Author: ruffatt1@illinois.edu

Upper Illinois River

LOCATION	% WET	% ICE	MALL	ABDU	NOPI	BWTE	GWTE	AMWI	GADW	NSHO	LESC	RNDU	CANV	REDH	RUDU	COGO	BUFF	COME	HOME	TOTAL	CAGO	GWFG	LSGO	AWPE	AMCO	AD	IMM	DCCO	SWAN
Turner Lake	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Depue, Spring	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	30	0	30	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0
Coleman Lake	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	40	0	40	120	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
Bureau Ponds	100	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Goose Lake	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	100	0	300	0	400	0	5	0	0	0	2	0	0	10
Senachwine Lake	100	70	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	0	100	0	0	30	0	10	0	150	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Hennepin/Hopper	100	90	50	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	0	150	0	210	20	350	0	0	0	0	0	0	10
Swan Lake	100	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Sawmill Lake	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	0	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	15	0	0	0	0	0	3	7	0	0
Billsbach Lake	100	70	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	100	0	200	0	0	0	0	0	0	300	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Weis Lake	100	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sparland	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	100	0	0	0	0	10	0	110	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Wightman Lake	100	80	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	15	0	15	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sawyer Slough	100	90	130	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	0	0	10	0	100	0	250	600	1000	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Hitchcock Slough	100	90	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	100	0	110	60	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Babbs Slough	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	30	0	200	0	0	10	0	0	0	240	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Meadow Lake	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	200	0	200	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Douglas Lake	100	90	2500	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	510	0	1300	0	0	100	0	200	0	4610	300	1500	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Goose Lake	100	90	20	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	300	0	1600	0	0	0	0	105	0	2025	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Upper Peoria	100	70	20	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3120	0	1100	0	100	810	0	320	0	5470	30	0	0	0	0	3	3	0	0
Lower Peoria	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	190	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Total Upper Illinois			2730	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4090	0	4615	0	100	1070	0	1580	0	14185	1440	2855	0	0	0	13	16	0	20

Lower Illinois River

LOCATION	% WET	% ICE	MALL	ABDU	NOPI	BWTE	GWTE	AMWI	GADW	NSHO	LESC	RNDU	CANV	REDH	RUDU	COGO	BUFF	COME	HOME	TOTAL	CAGO	GWFG	LSGO	AWPE	AMCO	AD	IMM	DCCO	SWAN
Pekin Lake	100	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Powerton Lake	100	0	100	0	0	0	0	0	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	405	0	605	5	100	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Spring Lake	100	90	20	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	100	0	1930	10	2060	460	4000	5	0	0	0	0	0	325
Spring Lake Bottoms	100	100	10	0	0	0	0	0	45	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	55	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Goose Lake	100	80	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3600	0	1650	0	0	0	0	130	0	5385	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Rice Lake	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	100	0	100	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Big Lake	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	20	0	20	0	0	20	0	25	0	85	30	200	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Banner Marsh	90	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	0	150	5	165	405	2000	0	0	0	0	0	0	105
Duck Creek	100	30	4810	0	0	0	0	0	300	0	10	0	0	0	0	100	0	510	0	5730	1550	23200	20300	0	0	0	0	0	135
Clear Lake	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	100	0	100	200	0	0	0	0	0	400	410	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Chautauqua	100	80	50	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	200	0	0	0	100	220	0	110	0	680	310	2000	5	0	0	1	1	0	0
Quiver Creek	100	90	1400	0	0	0	0	0	300	0	50	0	200	0	0	0	0	0	0	1950	780	10100	5	0	0	2	0	0	0
Quiver Lake	100	80	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	100	5	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Emiquon/Spoon Btm	70	90	860	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2500	0	1000	250	0	315	0	225	0	5150	740	2600	140000	0	0	18	19	0	510
Matanza Lake	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	200	0	20	0	220	110	500	0	0	0	0	0	0	100
Bath Lake	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	0	100	0	110	25	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Moscow Lake	100	90	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	100	0	0	0	0	200	0	0	0	400	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Jack Lake	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Grass Lake	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3000	0	300	0	0	200	0	0	0	3500	200	200	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Anderson Lake	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	100	0	100	200	7200	26000	0	0	0	0	0	0
Snicarte Slough	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	300	0	0	150	0	0	0	450	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Ingram Lake	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Chain Lake	100	80	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1300	200	800	0	0	100	0	10	0	2410	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Stewart Lake	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	100	0	0	0	0	15	0	0	0	115	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Crane Lake	100	50	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	30	0	200	0	0	320	0	160	0	720	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Cuba Island	100	90	3000	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	500	500	1000	100	0	0	0	0	0	5100	800	4300	10	0	0	2	0	0	950
Sanganois	100	90	200	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	500	0	1050	0	0	0	0	300	0	2050	200	0	0	0	0	2	2	0	115
Treadway Lake	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	100	1200	800	0	0	0	0	100	0	2200	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Muscooten Bay	100	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Big Lake	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	200	0	500	0	100	0	100	0	0	0	0	900	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Meredosia Lake	100	70	5300	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2000	0	2650	0	0	300	0	1110	0	11360	200	200	3100	0	0	1	1	0	0
Smith Lake	100	90	500	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	50	0	100	0	0	0	0	20	5	675	440	200	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Spunky Bottoms	100	90	500	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	100	0	0	0	600	720	1000	200	0	0	7	1	0	5
Total Lower Illinois			16865	0	0	0	0	0	945	0	14660	1900	10270	550	200	2360	0	5505	20	53275	7895	57815	189625	0	0	35	27	0	2245

