Autumn’s Whistling Wings: The 2006 Fall Flight

October 2006 -- At one time, Chesapeake Bay waterfowl were so abundant they were said to “blacken the sky.” While this isn't the case anymore, a majority of migratory waterfowl species that winter in the Bay region have been experiencing recent population upswings.

Most of the waterfowl in the Atlantic flyway are produced in the northeastern United States and Canada, except for canvasback and redhead ducks, which primarily come from the Prairie Pothole Region of the Dakotas, as well as the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan . Spring breeding ground habitat conditions in these areas largely dictate how strong nesting efforts will be during any given year. Fortunately, the past few years have had mild, wet springs which provided waterfowl the kind of habitat necessary for successful nesting.

Contrast these recent conditions with those in northeastern Canada from 1986 to 1996. Atlantic population Canada geese returning to their nesting grounds on the Ungava Peninsula continually encountered snow cover and freezing temperatures that inhibited nesting and caused low hatch rates. These conditions caused Canada goose populations to plummet to historic lows, prompting a moratorium on hunting seasons throughout the Atlantic flyway for years.

So what can we expect to see this year?

The Atlantic flyway carries millions of birds out of the north every fall. A substantial number over-winter in the Chesapeake or use the shallow waters and wetlands here as a stop-over on their way further south. To get an idea of what waterfowl numbers in the Bay will be this winter, scientists start with the spring breeding grounds data.

• Atlantic population of migrating Canada geese numbers continue to rebound. During the spring 2006 survey, biologists in Quebec estimated the breeding population to be about 160,000 pairs which experienced a very strong nesting effort.
• Wood duck populations in the Atlantic flyway continue to grow by leaps and bounds, with a population growth of 4.6 percent per year for the last forty years.
• American black duck counts increased four percent to 190,700 since last year, but still remain 14 percent below the ten-year mean of 221,500.