MN breeding mallard numbers down, other species up

[Nershi]

So you are considering traveling to LA to shoot a plummed out boot beak? That's a long way to travel just to stomp some ducks in to the mud.

Do you guys shoot ruddies and mergs too?

[h2ofwlr]

No.... but I'd just like to shoot some plumed out ducks some time yet in my life besides what we get here in Oct.

If I shot Mergies, and if it was legal, I'd of had a field day on the Mergie ducklings around here a year ago!

[Fish Felon]

Well a trip to say LA in Jan solely for meat would likely put the duck meat some where around $150 a lb.

So it'd cost the same as all other duck meat.

[gimpfinger]

Hey now ruddies ain't half bad.

Team Power Dump

[Nershi]

You're right, they're entirely bad.

[Fish Felon]

Ruddy ducks have pretty mild breast meat. I wouldn't know what they're liked plucked since their skin is like chain mail.

For all the enamore bluebills get they're phucking awful table fare. In the same class as goldeneyes, buffleheads and mergansers. Any time a guy that argues bluebills are good eating or tells me I must have never eaten a rice fed bluebill I instantly know that guy doesn't know the difference between a bluebill and a ringbill.

[Nershi]

I can choke down a merg or a spoonie but not ruddies. They're aweful. My dog doesn't seem too excited to eat them either.

Disclaimer I can id ducks. My hunting partners, not so much.

[Quack]

I'd say scaup are variable. I've had good ones and I've had plenty of bad ones.

I'll not likely ever pluck or freeze another one. Breast em, marinate & grill asap

[h2ofwlr]

State mallard numbers down 20 percent; accuracy of survey questioned

The population is down 20 percent, but this year’s survey took twice as long as normal.

By Doug Smith Star Tribune
June 22, 2015 — 8:17pm


Minnesota’s breeding mallard population is down 20 percent from last year, according to the annual Department of Natural Resources survey released Monday.

Mallards were estimated at 206,000, compared to last year’s estimate of 257,000. That’s 17 percent below the recent 10-year average and 10 percent above the long-term average measured since 1968.

Officials say weather delays might have caused the survey to underestimate the mallard count.

The survey, done from the air and on the ground, takes nine days, said Steve Cordts, the DNR waterfowl specialist who conducts it. Usually bad weather prevents airplanes from flying the survey routes a few days each spring, so on average the surveys are done over 12 days. This year, according to Cordts, it took 27 days — the most since the annual surveys began 47 years ago.

“We were grounded 10 straight days,” Cordts said.

That affects the accuracy of the survey, he said. “The later you go, the number [of ducks] always goes down,” he said, partly because ducks continue to migrate out of the state. “You almost want to put an asterisk by it.”

Cordts said the annual survey is best used as an index to show trends, rather than year-to-year population changes. “I never get my hopes too high, or too low, based on our survey,” he said.

Meanwhile, the blue-winged teal population is estimated at 169,000 this year, 66 percent above the 2014 estimate of 102,000, but the population remains 21 percent below the long-term average of 212,000. Again, Cordts figures the blue-wing teal population, like the mallard population, likely is similar to where it has been the past five years.

The combined populations of other ducks, such as ringnecks, wood ducks, gadwalls, northern shovelers, canvasbacks and redheads, was 149,000, which is 29 percent higher than last year and 16 percent below the long-term average.

The estimate of total duck abundance, excluding scaup, was 524,000, up 10 percent from last year’s estimate of 474,000.

The estimated number of wetlands was 220,000, down 36 percent from last year, and 13 percent below the long-term average. Since the survey was done, those conditions have changed greatly with recent rains, Cordts said.

Meanwhile, this year’s Canada goose population was estimated at 250,000 geese, which was similar to last year’s estimate of 244,000 geese. This doesn’t include an additional estimated 17,500 breeding Canada geese in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

The DNR will announce this fall’s waterfowl hunting regulations later this summer. The waterfowl survey is at mndnr.gov/hunting/waterfowl.

[get-n-birdy]

All the counting and estimating seems to be fairly pointless even to Steve Cordts. I know they need to do it, but the numbers seem really subjective.