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CONSERVATION CORNER
For the week of August 20, 2007
Waterfowl Numbers Increase
by James L. Cummins

Duck hunters will find plenty to cheer about in the annual Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey, recently released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The fourth highest Canadian pond count on record propelled the breeding populations of three duck species – northern shovelers, redheads and canvasbacks – to all-time highs and pushed the green-winged teal population to its second- highest level on record. Blue-winged teal took advantage of improved water conditions on both sides of the border to achieve their third highest breeding population ever.

The total duck-breeding population climbed 14 percent to 41 million birds and mallards rose 10 percent to over 8 million. May ponds across the surveyed area were at 7 million, a 15 percent increase from 2006 and 44 percent higher than the long-term average.

Of the other surveyed species, gadwall rose 19 percent to 3.4 million breeding birds, wigeon jumped 29 percent to 2.8 million, green-winged teal rose 13 percent to 2.9 million, blue-winged teal were up 14 percent at 6.7 million, shovelers rose 24 percent to 4.5 million, redheads climbed 10 percent to just over 1 million, scaup bounced 6 percent from year's record low to 3.5 million and canvasbacks jumped by a surprising 25 percent to 865,000.

Credit goes to the excellent water conditions in Canada for the record redhead and canvasback numbers and near-record for green-wings.

About the only bad news in the breeding survey was the pintail, which dipped to 3.3 million.

In many areas of the breeding grounds, heavy rains continued into June and July, which is quite unusual. When small wetlands are abundant, hens are more likely to re-nest and brood survival increases dramatically.

Despite all the good news, hunters should temper their expectations about the prospects for the fall season, at least as far as mallards and pintails are concerned. A lot of it will depend on the amount of rainfall in Mississippi's wintering areas and the climate to our north.

Historically, most of the continent's ducks originated in Canada, but thanks to the Farm Bill, the Clean Water Act, the duck stamp and the efforts of the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission, of which Senator Thad Cochran is an active member, a significant percentage of today's ducks originate in the United States. It's important that we hang onto the programs responsible for producing those birds.