Wind and rain forced another late-week flight, but we managed the aerial waterfowl survey of the Illinois and central Mississippi rivers on Friday, November 1st. Duck abundance was on par with the long-term average in the Illinois River valley, but below LTA along the central MS River. I estimated ~263,310 ducks in the IRV on Friday, just above the 10-year average of ~260,000 ducks. What impressed me with that number is that we are on par with LTA while still ~22% below the LTA for mallards along this river. Northern pintail, American green-winged teal, and gadwall helped make up the deficit in total duck abundance. I estimated 176,800 ducks on the central Mississippi River, 23% below the 10-year average (~230,000). Mallards are also below LTA along this river (-47%), but we are missing gadwall, northern pintail, and northern shoveler in this region as well. It sure seems like we’re getting the “calendar ducks,” the photoperiod or migrators and birds that prefer warmer climes. The unseasonably warm temps on the prairies will likely need to cease before we see a change in the mallard deficit in our survey area. Fingers crossed that happens soon.
Friday flight again, so I’m cutting the post short. But here’s a shout-out to the Forbes crew for working tirelessly these past few weeks to get transmitters out on our target species, green-winged teal and mallards. Some of the crew were rewarded this morning with a few non-targets… shovelers! I’m really jealous that I was stuck on the plane and didn’t get to band a few of them. Northern shovelers in the trap always bring a smile to our faces… git it? SMILE to our faces? I digress… They have perhaps the most unique foraging behavior of any waterfowl. A group of shovelers will sometimes collectively spin in a circle, creating a vortex in the water column, and bringing invertebrates up from the bottom and into the reach of their spoon-shaped bills. They also hold the record (probably) for the most aliases of a bird species. Whether you call them bootlips, smiling mallards, hollywoods, souplips, spoonies, spoon-dawgs, spooners, the “real” green head, smileys… You get the picture, you can always count on them to turn a slow hunt into a fun one. My personal favorite moniker for shovelers is “bologna snatcher.” I hope you all have been able to get out and enjoy the marsh! Good luck to the MO hunters in our survey area who have their opener this weekend! Because of the late flight, I don’t have a note for this week prepared. In the central zone, our time in the marsh starts on Saturday, and I, like many other hunters in this area, anxiously await the break of the sun and the crack of the first shot. Good luck to those fortunate enough to join the pursuit and be safe out there! More information about the waterfowl survey is on our Waterfowl Aerial Inventories page. Stay tuned for more updates next week…
