November 29th aerial inventory

Ice ducks! I flew the Mississippi River on Friday November 29th. It appears there was a major migration into the region. Nearly 3/4 of a million birds on the Mississippi. Canvasbacks arrived in big numbers on Pool 19, and mallards are holding on in small pockets of open water at many refuges. However, we lost the majority of the non-mallard dabblers. The following is a photo of what mallards look like from the air when the wetlands start icing up. Numbers are posted at www.bellrose.org.

Stay tuned for more updates next week.