We got back up in the air on Tuesday, October 15th, for the aerial waterfowl survey of the Illinois and central Mississippi rivers. Overall, duck abundance was low on Tuesday across the survey area. Based on what we’ve been seeing while scouting for trapping over the course of this week, I suspect the recent windy days and cooler temps have changed that in our area. Still, I estimated 77,425 ducks in the IRV on Tuesday, 37% less than the 10-year average of ~123,000 ducks. The trend was more exaggerated on the MS River, where I observed 31,795 ducks, 62% below the 10-year average (~84,000). Blue-winged teal were still abundant during our flight, especially on the Illinois River, where we counted ~5,000 of the rockets, 185% above the 10-year average of that species for this week. The fact that blue-wings are hanging around and we’re gradually picking up green-winged teal and northern pintail suggests that fall migration is moving just a tad slower than average for our region.
Habitat conditions, though not as good as the previous 2 years, look above average in our region. The late drawdown in many areas managed to yield at least marginal food production in places and the portions of the higher elevation backwaters that were dewatered on time grew great food. Unfortunately, there are still some exposed mudflats out there that didn’t have time to yield any moist-soil vegetation. Several refuges were actively bringing on water during the flight, setting the stage for our north zone and central zone youth openers on Saturday. I often think of a quote from a colleague’s presentation on moist-soil management a few years back, when I see active water management: “If it is deep enough to run an outboard, it’s too deep for dabblers.” Good luck to the central zone youth and our north zone brethren this weekend! More information about the waterfowl survey is on our Waterfowl Aerial Inventories page. Stay tuned for more updates next week…
