Part 2

Research and Management

Methods developed over the years and applied systematically supply information which is necessary to intelligent management. Breeding pair and brood surveys indicate the distribution of nesting populations, and their success from year to year in hatching and raising their broods of young. The banding of waterfowl, carefully aged, sexed, and released, gives specific information on the travels of individual birds, on mortality, and on some phases of hunting pressure. Periodic air-counts in late summer and fall serve to measure, in a rough way, the distribution of different species during southward migration, and the rate of movement. Hunter-bag checks, carried out in the field during the shooting season, complement fall counts with regard to distribution at given points. A post-season sampling of hunter success, by mail, supplies data on additional aspects of hunting pressure, and gives an index of total kill. Finally, the annual winter count indicates the distribution and relative size of populations remaining after the shooting season ends. In combination, these methods are steadily increasing our knowledge of North American waterfowl, and in particular are providing the sort of “running inventory” which is the first requirement for intelligent management of this resource.

The Central Flyway Council is the clearing house for coordinated planning in this Flyway. It is a delegate organization, including in its membership administrative and technical representatives from the fish and game departments of all states and provinces in the flyway. A Flyway Representative has been assigned from the Fish and Wildlife Service. This group is concerned with all phases of waterfowl research and management in the flyway. The Central Flyway Council provides for an effective interchange of information between member agencies and assists in the coordination and integration of flyway management programs. These purposes have been furthered by regular meetings for the open discussion of flyway problems.

Flyway Council Approach

In early 1953, the Council and the Fish and Wildlife Service, acting jointly, adopted a flyway program which has been expanded and improved as factual information and experience dictate. This program outlines objectives and suggests methods and priorities for accomplishment. State game departments now pattern their activities around the flyway program.

Extending the cooperative idea, the Council has joined with corresponding organizations from the other flyways to form the National Waterfowl Council, which annually participates in the official discussion of continental and flyway management problems and regulations. From their inception, the flyway councils have been successful in promoting understanding and teamwork so necessary for the perpetuation of the waterfowl resource.

Your Responsibility

As an individual reader of this booklet, you have a part to play in the essential partnership between agencies and waterfowlers. Your part may be small and may take various forms, depending on the circumstances, but certainly it is there. Perhaps, having sent in one or two waterfowl bands in the past and having experienced the initial novelty of hearing where your birds came from, you now forget to report them. The next time you have this choice between reporting or forgetting a band, remember that its prompt recovery, with full data, might be the clue to some missing fact to improve your future gunning.

Hunter bag checks indicate crippling losses in the Central Flyway run to an average of about one quarter of the total kill. In certain marshes, early in the season, crippling can greatly exceed the one quarter loss. Shooting at birds on the fringe of effective killing range is a crippling practice and, moreover, as you probably know from observation is contagious. The usual effect of one “sky shooter” in a marsh is to force other gunners nearby to attempt impossible shots which increase crippling losses and soon ruin shooting for everybody. Controlling such practices lies solely in the hands of individual gunners. With large-gauge guns of modified bore, the shot-pattern that will produce kills should be consistent up to forty yards, a distance well within capabilities of the average gunner to hold and compute necessary lead. Successful duck shooting is a matter of good judgment. To avoid errors in judgment drive stakes in front of your blind at distances of thirty and forty yards to indicate safe killing range. Hold your fire until the feet of an incoming duck can be seen distinctly, for only then will the bird be in range. Good sportsmanship in duck blinds and marshes is equally as important as remaining friendly with your home neighbors. Train a good retrieving dog, and add to your day’s pleasure by watching him at work on downed birds.

Above all, remember that the future of waterfowling is partly in your hands—that your good sportsmanship and cooperation are as necessary to the work of the Central Flyway Council and its member agencies as their activities are to you.

PARTS OF A DUCK

CROWN FOREHEAD OCCIPUT CHEEK NAPE SIDE NECK BACK SCAPULARS RUMP CHIN THROAT FORENECK TERTIALS UPPER TAIL COVERTS BREAST TAIL UNDER TAIL COVERTS BELLY SIDE

LESSER COVERTS SPURIOUS WING GREATER COVERTS PRIMARIES SECONDARIES TERTIALS

TIBIA SCUTELLATE TARSUS HEEL HIND TOE TOE WEB

NAIL LAMELLAE LOWER MANDIBLE UPPER MANDIBLE NOSTRIL NAIL MALE FEMALE

WHISTLING SWAN (Cygnus columbianus)

ENTIRE PLUMAGE WHITE IMMATURE BIRDS HAVE GRAY-WHITE PLUMAGE WITH DULL PINKISH BILL YELLOW SPOT BLACK BILL SEXES ARE SIMILAR CARRIES NECK HELD ERECT HEAD OF MUTE SWAN SHOWING BLACK KNOB AND ORANGE BILL

CANADA GOOSE (Branta canadensis)

WHITE RUMP BROWNISH GRAY BODY AND WINGS BLACK BILL WHITE PATCH BLACK NECK ALL GEESE HAVE RETICULATE TARSUS SEXES ARE SIMILAR

SNOW GOOSE (Chen hyperborea)

WHITE BODY BLACK WING TIPS PINK FEET LIGHT PINK BILL BLACK “GRINNING” PATCH FEATHERS OF CHEEKS, BREAST AND BELLY OFTEN STAINED WITH RUSTY BROWN IMMATURE BIRDS TEND TOWARD A MORE GRAY PLUMAGE SEXES ARE SIMILAR

ROSS GOOSE (Chen rossi)

ABOUT SIZE OF MALLARD ADULT WARTY PROTUBERANCES ON BILL. NO BLACK “GRINNING” PATCH PINKISH BILL IMMATURE

WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE (Anser albifrons)

ADULT BARRED BELLY IMMATURE YELLOWISH BILL PALE BREAST WHITE PATCH BROWNISH FOREPARTS YELLOWISH LEGS

BLUE GOOSE (Chen caerulescens)

ADULT PINK FEET, IMMATURE DUSKY FEET IMMATURE PINK BILL WHITE NAIL BLACK “GRINNING” PATCH WHITE HEAD AND NECK SEXES ARE SIMILAR

PUDDLE OR DABBLING DUCK CHARACTERISTICS (Anatinae)