Black Duck bag limit

Should have Googled first!

Here's a pile of papers on blacks and their interactions with mallards.

http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bdjv/projects.cfm

At least one seems to raise questions about the degree to which mallards dominate blacks. Like many biological questions, I doubt the answer to this one is black and white. It may be that under certain habitat and weather conditions, mallards dominate blacks, but under different conditions they do not.
[/url]Outcome of Aggressive Interactions Between American Black Duck and Mallard:
Numbers of aggressive interactions initiated were not different between species, but when black ducks initiated interactions with mallards, black ducks were more successful than mallards. Displacement from a wetland by a male or a pair of one species by the other species was infrequent and equal between species. These findings do not support the hypothesis that male mallards are behaviorally dominant over black duck males, and thus do not support behavioral dominance as a mechanism for competitive exclusion. Citation: McAuley et al. 1998. Outcome of aggressive interactions between American black ducks and mallards during the breeding season. J. Wildl. Manage. 62:134-141.

One other paper suggests that habitat change in wintering areas may be a factor: [/url]Changes in numbers of American black ducks counted in the mid-winter survey in Maryland:
Black ducks have been counted during the mid-winter survey since 1955 in Maryland and since 1957 in adjacent Virginia. Numbers of black ducks counted in Maryland declined until 1983 when the trend reversed concomitant with more restrictive harvest regulations. The distribution of black ducks in the Chesapeake Bay changed from use in the upper Bay to use in the mid-Bay Eastern Shore and Potomac River sites. Redistribution of wintering black ducks seemed associated with habitat change, loss of submerged aquatic plants, and degradation of water quality, whereas decline in black duck numbers to 1983 seemed related to level of harvest. Citation: Jorde and Stotts. 2002. The mid-winter survey of black ducks, locally and regionally. In Perry, M. C., editor, Proceedings of a Symposium: Black Ducks and their Chesapeake Bay Habitats: KU.S. Geological Survey, Biological Resources Division, Information and Technology Report, USGS/BRD/ITR 2002-2005, in press


And hunter harvest seems to be a significant source of mortality:
[/url]Survival of American Black Ducks During Staging and Migration:
Eighty-six percent of all confirmed mortalities of 397 radiomarked black ducks in Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Vermont was caused by hunters. Survival of black ducks among locations was 80 to 96 percent when losses from hunting were censored. (Collaborative study with personnel of CWS, FWS, Université du Québec à Montréal, and Provincial and State biologists). Citation: Longcore, et al. 2000. Survival of American black ducks radiomarked in Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Vermont. J. Wildl. Manage. 64:238-252.
 
Peninsular Florida has the same issue, it is just with mottled ducks vs. mallards. We have not seen as big a problem in the AL, MS, LA & TX mottled duck populations, but with all the park mallards, its coming.
Our limit on mottled ducks was lowered from 3 to 1 last year, dont see it ever going back up.
 
The state of the science is much further along now. Here is a good place to start.
http://coopunit.forestry.uga.edu/blackduck/papers.html

From last year's regulations setting process by FWS.

In 2008, U.S. and Canadian waterfowl
managers developed an interim harvest
strategy that will be employed by both
countries until a formal strategy based
on the principles of AHM is completed.
We detailed this interim strategy in the
July 24, 2008, Federal Register (73 FR
43290). The interim harvest strategy is
prescriptive, in that it calls for no
substantive changes in hunting
regulations unless the black duck
breeding population, averaged over the
most recent 3 years, exceeds or falls
below the long-term average breeding
population by 15 percent or more. The
strategy is designed to share the black
duck harvest equally between the two
countries; however, recognizing
incomplete control of harvest through
regulations, it will allow realized
harvest in either country to vary
between 40 and 60 percent.
Each year in November, Canada
publishes its proposed migratory bird
hunting regulations for the upcoming
hunting season. Thus, last fall the
Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) used
the interim strategy to establish its
proposed black duck regulations for the
2009–10 season based on the most
current data available at that time:
breeding population estimates for 2006,
2007, and 2008, and an assessment of
parity based on harvest estimates for the
2003–07 hunting seasons. Although
updates of both breeding population
estimates and harvest estimates are now
available, the United States will base its
2009–10 black duck regulations on the
same data CWS used to ensure
comparable application of the strategy.
The long-term (1998–2007) breeding
population mean estimate is 713,800
and the 2006–08 3–year running mean
estimate is 721,600. Based on these
estimates, no restriction or liberalization
of black duck harvest is warranted. The
average proportion of the harvest during
the 5–year period 2003–07 was 0.56 in
the United States and 0.44 in Canada,
and this falls within the established
parity bounds of 40 and 60 percent.
 
Here in Rhode Island there's a salt pond I've hunted each season since '02-'03 (some years more than others). The ''08-'09 season was the first time we took a mallard there, and we started noticing more of them around. In the '09-'10 season I harvested 2 mallards there, and it was the first season I didn't get a single black duck.

This is just a bit of data, but it does seem like things are changing on that salt pond.
 
