# Flyways changing??



## Bob Kellam (Apr 8, 2004)

Do you agree or disagree that the migration, flyways and waterfowl habits within them are changing? What changes have you noticed since you started hunting waterfowl? How long have you been a waterfowl hunter?

Bob

......................................................................................................

Scientists and hunters are noticing a shift in migratory bird patterns as winters warm and wetlands fail to freeze.
By WILLIAM YARDLEY, New York Times 
Last update: December 16, 2007 - 11:06 AM

RICH HILL, MO. -- After 32 years of hunting ducks in the wetlands of Missouri, Chuck Geier knows when temperatures will drop and waters will freeze. That means he also knows when the birds will fly and hunting will be best.
Except that much of what he knows is now in question.
"It used to be by Dec. 6, this place was frozen," said Geier, 51, a national sales manager for a telecommunications company. "That's not true anymore."
From the "prairie potholes" of Canada and the Upper Midwest to the destination states of Arkansas and Louisiana, the rhythms of the cross-continental migratory bird route known as the Mississippi Flyway are changing.
In Missouri, where the average winter temperature has been on a striking ascent, hunters say birds are arriving later and sticking around longer before bolting for warmer redoubts. Elsewhere, wetlands are not freezing over the way they once did.
As hunters point their shotguns toward the sky and fire, a question echoes in the spent powder: What, please, is up with the ducks?
"People say it's cycles, every five to seven years, but it's just been too long," Geier said of the warming trend, which he traces to the late 1990s. "It's a wake-up call."
Five-year averages for "duck use" days on some conservation areas in Missouri show peaks that come a week or more later in the year than do the 30-year averages. Hunters have said in state surveys that they want later hunting seasons, reflecting the later arrival of major weather systems that move birds into the state.
The Mississippi Flyway is one of four main migratory bird routes that bisect the country. Hunters in some other regions of the country have also reported shifts in duck behavior.
"We're having milder falls, later winters," said Dave Erickson, chief of the wildlife division for the Missouri Department of Conservation. "What we don't know is if the trend that affects migration and the hunters' desire for a longer hunting season is a temporary fixture or a permanent fixture."
Sure, science is elusive. Scientists and state wildlife officials say there are not clear-cut data to support the reports of changes in duck behavior, but the patterns are familiar. They note that various other animal species, including songbirds, frogs and foxes, are developing different patterns for breeding and migration.
"We're seeing northern range shifts of lots of birds and butterflies," said Camille Parmesan, a professor of conservation biology at the University of Texas and a member of the U.N. panel that was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its work documenting climate change.
Many hunters, wildlife officials and scientists say the changes have added new mystery to waterfowl migration and to how to manage it. Against an uncertain future, state wildlife agencies and conservation groups that cultivate waterfowl populations are reexamining some longstanding conservation approaches.
Why, after all, some wildlife experts ask, should money still be poured into cultivating traditional breeding grounds like the prairie potholes of the Upper Midwest if some climate forecasts prove true and those areas get too dry for ducks?
Some experts on Pacific salmon argue for diverting conservation resources away from areas where water temperatures are forecast to become too warm for survival. Some big game experts say deer and elk in many western states might not leave higher elevations for traditional hunting areas because the weather will be milder. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this is already happening. Other animals, such as moose in Minnesota, are disappearing from the southern latitudes that they have traditionally inhabited.
Some hunters are just as quick to blame farming practices of big agricultural companies or government feeding programs for changes in duck behavior. In many areas, wildlife have also changed their behavior when their habitat has been damaged by development and when it has been improved by conservation efforts such as converting farmland to forests.
"We were conservationists before 'green' was even a popular word," said Allen "Horntagger" Morris, who lives in Jackson, Mo. Morris dismissed "so-called global warming" as having no impact on hunting. Some biologists are divided, too. National conservation groups typically are more inclined to say climate change is already affecting wildlife and hunting.
"This actually is happening," said Douglas B. Inkley, a senior scientist at the National Wildlife Federation and an author of "The Waterfowler's Guide to Global Warming."
"The evidence is there," Inkley said, noting bird migration, changes in amphibian behavior and even effects on lobsters in warming Atlantic waters. "We have both the scientific and ... the anecdotal, and then on top of that we have the theoretical based on climate models."
Virginia Burkett, the chief scientist for global change research at the U.S. Geological Survey and a member of the U.N. panel that shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, said scientists have already tracked changes in the breeding and migration patterns of many species because of warming, although they have not focused on game animals. 
Red foxes are moving north, Burkett said. More than two dozen types of birds are nesting earlier. Three species of warbler are expected to move completely out of the United States. Squirrels in Canada and frogs in the United States have had their breeding patterns affected.
Burkett, a former director of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said that while development and land-use changes have had the most impact on wildlife in the past, "the effect of climate is much more likely to be a player in the loss of wildlife in the coming decades." 
She warned against wildlife managers using previous patterns to manage for the future.
"Relying on historical data alone," she said, "can lead to maladaptation, and the setting of seasons and bag limits that may no longer sustain populations, for both fish and wildlife."


----------



## fowl_play (Mar 31, 2006)

i can tell a differance with snow geese espescially, it seems to me that their flyway in the spring is moving westward.


----------



## slough (Oct 12, 2003)

About 4 of the last 5 falls have been pretty warm in ND and subsequently waterfowl have arrived and stayed around much later than 'usual'. Heck, it's hardly been worth hunting during October the last few years because it's just been too warm for much of any migration to occur. Then again, I think it was 2003 when it was -13 on the first Saturday of deer season (Nov. 8 I believe).


