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Short teal season possible
Poor conditions in North Dakota for bluewings
have domino effect here
June 23, 2008
By SHANNON TOMPKINS
Copyright
2008 Houston Chronicle
Texas waterfowlers
should know within a week or so whether they'll be looking at a 16-day or a
nine-day teal season this September.
Preliminary estimates of the
blue-winged teal breeding population index are expected to be announced this
week in Washington at a meeting of federal and state waterfowl managers.
If the bluewing
breeding population index is 4.7 million or higher, Texas will see a 16-day,
teal-only season.
If the bluewing
index is below 4.7 million, federal waterfowl management policy mandates a
nine-day teal-only season.
This past month, Texas Parks and
Wildlife Department staff proposed teal season dates of Sept. 13-28 for a
16-day season and Sept. 20-28 if the teal season is limited to nine days.
The bluewing population
index will come from the annual spring survey of duck-breeding populations
across the main duck-nesting regions of the north-central United States and
Canada's prairies and parklands.
That survey, conducted annually since
1955, is used to track wetland abundance and populations of 10 major duck
species.
With most of the survey work completed,
waterfowl managers are crunching the data and plan to have at least a rough
estimate of the bluewing population index to offer at
the meeting this week of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's regulations
committee.
Prospects a bit 'iffy'
This
past week, none of the handful of state and federal waterfowl managers
contacted were willing to climb out on a limb and
predict if this year's bluewing index would hit or
exceed the 4.7 million birds required to trigger a 16-day teal season. All
preferred to wait for the "official" word.
But information from North Dakota makes
things look a bit "iffy" for a 16-day teal season.
North Dakota is the heart of bluewing teal nesting country, and the majority of the bluewings that pass through Texas each autumn are hatched
in the prairie pothole country of that state.
Things look grim in North Dakota this
year.
The North Dakota Game and Fish
Department has, since 1948, conducted its own annual wetland count and breeding
duck population survey. This year's survey, conducted in mid-May, produced
sobering results.
North Dakota's "water index"
an estimate of the number of ponds, sheet water, potholes and other wetlands
crucial to breeding and nesting waterfowl was down a stunning 70 percent this
year when compared with 2007 numbers.
The 2008 North Dakota water index was
57 percent below the long-term (1948-2007) average. And it was the 10th-lowest
water index in the 61 years North Dakota has conducted the count,
and the lowest since 1992.
Even those numbers don't tell how
uninviting North Dakota was when bluewings and other
ducks were looking for feeding, courtship and nesting areas.
Lots of ducks remain
"Wetland
conditions were generally much worse than indicated by the numbers," wrote
the authors of the North Dakota Breeding Duck Survey, 2008. Seems the survey
counts even the tiniest, thinnest patches of water. And many of those patches
were expected to evaporate within days or weeks.
North Dakota's wetland abundance and,
just as important, variety of wetlands was way down this spring, but the number
of ducks returning to the prairies was statistically unchanged from 2007.
A lot of ducks came back to North
Dakota this spring. The North Dakota survey indicated total duck numbers were
up about 6 percent from 2007, making the total breeding duck population the
13th-highest on record and 60 percent above the 1948-2007 average.
Most important to Texas waterfowlers looking toward teal season, the North Dakota
survey indicated bluewing numbers were statistically
unchanged (down 4 percent) from 2007.
That might be good news for those
hoping for a 16-day teal season this September.
A year ago, the federal duck breeding
population survey the one used to determine teal season length pegged the bluewing index at a robust 6.7 million birds.
If the federal breeding duck population
survey reflects a similar minimal change in bluewing
population, the index should easily meet the 4.7 million needed to allow a
16-day teal season.
Whether it does or doesn't, the
over-arching message from North Dakota's prairies this spring is that there
likely will be fewer perhaps a lot fewer bluewings
and other North Dakota-hatched ducks headed to Texas this autumn.
Duck numbers were high this spring, but
the dearth of wetlands combined with loss of hundreds of thousands of acres of
crucial grasslands (nesting cover) mean duck production likely is to be minimal
this year.
It has been in North Dakota, so far.
Overall outlook bleak
My
friend and hunting partner, Michael Furtman, called
from North Dakota this past week. Mike, a writer and photographer, makes an
annual pilgrimage to NoDak to spend a week or so
taking photos of waterfowl, shorebirds and the rest of the amazing life that
swarms the prairie pothole and Missouri Coteau region
each spring and summer.
Typically, Furtman
sees dozens hundreds, really of duck hens trailing strings of
yellow-and-black ducklings on the potholes and larger lakes.
This year?
"I've seen four broods.
Four!" he said. "It's horrible."
Furtman did offer a bit of
good news. North Dakota's prairies were blessed with a good soaking a week or
so ago, recharging some of the withering wetlands.
And some late-nesting duck species
gadwall, shovelers and scaup
were involved in courtship behavior.
But for most North Dakota ducks
blue-winged teal and mallards, particularly the rain came too late to help
with this year's nesting and brood rearing. Expect poor production from North
Dakota.
That doesn't bode well for this
September's teal season, no matter if it's 16 days or nine days.
And it certainly could mean real
problems
next year.