What has happened to the Scaup numbers!

[Pat Gregory]

John - Glad you liked the video. It is important work and, I am privileged to be part of it.
As far as your question, I do not know the answer. It will need to be addressed by someone much more knowledgeable than me. Here is a link to some of Doc Afton's work referencing the decline... http://www.jstor.org/stable/3803028?origin=crossref&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
I hope this helps John! Pat

 

[Carl]

10-4. I believe that others on the northeast coast have expressed similar observations.
Have y'all had a loss of sleep grass or other large change in benthic habitat? I wonder if zebra mussels are short stopping "your" bluebills on the large inland lakes???

 

[Pat Gregory]

Was reading "Hunting Adventures with Jimmy Robinson" tonight. In Chapter Thirteen, "Rockets of the North" Jimmy sites the following regarding scaup...

" I saw my first little "nordern" bluebills on the Delta marsh in 1903, a good many years before I would be eligible to discard my short britches. I didn't know a bluebill from a whooping crane. My Grandfather Cruikshank, who lived in Winnipeg at that time and loved duck shooting as well as he loved his race horses, which was a great deal, took me with him on a hunting trip to the marsh. I was too young to shoot, but my love for duck shooting dates from that time. It has been a rare year since when I haven't returned --- some say like a bad penny --- to the Delta marsh in the fall for a duck hunt. And every year I have never failed to treat myself to at least one real shoot on those late-flying torpedoes, the "nordern" bluebills. Of course, the flights, as those of other ducks, are not what they used to be. I do not want to give the impression that bluebills have not suffered from the same causes that have decimated other species, because emphatically, they have. With the necessary modern limits, the old-time bluebill shoots are a thing of the past. But the little bluebill, ornery, erratic, complacent, persistent little devil that he is, will probably be with us as long as any duck. Let us hope that will be forever. "

History tells us, scaup numbers ebb and flow. Not to minimize the struggles of today, but, the scaup is one resiliant little survivor...

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[Phil Eager]

carry over capacity..... I don't think the wintering grounds can carry it

Just curious, wintering habitat where??

I have never heard anyone indicate that this was an issue with overall scaup numbers.
Local wintering numbers: maybe. Continent wide: no.

Hey Carl, My observations are purely local. Raritan Bay to Great Bay in NJ. Just makes me wonder if the food source is still there.

Phil
Phil

 

[John Unruh]

John - Glad you liked the video. It is important work and, I am privileged to be part of it.
As far as your question, I do not know the answer. It will need to be addressed by someone much more knowledgeable than me. Here is a link to some of Doc Afton's work referencing the decline... http://www.jstor.org/stable/3803028?origin=crossref&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
I hope this helps John! Pat

Yes thanks Pat it's a good read ,after reading a lot of studies , best I can see for breeding grounds 68 percent Boreal Forest, 25 PC Prairie parkland, 7per cent Tundra, one read which should make us waterfowlers feel good is that ( biologists feel that harvest of Scaup) is not detrimental to Scaup population decline !