2011 USFW Waterfowl Population Status Report

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US Fish and Wildlife Service has issued their 2011 Waterfowl Population Status Report.
 
Here is the link and a few exerts..........I'm not 100% sure, but the way I read it duck numbers in Washington this fall may be down. Canada Geese, Snow Geese and Brant numbers look good.

http://www.flyways.us/sites/default/files/uploads/statusreport2011_final.pdf

Wrangel Island Snow Geese

Biologists report that
snowmelt and nesting phenology were average
to slightly later than average. Preliminary estimates
from Wrangel Island's Tundra River
colony included a spring population of approximately
140,000 adults, down slightly relative to
last year. However good weather conditions and
a very large colony size were reported, so improved
production is expected compared to last
year's very poor production. Increased fox activity
was noted, but well below historic levels. Estimates
of the Wrangel Island spring population
have increased an average of 3% per year since
2002 (P < 0:001). A near-average fall
flight is expected in 2011.

Brant

Western High Arctic Brant (WHA)
This population of brant nests on the Parry
Islands of the Northwest Territories (Figure 17).
The population stages in fall at Izembek Lagoon,
Alaska. They predominantly winter in the
Padilla, Samish, and Fidalgo Bays of Washington
and near Boundary Bay, British Columbia,
although some individuals have been observed
as far south as Mexico. This population is monitored
during the MWS in three Washington
state counties. During the 2011 MWS, 8,500
brant were counted, 42% more than in 2010.
These estimates have increased an average of 2%
per year during 2002{2011 (P = 0:538). As in
2010, satellite imagery indicated very little snow
cover on the Parry Islands during spring of 2011
which is consistent with an expectation for
excellent brant production.

[White Tornado]

Here is an article that came out today in the Seattle Times.


Forecast is mixed for waterfowl hunters | Outdoors Notebook
By Mark Yuasa
Seattle Times staff reporter
Waterfowl hunters could see a mixed bag of success this fall and winter, with some populations doing well and others being somewhat down.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released its preliminary report on breeding ducks and habitat for 2011, and said the North American duck population is about 45.5 million compared to 40.8 million last year.

"They are predicting an excellent year for waterfowl breeding areas in the Canadian Prairies," said Don Kraege, a state Fish and Wildlife waterfowl manager. "We had an excellent number of ducks breeding in southern Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta and northern United States (but) in Washington we get less of those than the eastern flyways.

"Most of ours come from Alaska and British Columbia, and production from those areas is predicted to be down this year, somewhere in the 20 to 30 percent range," Kraege said. "On the plus side, our local breeding population was up from last year."

Kraege says mallard numbers in Eastern Washington were up 12 percent from last year, and up 4 percent over long-term averages.

"So that is positive news for the early hunting season," Kraege said. "The Alaska population is down, and that is kind of surprising since habitat conditions were good. It sounds like more birds settled to the south, and they're quite important for our wintering areas."

Snow geese populations had ideal production in Wrangell Island, a breeding ground in the Arctic Ocean.

"What we heard from the Russian biologists is that we should have an excellent year for snow geese," Kraege said. "There was a high population for juvenile snow geese, and we had a warmer than normal spring, so we expect a big increase, which usually leads to better hunting success.

"As for local breeding, Canada geese were up this year by about 3 percent from last year," Kraege said.

Kraege doesn't anticipate any changes to waterfowl hunting seasons for 2011-12, although there may be minor changes.

"We're at the maximum limits for waterfowl, and have been for the past few years," Kraege said. "We are at the highest prescribed levels of what we can take, and I'm not seeing any changes at all."

Weather conditions during last year's waterfowl hunting season weren't conducive for good harvest numbers, and success was down last year.

"The weather was strange last year, and we had an early freeze and then some snow conditions on the west side, and a lot of birds moved out of the area quickly," Kraege said. "Then we had fairly mild conditions later on, and that made it hard to bring new birds into the area."

Snow geese up in the Skagit area were also doing something strange last year, Kraege said. They abandoned Fir Island.

"I didn't see a snow goose there, and they seemed to have been using other areas," Kraege said. "A fair number of them bypassed Washington and moved on to California."

The state Fish and Wildlife Commission will take public comment and finalize the 2011-12 waterfowl hunting seasons Aug. 5-6 in Olympia. Details: wdfw.wa.gov/commission/meetings.html.