Upper Mississippi River

LOCATION	% WET	% ICE	MALL	ABDU	NOPI	BWTE	GWTE	AMWI	GADW	NSHO	LESC	RNDU	CANV	REDH	RUDU	COGO	BUFF	COME	HOME	TOTAL	CAGO	GWFG	LSGO	AWPE	AMCO	AD	IMM	DCCO	SWAN
Muscatine - Moline	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2550	0	300	0	2850	1005	0	0	0	0	10	2	0	0
Andalusia Refuge	100	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Louisa - Muscatine	100	50	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1490	0	935	0	2425	2250	300	0	0	0	6	4	0	0
Louisa Refuge	100	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
New Boston	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	200	0	200	600	1500	0	0	0	1	2	0	0
Keithsburg Refuge	100	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	0	1	0	0	0
Oquawka - Keithsburg	100	70	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	50	0	145	0	195	210	0	0	0	0	5	0	0	0
Henderson Creek	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	320	0	320	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	0	0
Oquawka Refuge	100	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Crystal Lake	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	50	250	0	0	0	0	0	0	5
Burlington - Oquawka	100	40	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	900	0	250	0	1250	900	4500	10	0	0	2	2	0	5
Dallas City - Burlington	100	60	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	110	0	0	305	0	350	0	865	210	20050	100	0	0	9	11	0	15
Turkey Slough	100	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Fort Madison - Dallas City	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	200	0	100	0	0	50	0	200	0	550	0	7040	3000	0	0	0	0	0	0
Nauvoo - Ft. Madison	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1700	0	600	0	100	1900	0	400	0	4700	480	220	0	0	0	3	0	0	0
Arthur Refuge	100	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Keokuk - Nauvoo	100	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2300	0	150	0	0	850	0	200	0	3500	210	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total Upper Mississippi			200	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4200	0	960	0	100	8095	0	3300	0	16855	5915	33860	3110	5	0	39	22	0	25

