other geese and some of the geese have young and won’t leave their young. Because of these behaviors and timing of the molt, the biologists were able to use net panels to herd and capture the geese before beginning their banding and data collection.
The work is not always a clean job. Some of the geese are wet from swimming in a lake or pond. Some get frightened and excrete their waste or poop on those handling them. A few geese get showy and display their size, wings and feathers to try to intimidate the handlers, and a few will sometimes peck. The volunteers watched the biologists show them how to handle the big birds safely and were soon getting their own experiences holding and handling the geese. An assembly line formed with two people in the “makeshift pen” catching the geese and handing them out to others. Those workers held the geese and allowed banders to place aluminum bands on the legs of the geese. The bands had unique numbers on them for future data collection. Next, the handlers took the geese to biologists who checked the sex of the bird. The sex of the bird, age, and band number was called out to a technician who recorded the data. Then the bird was released unharmed. Most of the birds immediately ran back to the nearby water to rejoin their flock.
Then the whole team broke down the holding pen, gathered the gear, loaded it back into the truck convoy before loading up themselves and headed to the next destination. In addition to biologists and technicians from VDGIF, Lauren Cruz from USFWS at Rappahannock River NWR assisted as well as a handful of other volunteers including a small cadre of youth from the King George Outdoor Club. The youth from the King George Outdoor Club came to learn more about waterfowl, careers in wildlife biology and wildlife management. They did a nice job and worked well all day long. Their day started at 6 AM with their journey to Tappahannock and the last youth got home at nearly 8 PM that evening. However, none of them wanted to stop the work. Their club leader, Mark Fike, was asked several times if they could go to one more location to band more geese.
While many of us are thinking about swimming in a pool or lake in the hot summer, biologists are still thinking waterfowl management. The work that biologists with VDGIF do to manage waterfowl populations continues even in the off season. This annual goose banding event is just one example of such work.

The weather people promised two things on Saturday and those included the rain holding off until at least the afternoon or evening and they promised it would be hot and muggy. Five young women along with some moms can attest that the rain did hold off and later in the morning the temperatures did start to become hot and humid.
By then the fun was had. Shotgun blasts reverberated across the rolling hills of an old Civil War plantation as the women tracked and smashed bright orange clays flying in all different directions in the sky. Julie Abel, Women in the Outdoors Coordinator for NWTF in Virginia, arranged a young women's and mothers clay shoot at Rose Hill Game Preserve just outside of Culpeper for the morning.
Julie seeks to bring young women into the hunting tradition at a younger age than adult so that they will have time to hone their skills and take them with them into adulthood when they will begin their own families. Abel is passionate about passing on these skills and she lights up when the girls are successful and enjoy the outdoors.
The girls all took turns as the young man running the electronic throwers sent them flying as requested. There were eight throwers sending the blaze orange disks angling towards, away, overhead, across and even a low crossing shot. While most five stand events run in a predicted order and through sequential stations, these ladies were there to have fun, hone their skills and enjoy themselves. They called for throwers that they wanted to try as their turn came. It was a relaxing and no pressure kind of fun event for them.
One of the young ladies took the time to teach her mother how to load, set up her stance and when to pull the trigger. On the first shot her mom connected, breaking the clay in half! The small crowd cheered as Miss Lisa smiled. I overheard her saying to another mom how nice it was to have her own daughter teach her how to do something that she enjoyed doing.
The women shot 25 clays before lunch and then talked for a bit as they broke down their set up. Julie Abel brought wraps, pasta and water for lunch which the women dug into between rounds. She also spoke to the girls about her vision to create a young women's group under Women in the Outdoors and she encouraged them to let her know when they wanted to do things and to also let her know what types of activities they were interested in. They were also told to invite other young women to come try the outdoors.
It appears the women had a lot of fun and enjoyed a girls' day out. Events like these are great ways to enjoy the outdoors. Thanks to Julie Abel and NWTF these ladies did have a great time.
We would also like to thank Rose Hill for hosting the event and Big Dog Outfitters in King George County for always supporting the King George Outdoor Club and now this ladies event too. Big Dog has been very helpful in supplying ammunition for the new and young shooters to use.

