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Early goose hunting is underway in the great state of South Dakota and blue winged teal have begun to move in portions of the upper Mississippi Flyway are early indications report that birds are clinging to the major rivers systems due to persistent drought conditions. Reports from the Climate Prediction Center (link below) show little improvement is expected for most of the nation during the next 90-days for all areas except portions of the Great Lakes region.

Hello folks, and, as always, welcome to Waterfowler.com.

The teal migration has begun and our staff is monitoring the progression with great interest, as the path of these birds will likely provide a good indicator where fall flights will follows if conditions do not improve. Continue reading

With the start of resident goose seasons just weeks away, now is the time to begin your scouting efforts to insure your success. Extreme drought conditions continue to persist throughout the nation and have had a significant impact on the location and daily movements of local goose populations. With smaller natural marshes and creeks void of water in many states, resident Canada geese are concentrated near deeper water impoundments in suburban areas and expected to have a significant impact on early season harvest rates.

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While many drought stricken areas have had increased levels of precipitation over the past few weeks, the amount of rain needed to recharge local marshes and streams seems nearly unobtainable in the short-term. As a result, early season hunters will have to adapt to conditions to increase their chance of success in the weeks ahead. Continue reading

As the most expansive drought in nearly half a century continues its grip on the Midwest and Great Plains, teal hunters are scratching their heads and postulating hunting strategies for coming early seasons. With extremely limited, wet habitat options during the migration the record number of migrating blue and green-winged teal will be concentrated along river the river systems and other large water impoundments. For a species that thrives and offers great hunting success in shallow, inundated areas with ample forage, the drought conditions will challenge bird and hunter alike this September.

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It’s hot. Damn hot – and dry. Not that you needed us to remind you or anyone else of that fact but misery loves company. Should these conditions continue into the start of the early teal season, there only two favorable outcomes that we can envision; mosquito larva will still be akin to a crusty dried grain of sand, and when you find a group of teal, it will be a mind numbing concentration of them. Of course, the number of hunters compacted into these areas of limited water will parallel the record number of birds expected in the migration. Continue reading

The results are in from the 2012 Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey and waterfowl hunters have a significant reason celebrate. The recorded 46.5 million birds is up 7% over 2011, 43% above the long-term average and the highest ever recorded! Yes, you heard correctly, the highest waterfowl populations ever recorded. While pond counts were down significantly over the extremely wet 2011, pond counts remained 9% above the long-term average.

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The 2012 Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey results raise the bar on population and habitat management with an all time record number of birds. While bag limits are set to manage a no-net loss in populations, it is obvious that low harvest years, such as 2011, can boost overall waterfowl numbers in a big way.

Teal numbers continue to skyrocket with green-winged teal up 20% over last year and 74% above the long-term average. Blue-winged teal are up 3% over last year and rest at a whopping 94% above the long-term average. Mallard numbers settled in at 15% above last year and top out at 40% above the long-term average.

Pintail and wigeon were the only species that remain below the long-term average, with pintail numbers down 22% over 2011 survey results and -14% on the long term average. Wigeon were up 3% over last year but remain 17% below the long-term average.

The published results and other detailed reports are available online in .PDF format at Flyways.us (link below). While our summary covers the highlights, Waterfowler.com recommends that out readers review the detailed document for regional survey data and detailed information on the black duck survey.

While the numbers are clearly astounding news, as waterfowl hunters realized last year, big numbers don’t always equate to outstanding harvests and record breaking seasons. Clearly, the mild winter and drought conditions of 2011 played a vital role in hunter success. As we look at the current drought monitor for 2012 (link at right), habitat conditions will need to improve significantly across the US before the early seasons begin in less then two months. While record numbers of teal will begin their migration near the first of September, if you don’t have water, those numbers will be of little importance to your success. In short, we need rain, desperately before then in many states.

Waterfowler.com encourages our members to begin their preparations for the coming season. During the month of July a number of states host drawings for public access and blind construction permitting, so be sure to check federal, state and county management offices for opportunity in your area.

Until our next report, spread the news. Ducks are back – in record breaking numbers.

With the spring waterfowl surveys completed the results will be tallied and published in the 2012 Annual Waterfowl Habitat and Breeding Survey in early July. As we await the results and the subsequent proposed frameworks for each flyway, there are plenty of things to keep the off-season waterfowl hunter busy during the summer months.

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Throughout the duck-hunting season, hours are often passed in the duck blind discussing improvements that can be made before the next season. As life would normally have it, the duck-hunters time during the off-season is quickly consumed by other high-priority, non-hunting projects. As the years pass, there always seem to be those off-season projects that never come to fruition unless they are a dire priority — such as a blind rebuild due to unexpected mishap while conducting a “controlled” burn. Continue reading

With portions of the spring waterfowl survey complete the initial observations reported by the field and aerial crews vary greatly from region to region. As expected, the pond counts will be lower in most areas but breeding pairs appear to be higher than last year in a number of zones. Whether the increases are due to the abundance of birds produced last year or shifts in breeding pairs to areas with favorable the overall data collected thus far will likely result in overall breeding pairs down slightly from last year but better than expected.

Hello folks, and, as always, welcome to Waterfowler.com.

If you haven’t been following the survey crew reports on FLYWAYS.US, shame on you. We simply cannot provide enough gratitude, support and promotion for the survey crews that not only work hard to collect the data used to determine the duck seasons each year but take time to provide reports on their findings throughout the survey season. In addition to the a summary of their observations, the pilots and ground crews post images of their travels and truly put you in the cockpit and in touch with the topic of duck production. Continue reading

The spring waterfowl surveys have begun and reports have already begun to roll in at FLYWAYS.US. As expected the mild winter has had some impact on seasonal wetlands but early reports indicate fair to good conditions in central Canada, with heavy spring rains recharging many areas in the east. While it’s still too early to make any definitive assumptions for the entire breeding area, we will follow the reports with a hopeful outlook. Hello folks, and, as always, welcome to Waterfowler.com.

For our readers, real-time reporting is the stuff dreams are made of. Throughout the hunting season, we wait for good news to arrive from our participants that the migration is underway and birds are on the move. If you are anything like us, and we’re sure some of you are, we think you’ll find similar excitement in the survey team reports at FLYWAY.US. Continue reading