----------



## dfisher (Oct 12, 2007)

I think ducks tend to follow the water. I know that in Ohio, when I lived there and even this past year, the lake that my buddies (and I) hunt had low water and they had a slower than average season. I talked to my friend about it a week or so ago and he said they put down about 175 ducks this year. In a high water year it goes about twice that. Just didn't see the birds, later, that they normally do.

Happy holidays, 
Dan


----------



## Sasha and Abby (May 11, 2004)

I can see it here in SC every year. We used to winter fully 1/3 of the Historic Atlantic Flyway's population of migratory birds. Now, these birds are shortstopped north of us and never make it this far due to food and water being available there.

In the 60's and 70's; we had mallards that would rival Arkansas. They are no more.


----------



## 4CurlRedleg (Aug 31, 2003)

> Now, these birds are shortstopped north of us and never make it this far due to food and water being available there.


Exactly. The climate will not stay in this pattern forever, there will be "real" winters in the northland again.


----------



## HUNTNFISHND (Mar 16, 2004)

I have been hunting east central ND for about 20 years and over that time the fall migration has definitely been moving farther west every year. Now wether it is due to the climate changes, farming practices or hunting pressure I am not sure.


----------



## mshutt (Apr 21, 2007)

I wish the migration would push east...and stop ON the Red River...this is only a dream...but would be great if the migration moved back this way!


----------



## drakeslayer10 (Jan 21, 2006)

i 2nd that motion


----------



## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

Isn't that a.....I want all attitude????

Why couldn't you say it should be more spread out and cover a larger area including .....where I live. :beer:

No offense but that same attitude is always evident every fall in the southern states.....get them all down here as early as possible,I don't care about any others.


----------



## HUNTNFISHND (Mar 16, 2004)

Bob and Ken,

What have you guys noticed over the years? What has changed since the 60's?

I'm sure you have more years under your belts then most here. :wink:


----------



## theodore (Nov 3, 2007)

Weather, water and food influence migration. There is no "normal", change is normal. Pressure only has an effect in a very localized area.


----------



## headshot (Oct 26, 2006)

We have noticed the light geese are farther west and stick around longer in the spring. Time for SERM to step up and change the season dates. I hunt an area that we call snow goose ally. That area has grown from a 5 mile wide corridor to and area that covers 3 townships. The geese are here till june when they were usually gone by mid may.


----------



## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

Obviously the biggest change is that the Snows build up in Canada and not ND.We had great hunting from the opening day till freeze-up in the 60's,70's,80's and early 90's.

Second change is that as the population has grown they have spread out further to the west.They haven't moved the flyway west......it is now just wider and pretty much covers all of ND in both spring and fall.

Third.....Huge increase in numbers and distribution of Giant Canadas.

Whitefronts have moved further west also.Clark Sayler used to get 25,000 Specks in the 60's.

Ducks basically aren't any different than 40 years ago other than there is a huge increase in hunter numbers and everyday pressure as compared to then.So they leave the state earlier now.....with kind of a dead period in the middle of the season before the northern ducks move down.


----------



## Chuck Smith (Feb 22, 2005)

I Have noticed a change in Mn where I live. We used to get thousands of ducks on the creeks in the winter. But now not as many. With the change of the Mississippi river and the way the corp of engineers have done to the river. Also with the farming practices.....20 years ago you did not have as many chisel plowed fields in Nov. as you do now. Most are all plowed up by thanksgiving. So the birds have shifted to where the food is.


----------



## Bob Kellam (Apr 8, 2004)

I agree with Ken on the geese, however for ducks I have to disagree a little.

Migration patterns have shifted to the west, when I was a youngster Minnesota used to be a Mecca for waterfowl hunters, we had "soil bank", the rough equivalent of CRP today, there were few if any 6 and 7 figure lake homes and wetlands both temporary and permanent were all over the place in MN.

I guess what I am trying to say is that waterfowl migration patterns, populations and hunting has changed and I fee it is primarily because of habitat. What do ducks do. they fly, they mate, they eat and they sleep. when a flyway pattern that has a decent amount of what they need is there they will find it. the dry years of the 80's the migration and flyway pattern were all screwed up.

As far as the migration of northern birds it seems to be getting to the point of hunting ducks during deer season. I am not sure if the later migration is because of "global warming" or because of changing farming practices. It may be a combination of both...

There has been several distinct weather cycles since the early 60's from dry to wet and many points in between the extremes.

There were a lot more ducks in the 60's and 70's.


----------



## vscogin (Oct 31, 2007)

I have been hunting in south Louisiana since 1947 and have seen many chances. In my opinion the change to no till farming has changed the migration pattern,especially for mallards,more than anything else.Another very damaging thing is the proliferation of mud boats and air boats. Ducks no longer have any place to rest. If waterfowl managers were really concerned about keeping waterfowl hunting they would ban them on public marshes. Another thing that would help would be to limit each hunter to one box of shells or less.Do this and you would find out who the real duck hunters were.


----------



## pintailtim (Apr 6, 2007)

I think it is all food related....farming practices...no till instead of chisel plow leaves access to more waste grain...keeps the birds around longer.


----------



## just ducky (Apr 27, 2005)

vscogin said:


> ...Another very damaging thing is the proliferation of mud boats and air boats. Ducks no longer have any place to rest. If waterfowl managers were really concerned about keeping waterfowl hunting they would ban them on public marshes...


Amen! Here in Michigan, there are areas that were virtually inaccessible 20 years ago where the ducks could rest...refuges if you will. Not today. We have mud motors and airboats going places that I never dreamed a boat would or could go. You can debate about whether this is good or bad, but the fact is it has seriously affected the ducks.


----------

