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 (Waterfowl Reports containing refuge surveys and overall duck and goose hunting activity, along with interesting tidbits on waterfowling will resume here in early November. Season dates---which are usually late November through late January---will be officially set by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the states within the Mississippi Flyway Council by mid to late August.)  

 

(Posted July 5, 2010)

2010 WATERFOWL SURVEY: DUCKS ABOVE LONG-TERM AVERAGE...GOOD NEWS FOR SEASON AHEAD

By Steve McCadams

     Each year in early July, amid the heat and humidity of a typical southern summer, duck hunters watch with interest for the annual report from the breeding grounds as to the status of wetlands and duck production.

    It may be months before frosty mornings and early wake-up calls but nonetheless, waterfowlers are anxious to hear the news about the fall flight. What happens in the spring on the prairies of Canada and the Dakotas will lay the groundwork for the season ahead.

    Last week the report card was released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Canadian Wildlife Service and the news is pretty good. The survey indicates wetland conditions and duck populations are well above the long-term average.

    What does it mean for southern duck hunters? It’s quite likely another 60-day season and liberal bag limit similar to last year will return. Season dates won’t be set until mid-August here in Tennessee but odds are the federal framework will allow states a big window of opportunity.

    Prior to the season setting process all Mississippi flyway states meet with USFWS officials who lay out the parameters based on data gathered and crunched from the spring survey. May pond counts and brood surveys are taken and form an equation by which season length and bag limits are set.

    According to the report total-duck population across the traditional survey dropped slightly to 40.9 million from last year’s 42 million yet seven out of the top ten species are above their long-term average.

     Mallard numbers were steady at 8.4 million, scaup numbers rose slightly to 4.2 million and the northern pintail population bumped up 9 percent to 3.5 million compared to last year.

    Species such as mallard, gadwall, greenwing and bluewing teal, shoveler, redhead, and canvasback are all above the long-term average.
    More good news came out of the survey as breeding grounds are today even wetter--in some cases much wetter--than when the surveys were flown in May, which will promote re-nesting and increase brood survival.
    As was the case in 2009, the real news is buried in the fine print, which showed a continuing shift in breeding-duck numbers from Canada to the U.S., says Delta Waterfowl.

   Part of the reason was an all-time record 2.9 million wetlands on the U.S. side of the region, with 2.3 million of those in the eastern Dakotas. Wetlands are what attract nesting ducks and the U.S. has never been wetter.
    Prairie Canada was wetter than normal, led by a 21 percent year-over-year increase in the pond count in southern Saskatchewan. Yet despite being 34 percent wetter than its long-term average, 72 percent fewer pintails and 18 percent fewer mallards settled in Saskatchewan than its historical average.
    Once again, the U.S. picked up the slack. More total ducks settled on the U.S. side of the breeding grounds--13.9 million in the Dakotas and eastern Montana as compared to 10.6 million in the prairie portions of Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba.

   “That’s pretty remarkable when you consider that two-thirds of the Prairie Pothole Region exists on the Canadian side of the border,” says Delta Scientific Director Dr. Frank Rohwer of Louisiana State University. “Delta has been saying for years that Canada is broken, and the latest survey numbers once again bear that out.”

Under normal conditions, those results would be cause for celebration, but the good news from the U.S. was offset by concerns about ongoing losses of the habitat that attracted those ducks in the first place.
    “We heard from a lot of duck hunters who told us the recent season didn’t live up to their expectations after the great wetland conditions last spring,” says Delta’s John Devney. “The best explanation is the ducks that settled in the Dakotas and Montana a year ago weren’t as productive as they were in the 1990s because there was a lot less nesting cover than there was in the ‘90s.
    “The Dakotas have lost close to 2 million acres of grass since 1999--that’s more than 3,100 square miles--and another 2 million acres of CRP are scheduled to expire by 2012.
    “Research conducted by the Service showed that upland-nesting ducks need large blocks of grass to produce at population-expanding levels, but we’re losing Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and native prairie acres at an alarming rate. Not only are we losing grass, but also the high-quality wetlands embedded in those acres.
    “The take-home message is that the U.S. side of the region carried Canada during the wet cycle of the 1990s, but if the U.S. keeps losing habitat, who’s going to pick up the slack?”

   The U.S. side of the region attracted 1.4 million pintails compared to just 592,000 in prairie Canada. Last year was the first time ever that more pintails settled in the U.S. than in prairie Canada.
    Other stunners included 4.2 million blue-winged teal in the U.S. to 1.9 million in prairie Canada and 3 million mallards in the U.S. to 2.6 million in the prairie provinces.
    Under normal conditions, those results would be cause for celebration, but the good news from the U.S. was offset by concerns about ongoing losses of the habitat that attracted those ducks in the first place.

    And what about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico where some ducks winter? Waterfowlers everywhere have expressed concern about what impact the BP oil spill will have on the estimated 5 million ducks that will begin arriving in less than two months from now.
    “The oil spill is an environmental disaster that could affect ducks and duck hunters for years to come,” says Rohwer. “We have no experience with this kind of disaster, so it’s impossible to predict what will happen.
    “It would appear that diving ducks like scaup, canvasbacks and redheads will be most at risk because they sit in the coastal bays where there has been a lot of oil in recent weeks.”     

    “It’s great to hear the report of steady duck populations, but habitat loss continues to be a significant threat to North America’s waterfowl,” said Dale Hall of Ducks Unlimited. “For most species, this year’s numbers are encouraging, but DU must remain dedicated to its mission of long-term, landscape-level habitat conservation if we are to meet the life-cycle needs of the continent’s waterfowl.” 

    “I would expect to see a fall flight similar to last year’s,” DU biologist Dale Humburg says. “But everyone must keep in mind that weather and habitat strongly influence the timing and distribution of ducks in the fall flight, and these factors are very dynamic.

    Like a brisk north wind escorting a cold front, duck hunters will take good news anytime we can get it. It appears ducks did well on the breeding grounds and now it’s up to winter weather to push them south. Mother Nature has bee pretty good so far. Let’s hope she stays in a good mood as season approaches.

END

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