THE COMING SEASON
THE COMING SEASON
Checking on Ducks and Pheasants
The lack of snow last winter and late arrival of spring rain was not as helpful for ducks but better for pheasants
by Doug Leier
ND Game & Fish Dept .
I
In the most basic of explanations , the lack of snow last winter and late arrival of spring rain was not as helpful for ducks but better for pheasants . But let ’ s take a closer look .
Pheasant Count
The number of roosters heard crowing during the North Dakota Game and Fish Department ’ s 2024 spring pheasant crowing count survey was up 37 percent statewide from last year .
“ This is really good news but expected , considering we had such great production last year and the mild winter we had certainly wasn ’ t hard on birds ,” said RJ Gross , Department upland game management biologist .
The primary regions holding pheasants showed :
• 28.8 crows per stop in the southwest , up from 19.5 in 2023
• 21.5 crows per stop in the northwest , up from 16.6
• 16 crows per stop in the southeast , up from 12.8
Barring untimely heavy rains , cool weather or hail , Gross expects more good news from the pheasant hatch , the results of which will show up in the late August brood survey .
“ The residual cover this year was great … with timely rains , the habitat for nesting looks great ,” Gross said . “ We should be setting up for a good fall .”
But what was good for the pheasants and most upland game was not as beneficial for ducks .
Dabbling Ducks
The spring breeding duck survey conducted in May showed an index of about 2.9 million birds , down from 3.4 million last year .
The 2024 breeding duck index was the 30th highest on record and stands at 17 percent above the long-term ( 1948-2023 ) average , according to Mike Szymanski , Department migratory game bird supervisor .
“ By and large , all species were flat to down . Mallards , for instance , were down about 19 percent , pintails were down about 29 percent and blue-winged teal down roughly 13 percent ,” he
said . “ These species being down from last year is one thing , but when you compare it back to what we consider to be one of our best periods for breeding ducks in North Dakota ( 1994-2016 ), we ’ re down a lot more than that . So overall , mallards , pintails , bluewinged teal , gadwall , wigeon and northern shovelers are down anywhere from 24-49 percent from that 1994 to 2016 time period .”
Szymanski said the decline in breeding duck numbers has a lot to do with the loss of CRP and perennial grasses on the landscape used for nesting cover by ducks .
“ While our overall duck population count this year was about 2.9 million birds , that hardly compares to 5.4 million in 2002 ,
Bill Mitzel photos .
Page 36 , Dakota Country , September 2024 www . dakotacountrymagazine . com