“Watching the changes in habitat conditions over the spring and summer this year underscores the importance of two things: First, we must simply accept that habitat and duck populations are going to vary over time. This likely benefited brood-rearing and the success of late-nesting species, and also gave a boost to overall production through renesting by early-nesting species. On some key waterfowl breeding areas in Prairie Canada, heavy June and July rains greatly improved wetland conditions. “What’s not reflected in the report is that the outlook for waterfowl production improved significantly after the surveys were completed.
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“In light of the dry conditions that were observed during the survey period, it is reassuring to see that the breeding population counts were little changed from last year’s,” DU Chief Scientist Dr.
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The total May pond count remained near the long-term average, however, largely due to carryover water stored in wetland basins from the previous year.įaced with drier conditions on the prairies, many waterfowl continued migrating north to breeding areas in the Boreal Forest and Arctic. May ponds-the unit of measure for wetland abundance on the prairies-decreased 21 percent in 2016, from almost 6.3 million ponds in 2015 to approximately 5 million ponds this spring.
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Total populations were estimated at 48.4 million breeding ducks, which is 38 percent above the 1955-2015 average, but lower than last year’s estimate of 49.5 million birds.Īlthough large numbers of ducks and geese returned to the breeding grounds this spring, wetland conditions were initially less favorable for waterfowl production across much of the Prairie Pothole Region.