Lower Mississippi River

LOCATION	% WET	% ICE	MALL	ABDU	NOPI	BWTE	GWTE	AMWI	GADW	NSHO	LESC	RNDU	CANV	REDH	RUDU	COGO	BUFF	COME	HOME	TOTAL	CAGO	GWFG	LSGO	AWPE	AMCO	AD	IMM	DCCO	SWAN
Meyer - Keokuk	100	70	2020	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	110	0	2135	325	0	0	0	0	13	4	0	0
Gardner Refuge	100	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	2	0	5
Quincy - Meyer	100	40	450	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	50	0	500	700	6400	505	0	0	18	19	0	200
Hannibal - Quincy	100	70	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	100	0	210	0	310	10	3700	4000	0	0	3	2	0	0
Saverton - Hannibal	100	60	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	40	0	10	0	150	0	310	0	0	0	3	3	0	0
Gardner Club	100	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5000	0	0	0	0	0	0
Louisiana - Saverton	100	80	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	100	0	0	0	100	0	1000	5000	0	0	1	0	0	0
Shanks Refuge	100	90	49500	0	6600	0	0	0	100	100	1000	5000	0	0	0	5	0	0	0	62305	100	3300	150100	0	0	5	1	0	235
Delair Refuge	100	90	1500	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1500	200	400	10	0	0	0	0	0	250
Towhead	40	90	3000	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3000	5	5000	10	0	0	0	1	0	335
Sny Slough	100	90	3000	0	300	0	0	0	50	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3350	100	500	0	0	0	0	0	0	35
Clarksville	SGR	100	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Twin Ponds	100	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Cannon Refuge	100	90	8500	0	1100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	9600	100	4300	8000	0	0	3	3	0	25
Gilead	100	90	3510	0	200	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	100	0	0	10	3820	5	0	0	0	0	0	5	0	0
Batchtown Refuge	100	90	2500	0	500	0	0	0	0	0	100	1500	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4600	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Batchtown Pool	100	70	3000	0	200	0	0	0	0	100	0	0	0	0	0	100	0	10	0	3410	50	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Cuivre Club	100	90	8500	0	200	0	0	0	0	200	0	1000	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	9900	500	1000	30	0	0	0	0	0	5
Dardenne Club	70	90	8000	0	1500	0	0	0	0	200	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	9700	100	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0
Marais Temps Clair	100	90	1600	0	50	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1650	30	400	50	0	0	0	3	0	15
Grafton - Alton	100	50	20	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	110	0	300	0	430	5	0	20	0	0	0	1	0	0
Riverlands	60	90	1300	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	0	100	5	0	10	0	1425	250	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	30
Long Lake	100	90	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Gilbert Lake	100	90	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1000	1000	0	0	0	0	300	0	2400	100	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Swan Lake	100	90	3000	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	200	6600	1700	0	800	200	0	100	0	12600	200	2100	3100	0	0	0	4	0	0
Stump Lake	100	90	4210	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4210	250	1000	105	0	0	0	4	0	0
Michael Godar Hurricane Diamond	100	90	4000	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2000	500	600	0	0	100	0	700	0	7900	400	1100	10	0	0	0	0	0	35
Total Lower Mississippi			107910	0	10650	0	0	0	150	600	3300	15600	3310	0	900	860	5	1800	10	145095	3530	30510	175940	0	0	49	56	0	1170

Those fickle blue-winged teal! They left us for the most part along the Illinois River. The remnants of Tropical Storm Gordon on September 7th and 8th increased water levels along the Illinois River. All that water coupled with the cool north winds and rain forced out our bluewinged teal on opening weekend of teal season. Similarly, recent rains across the upper Midwest have the central Mississippi River above flood stage or higher. Blue-winged teal numbers (7,715 ducks) this week were down 62% from the 10-yr average and decreased 60% from last week along the Illinois River. Blue-winged teal (8,565) on the central Mississippi River were up 95% from the 10-yr and 108% from last week; however, the majority of the teal were using the shallow waters of Swan Lake at Two Rivers NWR near the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. Many of our refuges along the Illinois River held out the devastating flooding and the duck food plants were spared; but the Mississippi River was not so fortunate. Many of the refuges along the Mississippi lost their moist-soil plants from New Boston to Grafton and only the areas behind major levees remain intact.

Blue-winged teal (Spatula discors) prefer to feed on the sloppy mudded areas along our rivers and wetlands. Water more than a couple inches deep sends them packing for shallower foraging sites. This is why the recent rains have caused our picky bluewings to head further south. The cooler weather did bring in a few more of the early migrants like northern pintail, northern shoveler, and green-winged teal. See if you can identify them in the photo below. Good luck hunting out there!

