Does anyone know whether the USFWS will engage in a full-scale waterfowl breeding population survey this year?
- Thread starter RLLigman
- Start date
As of what I heard last week, it is my understanding that the May Breeding Waterfowl and Habitat Survey will proceed as normal this year. All the permits, clearances, authorizations have been worked out.
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That's reassuring, Brad, I was quite shocked last week when I viewed the USDA's Drought Monitor. I assumed that this soon to be passed winter had broken the back of the drought in the Missouri Coteau-not true by their data, with drought conditions remaining that extend well into Coteau wetlands in Canada and the northern prairies.
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This weeks drought report does not look any better. I wonder how things are in Canada?
Current Map | U.S. Drought Monitor (unl.edu)
Current Map | U.S. Drought Monitor (unl.edu)
The Jet Stream has been on stuck delivering moisture to the Washington and northern Oregon coast (California is back in drought) and then carrying any remaining moisture southeast away from the northern plains. Montana through Nebraska are critically dry. The Canadian prairies have gotten snow but went into the winter with dry soils. Wetland conditions there will dependent on runoff and if there was any frost seal in the potholes. Here is the big picture map but its about a month old.
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/drought/nadm/maps
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/drought/nadm/maps
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Current total accumulations of snow range from 12-20 inches, with all but five counties in the southeastern corner of North Dakota closed due to a blizzard warning. Snowfall from this system extends well-north into Canada. An additional system is about to come onshore in the Pacific Northwest bringing more snow. One site in Montana reported 47" of snow. Heaviest snowfall band in NoDak extended in a swath through the central counties of the state in an east-west swath, essentially along the northern tier of peak pheasant country.
I normally hunt from southeast of Plaza over to just east of Max, northwesterly up into the Wildrose/Crosby area, which encompasses a big chunk of the Coteau country in that area of North Dakota. That drought monitor map you posted indicated that this area was still in moderate drought, grading east to abnormally dry into early March. The pond counts really increase west of Max and that concentration cluster runs up to the northwest through Berthold and Blaisdell as well as Lostwood NWR before starting to diminish. This area also hosts large sandhill crane concentrations on the alkali playa lakes in fall and TONS of gadwall and teal. Deeper water oonds concentrate divers after nesting. Mainly redheads and scaup with a smattering of canvasbacks in this area. Sadly, this snow was dry enough to drift, which will hit the pheasants, red partridge and sharptails really hard while benefiting ducks, particularly late nesters like pintails. You'll note the decent snow depths that continue to extend north into Canada, particularly the amount of snow that fell around southern Lake Winnipeg. This area, as well as to the due west is the main source of our fall redhead flight. Hopefully, we will see a strong second nesting effort as well since the long-range forecast for this latitude is a warm summer...
https://www.weatherstreet.com/local_forecast_files/Snow-Depth-US.htm
https://www.weatherstreet.com/local_forecast_files/Snow-Depth-US.htm
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Carl said:
Carl, here are some updated snowdepth numbers:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/maps/snowdepth/in-Cottonwood-Lake,ND?loc=eyJsIjoiQ290dG9ud29vZCBMYWtlIiwiciI6Ik5EIiwiYyI6IlVuaXRlZCBTdGF0ZXMiLCJpIjoiVVMiLCJnIjoiZW4tdXMiLCJ4IjoiLTEwMC42MzQ3NjU2MyIsInkiOiI0Ny45MzEwNjYzNSJ9&weadegreetype=F&ocid=msedgntp&cvid=fbb7d5ee1d1a466ba68b0049fe5c51d0&zoom=5
Northwest of Regina, Saskatchewan doesn't look good, but the marshes of Lake Winnipeg look to be in far better shape to produce birds.