Hunting Washington Forum
Other Hunting => Waterfowl => Topic started by: hdshot on July 26, 2024, 11:57:28 AM
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California 2024 breeding survey reads disappointing in our pacific flyway.
“MAJOR FINDINGS
Mallards: decreased 12% from 2023, 44% below the LTA”
https://www.ducks.org/newsroom/press-release/2024-california-waterfowl-survey#:~:text=The%20California%20Department%20of%20Fish,%2Dterm%20average%20(LTA).
“breeding ducks has decreased by 25 percent”
“estimate is 30 percent below the long-term average.”
“The estimated breeding population of mallards decreased from 202,108 in 2023 to 177,828 this year…”
https://wildlife.ca.gov/News/Archive/cdfw-completes-2024-waterfowl-breeding-population-survey
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Spring rains in March and April were at or slightly below normal, but the snowpack was above the long-term average across all representative survey areas. Combined with full reservoirs, habitat conditions have continued to improve since the end of the last drought (2020-2023).
Tule Lake (TLNWR) and Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuges (LKNWR) received enough water to fill both Sumps (1a and 1b) on TLNWR, and multiple wetlands on LKNWR that have been dry since 2019, creating “ideal conditions” for production. However, above average summer temperatures and limited water deliveries present threats to habitat conditions.
In March, over 20,000 acre-feet of much-needed water was delivered to Lower Klamath and Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuges (NWR) with the help of Ducks Unlimited (DU) and its partners at the Tulelake Irrigation District (TID) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who activated Pumping Plant D for the first time in four years.
Ouch. We dont get a lot of reverse migration from down south, but this still hurts numbers overall.
What is crazy is that they received normal rainfall, and above normal snowpack. It seems California is largely reliant on artificial transportation of water to keep their habitat productive, and even that isnt enough to keep breeding numbers in the green.
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California has been getting a lot of precipitation. Even Death Valley had a good sized dry lake fill up a lot reported while drought is reported in Canada. Way off topic but scenarios theorize that could be normal with the cold water blobs developing in the North Atlantic. Hopefully La Niña will do its normal thing this year because it has been very dry and hot over here in eastern WA.