Critical areas of the crucial prairie crater region have improved in terms of duck numbers and wetland habitat conditions.
The breeding inhabitants of birds was estimated at 33.99 million, a 5 % increase over last year, according to the 2024 Waterfowl Population Status report released today by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In contrast, May water counts, a key sign of breeding wildlife conditions and possible production, also increased by 4 % over the past spring.
The USFWS and Canadian Wildlife Service have conducted the Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey every since 1955, according to the document. The study is used to fixed looking regulations for the next season, so in this case, for the 2025-2026 season. Waterfowl hunters will once more like a democratic period framework next season based on these findings.
” Dicken production may be increased thanks to an increased breeding population of birds and set works, along with improved vegetation wildlife problems that improved throughout May and June with great spring rains across most of the prairies,” according to Dr. Frank Rohwer, president and chief scientist for Delta Waterfowl. In the eastern Dakotas and perhaps Manitoba, there are unquestionably possible bright spots for bird production. The flower rains actually helped those regions, as well as pieces of Alberta that were relatively clean in the spring.
The study, which was completed in May, estimated 5.16 million total lagoons, a 4 % improve overall. However, the place of those lakes differed greatly from 2023. The lakes estimate on the French plains and parklands, which includes southeastern provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, decreased 19 %. Meanwhile, ponds in the United States, including Montana and the Dakotas, increased by 49 %.
” The prairies did n’t have a good snowpack last winter”, said Mike Buxton, waterfowl programs director for Delta Waterfowl. ” Heading into next fall, circumstances were OK in the Dakotas, but prairie Canada was dry. Saskatchewan and Alberta both had wonderful winter, but not as much in Manitoba. Thus, the wetland habitat it started spring in bad condition. That has a significant impact on where birds live. If the table is n’t set early on, ducks do n’t stick around to nest. Not many birds migrated it because Alberta was thus dry. Saskatchewan was a little bit better”.
Although there were only a few more birds in the Traditional Survey Area overall in 2023, only the high north and west saw the biggest increase. Just three survey regions ( out of eight ) posted increases. The Central and Northern Alberta/Northeast British Columbia/Northwest Territories estimated 11.25 million birds, off 35 % and 49 % above the long-term average for the area. The Alaska Yukon Territory/Old Crow Flats region showed a 28 % increase over 2023, while Northern Saskatchewan/Northern Manitoba/Western Ontario was up 5 %. In contrast, duck estimates across the prairie pothole regions were down 10 % to 16 %, except for the Eastern Dakotas, which was down less than 1 % from 2023.
Among key species, mallards increased 8 % to 6.61 million, an estimate that puts them 16 % below the long-term average. The parts that are far north and west accounted for the majority of the increase. Southern Saskatchewan, which generally has more rearing mallards than any other area in the study, experienced a 8 % decrease in the number of mammals in each area of the PPR. The area has had below-average water problems for several years in a row.
Wigeon posted the most dramatic change in this year’s survey, up 55 % total to 2.92 million. As with mallards, most of the increase occurred far northern and western regions, although wigeon were away in the Eastern Dakotas and Southern Saskatchewan, too.
Green-winged turquoise, an essential types for hunting in all four flyways, increased 20 % to 3.01 million. Greenwheats mostly nest north of the PPR in the northern forest areas.
Scaup, another northern forest breeding duck, increased 16 % to 4.07 million. Scaup remain 17 % below the LTA.
The hatching populations of four important prairie-nesting pool duck species—gadwalls, blue-winged turquoise, shovelers, and pintails—dropped this season. Gadwalls declined 11 % to 2.28 million but remain 11 % above their LTA. Importantly, gadwalls increased by 20 % in the Eastern Dakotas, but were quickly lower across the southern French plains regions. Blue-winged teal dropped 12 % to 4.6 million, which is 10 % below the LTA. Occupation were down 7 % to 2.65 million.
Pintails declined 11 % to 1.98 million, with every region in the PPR posting a increases. However, pintails were up 39 % in the Central and Northern Alberta/Northeast British Columbia/Northwest Territories. More than half of the mating pintail estimation for this year was made up of the survey’s far north and west areas.
The USFWS is implementing a new included warrior time yield plan that will take effect for the 2025-2026 U.S. hunting season despite a decline in the population for pintail breeding. Hunters in all four flyways will be able to get three pintails per day in 2025-2026 based on a 2024 breeding population that is just timid of 2 million. The lower 48 states ‘ current daily case limit for the future 2024-2025 season is still one pintail.
” We’re excited that the new pintail plan is in place for the 2025-2026 time”, said Dr. Chris Nicolai, birds professor for Delta Waterfowl. We’re presently managing pintails using a different yield measurement that includes grouping data, which significantly affected the harvest strategy. The recent findings suggest that we have overestimated pintail produce by a component of 2.3. The data has also helped waterfowl managers understand that, especially for mallards and pintails, hunting harvest does n’t have the same amount of an impact as we once believed, especially with low population sizes.
Canvasbacks and brunettes, a pair of swimming goose varieties, declined this spring. Canvasbacks fell 8 % to 566, 000, while redheads declined 16 % to 782, 000. Both kinds were away in the Eastern Dakotas, but down dramatically in Southern Saskatchewan, which is a major breeding place for these large divers.
The majority of the Eastern Survey Area had good to excellent wildlife conditions, and there were high rearing duck numbers it. Five of the six species posted in the report’s tables increased, led by a 42 % increase in goldeneyes, a 20 % jump in green-winged teal, and a 17 % rise in black ducks. Ring-necked ducks were up 9 %, with mergansers posting a 1 % increase. Mallards decreased 4 % to 1.17 million but remain above the threshold for a four-mallard daily bag limit for the 2025-2026 season.
We hunt the drop flight, which consists of both the breeding people and all the new birds from this year’s mating work, as we remind bird hunters each year with the release of the Waterfowl Population Status. Hunters now have a chance to have a better bird period than the survey results suggest.
Buxton noted that as the breeding season progressed, wetland conditions improved throughout the PPR following a clean start.
After the USFWS study, he claimed that the rains that persisted throughout late May and June actually filled the wetlands and kept them afloat. ” We were really lucky to have had steady water in the Eastern Dakotas and Manitoba for the majority of the mating season. This time, we anticipate seeing strong manufacturing there. Later in the spring, parameters in Alberta and Saskatchewan improved. At a Delta study site in Alberta, we found remarkably few homes during the first month, but after spring rains arrived, the number of homes improved considerably”.
Delta Waterfowl continues to support ducks ‘ survival throughout North America, expanding the organization’s cutting-edge Habitat Conservation and Duck Production initiatives.
” We hope the ducks cooperate, and that everyone has an excellent waterfowl hunting season with their families and friends”, Rohwer said.
