N.D. duck survey reveals extent of habitat loss

[h2ofwlr]

By Grand Forks Herald Staff Report
on Jun 8, 2014 at 2:00 p.m.

The numbers are still being crunched, but the North Dakota Game and Fish Department has completed its annual spring survey of breeding ducks and water conditions.

Mike Johnson, migratory game bird management supervisor for Game and Fish in Bismarck, said he hesitates to make projections on this year’s waterfowl outlook until all of the numbers are in, but the loss of habitat was readily apparent as land goes out of the Conservation Reserve Program, and grasslands are plowed and converted to cropland.

Game and Fish crews conducted the survey the week of May 12.

“The landscape has really taken a huge hit with the loss of CRP,” Johnson said. “Fall plowing, lots of erosion, lots of wetland drainage. It was pretty significant.

“Grass is gone, and native prairie is being turned upside down.”

The impact on waterfowl production is inevitable.

“If we’re still attracting large numbers of birds, production can’t be as good as it has been because the nesting cover just isn’t there,” Johnson said. “It’s only going to get worse as far as we can tell.”

Game and Fish personnel conduct the survey by running eight north-to-south routes across the state from Canada to the South Dakota border. Survey crews then count every duck and every wetland they can see from the road. The survey, which covers 1,816 miles, has been conducted since 1948 and is the longest continuously running waterfowl survey in the world, Johnson said.

— Brad Dokken

Delta Duck Cam back on the prairie
Conservation group Delta Waterfowl again this spring has installed a small video camera next to a duck nest on the North Dakota prairie.

The first star of the Delta Duck Cam this spring is Blue-Winged Teal 007, named because her nest was the seventh found in the field in north-central North Dakota. She began incubating 12 eggs on May 21, which should hatch this coming week — if a predator doesn’t find them first.

Technicians will keep close watch on the camera, and move it to a new nest when the eggs hatch — or are destroyed by predators.

“We’re very excited to be bringing back our Duck Cam for the second year,” said Joel Brice, Delta Waterfowl vice president of conservation and hunter recruitment. “It gives us the opportunity to once again open a window few folks get to see that is critical to duck production and the birds hunters pursue each fall.”

The Delta Duck Cam stream will remain live throughout the nesting season, which should carry into mid-July.

Last spring, Delta installed the camera next to four duck nests at different times during the breeding season. As the events unfolded, a pintail hatched seven ducklings, followed by a raccoon destroying a gadwall nest, a successful mallard hatch and finally, a skunk raiding a gadwall.

You can watch for updates on Delta’s Facebook page and Twitter feed or visit deltaduckcam.com to watch the streaming camera feed live anytime.

— Delta Waterfowl