The following is a “pass along” article from the Retriever Journal.
Pass Along RJ
September 08
Waterfowl Survey Mixed
Ducks are down, fuel is up
by Doug Larsen
Each year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in conjunction with state agencies, conducts the Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey, generally known as the breeding survey and/or the “pond counts.” While it may sound rather simplistic, it’s the most extensive waterfowl survey in the world, and it samples over 2 million square miles across the north-central U.S. and all across Canada and Alaska.
Despite what you might read on Internet duck-hunting forums, the USFWS study is an exacting one. I think it is important that before we begin, we all know that this is not just two biology students rambling around the prairies in a rusty Suburban, but an all-out duck-counting assault each year conducted by many, many people well-qualified to do so. While this survey is conducted in May and into early June, the results are not usually published until July, and it is the findings of this survey that are processed via the Adaptive Harvest Management model to determine how the duck seasons will be structured for the fall.
There is both good news and bad news. Since I’ve always been someone who likes to get the cauliflower off the plate before I eat my steak, the bad news first. Despite good to great water conditions in eastern Canada and across most of Alberta, it is quite dry in some of the most important parts of the breeding regions of the U.S. and Canada (the Dakotas and Saskatchewan), and the pond counts are down. The USFWS counted 4.4 million ponds, which is 37 percent lower than in 2007 when they counted 7 million ponds.
As you’d expect, when the pond count is down, so are the ducks. Overall, there are just over 37 million ducks, about 4 million fewer than in 2007, a 9 percent decrease in sheer numbers, but still 11 percent above the long-term average. Mallards, by far the most popular and important species of duck from an overall hunting standpoint, are down only 7 percent, which is something of a surprise, given the low pond counts. Last year there were 8.3 million mallards, and this year there are 7.7 million breeding mallards according to the survey.
Other species that did some backsliding are gadwalls, which are down 19 percent from last year; shovelers (-23 percent); and pintails (-22 percent). While gadwalls and shovelers are both 56 percent above their long-term averages, pintails continue to be a concern, still down more than 35 percent long term. Continued habitat loss keeps chipping away at the pintail.
Wigeon are down 11 percent from last year and 5 percent long term, while blue-winged teal fell just 1 percent since 2007. By far the most frightening loss came in the canvasback column, which fell off by 44 percent from 2007. There are now fewer than 500,000 canvasbacks, and they continue to perform 14 percent below the long-term averages.
Okay, so now that we have gotten all the vegetables off our plate, let’s turn to brighter news. Three species were up in the 2008 count: Green winged teal are up 3 percent over 2007; scaup, or bluebills, are up 8 percent; and redheads are up 5 percent this year. While the green-wings are still doing very well, at 57 percent above long-term averages and redheads even better at 66 percent above the long term, bluebills are still 27 percent off the long-term average; however, bluebills are now the third most abundant duck.
This “Waterfowling North America” column appears in the upcoming October/November 2008 issue of The Retriever Journal. If you are a subscriber, stay tuned! The issue is printed and about to be mailed!
