Much of the banding in the past five years has been part of the North American Duck Banding Program, an international effort to track migratory waterfowl populations. In the past three years, a cooperative waterfowl and habitat study on Old Crow Flats, involving the Canadian Wildlife Service and the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, has made possible extra banding effort in that region. The productive wetlands of Old Crow Flats and the Nisutlin River delta are the major waterfowl banding areas in the Yukon, says Hawkings. Most of the banding is done in the latter part of summer and early fall. Bait traps are used for some birds.
Grain is scattered in an area until the birds are used to feeding there.
The birds can find their way in through the small entrance, but not out. Most of the birds caught in bait traps are dabbling ducks, like Mallards, that paddle on the water surface while feeding on plants and small animal life in the shallows. The biologists also band diving ducks, like Barrow's Goldeneye, but catching them requires a different kind of trap. In summer, thousands of Goldeneye go to Old Crow Flats to moult. After they have shed their flight feathers and before the new feathers grow in, they are flightless and can be caught in drive traps.