Fishing is entering the summer pattern around the Northern Neck. This heat spell we had put the clamps on some of the fishing unless fishing early and late.
On the Potomac below the 301 bridge there are some small croaker being caught. We also have reports from Aqua Land Marina of striped bass being caught around the bridge. Catfish are plentiful on the river too. Upriver there are gar, catfish and snakeheads in the grass. Bass are hitting frogs and finesse worms in the grass. Don't pass up on any snakeheads. Crabs are slowly coming on in the river for those interested.
On the Rappahannock, the catfish are hitting very well. Catfish Kelly's Country Store on Rt. 3 at Ferry Farm (www.facebook.com/catfishkellys/) told us about that. Local angler Jonah Kapp got his fill of blue catfish on a recent outing. See the picture...
Bass are hitting in ponds but the fishing is best at low light. Some really nice bluegill and sunfish are hitting now too. Look for smallmouth to be hitting in the upper river in shady areas or at low light.

Dad and I went down to Back Bay today. Years ago Back Bay was a national destination for largemouth bass. Then a crash in the bass population occurred and the fishery suffered. Under the guidance of Chad Boyce with the VDGIF and his coworkers, the unique impoundment is coming back strong.
While at Back Bay, Dad and I  were primarily just trying to learn where to fish and  pick up enough fish for a decent meal. What is unique about the  place is that there are crabs, mullet, white perch, crappie and largemouth bass along with many other species of fish all living in the same water. 
We put in at North Bay Shore Campground 3257 Colechester Rd, Virginia Beach, VA 23456 Phone: (757) 426-7911 http://northbayshorecampground.com/CMS/
The campground is VERY well kept and the launch is basic but good enough for small boats no problem. I put a 14 foot jon boat in. The people working the campground were super nice.
Although we were trying to learn the place, Dad and I caught crappie, white perch to 9 inches (there are perch 14 inches in there), and a few bass in a few hours of tinkering around. The bass were fat and aggressive. Mine hit a Beetle Spin intended for a white perch. We fished from 8-11 primarily while running around the northern end of the bay. If you go, fish the grass edges and any cover you find. Great place to fish and a great place to visit. Next trip I am camping and fishing!
Things to take--GPS or phone enabled navigation to find your way  back through the channels to the launch, sunscreen, water/drinks, bait, hat.

.The King George Outdoor Club did a little fishing on Friday night and then met up again for some shooting on Saturday at a private farm in King George. We want to thank the following people for supporting the events:
The landowner and our conservation police officers for facilitating this event.
Big Dog Outfitters in King George for supplying the ammunition and always helping our youth out
Catfish Kelly's Country Store in Ferry Farm for helping us out with bait
Wal Mart at Ferry Farm for supplying fishing supplies, bug spray, and water.

Friday night was our fishing event. The fishing was not red hot by any means even though the temps were closing in on that. The kids stuck with it and some nice fish were caught. Three really nice bass measuring between 17-19 inches were caught. A few huge panfish were also taken. For some of the youth, these were first fish of their lives. What a great memory to catch a nice fish for  your first!
On Saturday we met again to do some clay shooting and for the younger youth, a .22 practice session. The kids had a blast before it got hot. Thanks to Mike Woods for coming out to  help supervise. Woods is  a  Hunter Education  Instructor and a  World  History  I  teacher at KGMS.  He is also one of the Outdoor Club  Leaders. Thanks also to my daughters KD and Kristy for helping out.  
The youth did well shooting. Check out the photos!

Here is a quick fishing report for the King George area:
Croaker have finally arrived with a growing number of small fish showing up in the Potomac near NSWC and points further downriver. Squid and shrimp are good choices for bait. Some small striper are in the lower river now too. Snakeheads and catfish are hitting in the Potomac and the tributaries now as well.
Striped bass are hitting early and late in Lake Anna. A snakehead was caught in Anna recently so I guess they soon will be everywhere. Fire up the grill and get out the bows!
Catfish are in various stages of spawning in the Rappahannock River now. Austin Gray caught a nice stringer of catfish today with cutbait. He is a KG Outdoor Club member.
Bass are hitting in ponds now on plastics and blowing up some topwater early and late. Sunfish are hitting well too.