Stay tuned for more updates next week…

We’re back at it again! We flew the first teal flight of 2018 on Tuesday, September 4th. Blue-winged teal abundance was above average (22%) along the Illinois River for the first week of September and totaled 20,340 teal. We saw average numbers of teal along the central Mississippi River (4,120 birds). The larger concentrations of teal occurred near Chillicothe, the Rice Lake Complex, Clear Lake, Chautauqua NWR, and Emiquon Preserve on the Illinois River and in the Grafton area of the central Mississippi River. Actually, I started seeing appreciable numbers of blue-wings on August 22nd while doing some shorebird flights of the Illinois River, and teal abundance has been slowly increasing every week. Wetland habitats and moist-soil vegetation (waterfowl food) along both river systems looked phenomenal this week. Let’s hope the remnants of Tropical Storm Gordon don’t ruin the bountiful crop of duck groceries out there.

Good luck with the early teal season opener on September 8th!

Stay tuned for more updates next week…

We flew the waterfowl survey on December 26th 2017 and the air temperature was 3 degrees. Almost everything was iced up, and when we found ducks, they were tightly packed into a little bit of open water. I have included a couple of photos to illustrate my point. Duck numbers were down considerably along both rivers, but a few of those die hard mallards and canvasbacks were holding on. For those of you still hunting ducks out there; be careful, it’s COLD! Thanks for following my blog…

Aaron

We flew the waterfowl inventory on Tuesday, December 19th . Nearly all of the ice that formed over the last couple of weeks was gone, and we still had a bunch of ducks around for the 3rd week in December. We estimated 184,710 total ducks in the Illinois River valley, which was 31% down from last week but 30% above the 10-yr average. Similarly, mallards (153,935) were down 22% from last week but still 35% above the 10-yr average. Total ducks (796,480) on the Mississippi River dropped 8% from last week but were 142% above average. Likewise, mallards were abundant (417,185), especially in St. Charles County, MO, and were nearly double (96%) the 10-yr average.

However, the real story this week was the huge number of canvasbacks observed on Pool 19 of the Mississippi River. We estimated 246,125 canvasbacks between Nauvoo, IL and Fort Madison, IA. This raft of ducks stretched 5 miles in length and in spots approached a mile wide. This was a phenomenal number of canvasbacks when you consider this year’s breeding population of canvasbacks from the U.S. and Canada was estimated at 732,500 ducks. Even when we consider this year’s recruitment of ducklings, we very likely have less than 1 million birds in the population. So, this impressive raft of canvasbacks likely exceeded 25% of our continental population of canvasbacks. Now that’s a bunch of divers!

We tried to capture a video of the canvasbacks with a cell phone (What would we do without cell phones?). I will post the video on the Forbes Biological Station Facebook page for your viewing. Sorry for the bouncing video but that’s what it is like in the plane! Enjoy! Thanks to Joe Lancaster for the video!

Stay tuned for more updates next week…

We flew the waterfowl inventory on Thursday, December 7th and brrrrr… is it getting cold. Ice was forming on many of the refuges along both the Illinois and Mississippi rivers; however, we started running out of ice down around the Grafton area. Total ducks remained 6.5% above average for early December when we counted 218,600 ducks on the Illinois River, and ducks (520,880) were 24.5% above average on the Mississippi River. However, both the Illinois (32.4%) and Mississippi (29.2%) were down from last week’s estimates. I was hopeful this cold snap would push the last of the mallards into Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa, but after yesterday’s flight, it appeared as though our mallard numbers have already peaked, and we are on the downhill slide. Mallards (133,210) on the Illinois dropped 23.1% from last week; likewise, mallards (262,460) on the Mississippi River were down 34.8%. Although the duck numbers have declined, I am hopeful that the mallard hunters will enjoy some success as our refuges start to freeze; time will tell I guess.

Last week I had a few requests for aerial views of different species of waterfowl.

I hope you enjoy the aerial photographs!

