Outdoor News Daily

MDWFP biologists completed the second aerial waterfowl survey of the 2009-2010 duck season on December 18, 2009. The survey estimated approximately 400,491 waterfowl in the Mississippi Delta. “As expected, waterfowl numbers increased from the November survey, but duck numbers are considerably less than last year’s estimate of 685,000 ducks,” reports Houston Havens, MDWFP Waterfowl Biologist. Maps developed through analysis of survey data may be accessed through http://www.mdwfp.com.

MDWFP flies transects throughout the Mississippi Delta four times during the winter to estimate duck abundance. MDWFP began flying surveys in 2002, and this year, MDWFP is working with Arkansas Game and Fish and Commission, Delta Wildlife, U.S. Geological Survey and the Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture to generate reliable estimates across a large portion of the Delta over time.

The freeze line which extended from mid-Missouri to Indiana has remained largely unchanged. However, warmer temperatures have melted snow and ice in areas south of this line. In addition, extended rainfall has flooded large expanses of habitat in the areas north of Mississippi, and habitat conditions are good. In contrast to these good habitat conditions, only a few areas of the Delta have large amounts of flooded habitat, and these regions have reported good concentrations of ducks and relatively consistent harvest. Compared to last December’s estimate of 224,000 mallards, the current survey estimate of 117,000 mallards is considerably less. “The combination of above-normal rainfall and unseasonably warm temperatures in areas of Arkansas and Missouri has likely contributed to the relatively low numbers of mallards that waterfowl hunters are observing,” states Ed Penny, MDWFP Waterfowl Program Coordinator.

MDWFP encourages hunters to take advantage of other new tools to track waterfowl numbers and migration. These tools include a weather severity index developed by Mississippi State University which forecasts potential waterfowl migration movements based on weather data throughout the Mississippi Flyway. In addition, Missouri Department of Conservation, in cooperation with MDWFP and several other state and federal agencies, has developed a mallard migration map, which is updated weekly. These tools may be accessed through MDWFP’s Waterfowl Program website: http://www.mdwfp.com/waterfowl.

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