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I have continued to research this topic and have found some interesting articles on the state of the American Black Duck. One very comprehensive report (IDENTIFICATION AND SYNTHETIC MODELING OF FACTORS AFFECTING AMERICAN BLACK DUCK POPULATIONS by MICHAEL J. CONROY, MARK W. MILLER, AND JAMES E. HINES) appears to conclude that it is not possible to know exactly why the Black Duck is losing ground to the Mallard or if in fact it even is. The lack of consistent data samples and models makes it nearly impossible to pull together all the information necessary to make any solid conclusions.

If anyone would like a copy of the articles please PM me with your email address.
 
As Carl spoke of the problem beginning to happen with the mottled duck, we are having the same problem with the hybridizing of the Mexican duck. It is very difficult to find one now that looks pure. The culprit being the mallard/domestic duck.
Al
 
In my area of Nova Scotia the first significant populations of Mallards appeared when they were INTRODUCED by the industrialist Cyrus Eaton on his hobby farm. They then became popular as a pond duck. For example my father had a dozen or so. However, when they were `let go' and no longer fed they quickly disappeared on the island. I'm not sure if it was a cold/exposure issue or more of a sea gull, musk rat, mink predation issue with the young.

They are common on the mainland and winter-over (Mallards). People feed them and they hang out where the water stays ice free. These environments are becoming more common, e.g. where there is run-out from a hydro station, where small causeways have been built to islands close to sure and a large culvert is installed to allow the salt water to run through. This creates current and a small area of ice free water. It isn't uncommon to see 200 black ducks in an area of open water about the size of a normal swimming pool. People then feed them at these locations.

The black ducks on the mainland are as tame as a dog. Out around the bay they are shy like ghosts. Yet I have shot them and they have corn in their gizzard! They obviously know where they are safe.
 
In my area of Nova Scotia the first significant populations of Mallards appeared when they were INTRODUCED by the industrialist Cyrus Eaton on his hobby farm. They then became popular as a pond duck. For example my father had a dozen or so. However, when they were `let go' and no longer fed they quickly disappeared on the island. I'm not sure if it was a cold/exposure issue or more of a sea gull, musk rat, mink predation issue with the young.

They are common on the mainland and winter-over (Mallards). People feed them and they hang out where the water stays ice free. These environments are becoming more common, e.g. where there is run-out from a hydro station, where small causeways have been built to islands close to sure and a large culvert is installed to allow the salt water to run through. This creates current and a small area of ice free water. It isn't uncommon to see 200 black ducks in an area of open water about the size of a normal swimming pool. People then feed them at these locations.

The black ducks on the mainland are as tame as a dog. Out around the bay they are shy like ghosts. Yet I have shot them and they have corn in their gizzard! They obviously know where they are safe.
Click to expand...


Mainland blacks tame...hummm , I roam from Bridgewater to Windsor to Annaoplis and haven't met too many of them like that...circle, circle, circle set their wings, circle some more, go some where else...now mallards are the tame ones where I set up almost seem dumb at times...I'm like Shermie, given blacks and mallards together in a shoot situation I dump the mallards( or try to :) ) every time.

Buddy of mine in Pubnico told me last week the blacks are starting to group up already, 700+ flock in his hunting area...
 
Hi Brad;

Yea.... it is strange. It must be all the feeding? in Mahone and St. Margaret's Bays? I don't know. A little pocorn and they walk on my feet ...I've even bent down and grbbed them. Not a one time thing. Then like you say, they are crazy shy out around the islands ....shot one with boughten corn ifeed n its belly?

I have some folks coming up from the States for a tubbing - sea duck hunt in December. They would like a day of BD hunting. I could take them up in the Bay but houses, even if I stay way away people and houses folks will still call and DNR will be all over me.

I'll probably take them to Cross Island or Big Duck island. I have to scout out the places since I've done little BD hunting up to the westard. Know anything about those places?
 
Hey Philip...can't give you much help with those locations as I haven't hunted them myself...best of luck this season and hopefully the tub hunt will be a great success!!
 
It is interesting to see that Ct and NJ are not seeing that many Hybrids yet the guys to the north are seeing them more regularly. In NH, a couple years ago a hybrid was a bonus bird that you only shot once or twice a season. Last season a majority of the Blacks we shot had Mallard traits. We see more and more Hybrids every year. Our NH biologist has state that any mallard traits in a duck and it is a mallard. He has also claimed publicly that any white on the speculum is a mallard trait. Here is one of the few true blacks we shot last year:

dec09019.jpg


and here are a few shot later in the season. The bird on the far right is a no brainer but the two blacks on the left have white on the speculum. We counted these as blacks but are they hybrids? Try to get a definitive answer up here...Good luck...

dec09015.jpg

 
Ray, those two on the left show a bit more white than two that wardens in Maine told us we didn't need to count as blacks. Maybe we had a bunch of hybrids hanging out on the southern ME/NH coast last season in December? Our birds were in Casco Bay.
 
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