AWA announces 36th annual mallard banding & release

News

Thursday, 16 May 2024 11:00

The Alabama Waterfowl Association (AWA) will host its 36th annual mallard banding and release on Saturday, May 25, 2024 at 8 a.m. This year’s event will be the Luke F. Crockett Memorial. AWA will band 1,300 four-to-six-week-old mallard ducklings at Lake and Land, located at 4420 U.S. Hwy 79 in Scottsboro, AL. Volunteers are welcome to come out and help band the ducks. Children of all ages are welcome as well.

This year’s banding will be a memorial mallard release for Luke Crockett, a 33-year-old resident of Scottsboro, Ala. who passed away on April 30, 2023. A special Luke Crockett band will be placed on the leg of the mallards. Luke is survived by his wife, Haley Crockett; children, Marilyn, Melody, Brison and Owen; parents, Rebecca and Sam Shelton; brothers, Andy (Sara) Crockett and Caleb (Kelsey) Shelton; grandparents, Ralph and Libby Franklin; aunt, Betsy (Troy) Loyd; and uncle, Mark Franklin. Luke attended Scottsboro City Schools. He loved anything that had to do with being outdoors. Lukes’s love for the outdoors began at a young age as he grew up duck hunting and fishing the Roseberry Creek area near Jackson County Park where his grandparents live. A portion of these mallards will be released in that area. Luke was an AWA member and volunteer and always participated in the AWA mallard program.

AWA’s Mallard Restoration Project is one of the largest programs of its type in North America. CEO Jerry Davis says one his favorite and truest quotes is, “If you enhance the wildlife watching and hunting opportunity by increasing species in your area, the private land owners and wildlife managers will respond and create more habitat for a wildlife and our human environment.” Outdoor enthusiasts, hunters and fishermen have contributed to more conservation with license fees, stamps and taxes on hunting and fishing equipment used for conservation that helps the Earth and humans.

AWA encourages everyone, especially youth, to come and participate in the catching, banding and releasing of this year’s mallards. This is hands-on conservation at work, as well as a way to honor a young man that worked hard for and loved nature.

AWA has banded and released thousands of hand-reared ducklings using strict guidelines and good genetics. There have been hundreds of band reports from 22 different states in the U.S. and three provinces of Canada.