Stay tuned for more updates next week…

We flew the waterfowl inventory on Wednesday, November 29th. The Illinois River was 45% above the 10-yr average for total ducks. However, we have been hovering around 325,000 ducks for a couple of weeks now. The Illinois River had 172,090 mallards, but they were only up 1% from last week. The Mississippi River was 61% above the 10-yr average, and mallards were up 109% from last week and estimated at 402,800 birds. I’m not sure what was going with the big increase in mallards on the Mississippi. Based on hunting reports, I don’t think we had a major influx of migrant mallards. Maybe these ducks have been around the area for several weeks and have finally moved into the refuges counted from the air. Over the past 10 years, Illinois River mallard numbers have peaked on November 30th, with the Mississippi River being slightly later on December 3rd. Hopefully, all we need is weather and little ice to make them move around on the landscape. The weather forecast indicates we might just get those colder temperatures around Wednesday, December 6th. Let’s hope so because these ducks are stale.

Stay tuned for more updates next week…

We flew the waterfowl inventory on Monday, November 13th just 3 days following the Illinois River flight from last week. We usually would not do back-to-back flights, but the weather forecast was unpredictable for the rest of the week. Despite the short turn around, total duck abundance (387,440) on the Illinois was up 22% from last week and was 32% above normal. It appeared as though we had a little push of mallards over the weekend, and mallard numbers were up 14%. We also noticed a few black ducks in the counts this week. Duck numbers (640,180) on the Mississippi River were very similar to the previous week and were 92% above the 10-yr average. Numbers at Two Rivers NWR dropped about 58,000 ducks from last week; however, I suspect those birds have redistributed around the duck clubs in St. Charles County Missouri due to the early split in the Missouri, Middle Zone, duck season.

I wanted to send a little praise this week to Sanganois SFWA on the Illinois River. Waterfowl habitat at Sanganois looks phenomenal this year, and their duck harvest corresponds. Over the first 17 days of the season, Sanganois has harvested 3,726 ducks, or 219 ducks per day. We are fortunate for the dedication of the site staff and cooperation of the Illinois River. In late July, we were within inches of losing the bountiful crop of moist-soil to river flooding. I am also monitoring duck use of the Ash Swale Refuge this year. For those of you interested in those numbers, I am including a blurb each week in the email I send to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Ash Swale is comprised of willow and buttonbush, and it is hard to see the birds in the dense vegetation; however, this week I estimated 15,000 ducks using the refuge and I have no doubt that number is biased low due to the poor visibility in the woody vegetation.

If you can zoom in on the attached photo I took this week, you may be able to find a pair of American black ducks towards the lower end of the flock. By coincidence, a friend of the Forbes Biological Station sent me a photo of a mallard x black duck hybrid he harvested this week on Quiver Creek adjacent to Chautauqua NWR. The bird has characteristics of both mallard and black duck and is a very beautiful specimen. According to the annual parts collection survey (Wingbee) conducted each year by the USFWS, a duck hunter in Illinois has a 0.25% chance of harvesting a mallard:black duck hybrid for every mallard taken. This equates to 1 hybrid for every 400 harvested mallards. Ron, I think you should buy a lottery ticket this week!

Stay tuned for more updates next week…

We flew the waterfowl inventory of the Mississippi River on Monday, November 6th. We had some electrical issues with the plane at the start of the survey, preventing us from getting the Illinois River flight completed. I hope to fly the Illinois River on Friday, November 10th.

Total ducks on the Mississippi River were staggering at 146% above the 10-yr average and 86% above last week’s count. We had an influx of divers throughout the Mississippi River bordering Illinois, and we estimated 38,500 bluebills on Pool 19 this week. Most noteworthy was the number of birds in confluence region of the Illinois & Mississippi rivers. Swan Lake, which is part of Two Rivers National Wildlife Refuge, was holding ~324,000 ducks. This number is very large for the first week of November. In fact, this was the 3rd largest duck count at Swan Lake since the inception of the waterfowl surveys back in 1948; only to be beaten by December 5th , 1955 (581,495 ducks) and November 28th, 1952 (341,595 ducks). It was the largest count of northern pintail, gadwall, and ring-necked ducks ever recorded at Swan Lake, and the 65,400 gadwall at Swan Lake was the largest number recorded at one location along the Illinois and Mississippi rivers over the 69-yr history of the waterfowl survey. Enjoy them while they’re here!

Stay tuned for more updates next week…