Arkansas Game and Fish Highlights; 5

I'm going home. That's good to be with you again we have Jim rafter who's the waterfowl biologist for the Game and Fish Commission is our guest. Jim welcome to the show. Thank you Lord. Jim's been with us before and as you might suspect we're going to talk about ducks and geese a little bit later on. Jim what was the your evaluation of this past duck season overall. Very inconsistent we have. Extremely non-typical good conditions in NE part of the state when the season opened in mid-November the prairie's down around stud yard the wooded area didn't have all that many birds. They had good Oni NE part of the state early we got in to do some good rainfall in late November early December. We had excellent duck going throughout the state and of course as everybody that hunts ducks is where we got a real good phrase which pretty well ran the ducks out of state

about mid part of December. Later on that month the latter part of the season was characterized by melting ice and birds were moving northward back into the state. Louisiana those areas that could be hunted had also excellent conditions. How many birds did we have in the state that say the peak. I would say the peak else normally we see the beat counts the first week in January we experienced peak counts in late November early December. It was an early migration flyway wide and our peak outside normal range about a million. We were looking at about nine hundred fifty thousand waterfowl. How do you arrive at that. They do Jim. We have conducted waterfowl surveys in conjunction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since 1955 and these are conducted generally during the first week in January because this is when our peak counts occur. All states do this it's primarily through the use of aircraft. Some

areas utilized both counts of vehicle counts this type of thing the primary through the use of aerial Well geneviève a little bit modest I think he's a pilot and he he's the one that does most of the surveying in Arkansas for the Game and Fish Commission How did you fly during the season. I flew once every two weeks. And this here again was primarily to keep in touch with what was happening the number waterfowl what time they arrived in the state how long we stayed any account change in distribution and not only do we use this information for management in the state and on a flyaway level but it was also. Made available to the public. We get a lot of telephone calls at Little Rock and of course we like to pass this on to those water filers and keep them abreast of what's happening. What kind of an airplane you fly on and how do you go about flying service. The last year or so we've been using a 172 and we usually fly 700 feet

above ground. Sometimes a thousand it will depend on on your species that you're looking at if it's a waterfowl you have to get down a bit lower to be able to differentiate between all species. Geese live a different story especially on large concentrations. You need to be about a thousand foot to where you can get a real good overall scope of what is there. You also differentiate between your Canada snow geese Y-fronts at that point and you and you move down a bit closer or closer. Little bit lower to the birds to get a break down as far as snow geese are concerned when you're blue Faison and snow phase you white faced. How do you keep up with the number that you see here and the number you see in the next place and so on. Try it you try to divide the birds up. Generally when you can get them you coming on high to Do Not Disturb in the first place you try to get you a good estimate right off the ground with them not moving you know no movement to them and then you coming around

again at a lower lower altitude in you. They obviously will take wing and generally they'll split up into about three or four groups or whatever just depends on the size of the group you're in you're looking at the first place and you will get up to a hundred you kind of double of thing hundred 200 400 800. This topic doesn't add up and you go by group by group while you try to fly right down the middle of them they'll flare want to group to you laugh and of course you turn around come back and take the count on the other group. And how do you record that this is this is done on tape recorder and you don't have time to do a lot of hand writing and make notes and this type of thing and we we put all of our data including water conditions and the unusual concentrations or anything of significance on tape recorder. It's later after the surveys are taken to the office and transcribed that into script. I know you can easily tell the difference between the

teal and Mallard and so on is a pretty easy to tell the difference say between mallards and black ducks. If so it would be difficult probably to to somebody who had never done it before and I had my problems initially in hand there's not much much problem on the water the black duck although you will shoot black ducks in with Mallard flies on the water and on undisturbed status they generally tend to hang together of course or a larger bird and they have all that dark color face to him which is really their dignifying trademark it's not much of one but it's about all you've got to go by. Well the reason I brought up the black that specifically the Black Death was put on the. List This last year's 100 point duck. Just try to keep people from shooting any black ducks do we get in Arkansas. Well we normally look at a little bit below five thousand forty eight forty seven something like this as it is long term average. Well so when you're talking about a million birds and

five or six thousand it's a very very small percentage certainly and it's not like some parts of the country where they have a high percentage of black hole. Now the black ducks are very important to the landing Flyaway the northeastern states and that's where the majority of the harvest takes place. Here again or finally is an international resource and what causes concern to the land Flyaway and on to the west of us or central flyway concerns us. We do get black ducks in the midst of Flyaway. Their numbers have been shown to be decreasing over the past several years. We're concerned with them and although we are not the black duck it's not a high harvest duck in Arkansas and we have gone along with the fish washer been trying to help reduce of course along that lines we have a short film on the black duck that was sent out by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. I thought you'd enjoy seeing it at this time. The Black Duck has given water fowl hunters many enjoyable and

challenging hours in the field for years now. Water Fowl hunters can repay some of the pleasure black ducks have given them. The black duck needs help its population has been declining for the past 25 years waterfowl managers are very concerned over the future of this duck. They are assessing how serious the decline is and why the population continued to drop several causes may be involved. These causes are complex and not completely understood as yet but they are being studied. It's a slow tough job and some progress is being made but positive results will take time. TIME The Black Doctor may not have. Waterfowl managers agree that action must be taken now to try to stop this long downward trend. That action is underway. State and Federal hunting regulations

placed further limits on the harvest of black ducks. The goal try to stabilize the population. Here is where you have the waterfowl Hunter are being asked to help. You can help by knowing and observing the harvest restriction where you hunt and by learning to identify the black ducks so you don't shoot one by mistake. Study the following sequences of black ducks carefully become familiar with the plumage of this duck and be able to identify it in flight and in the hand help other less skilled hunters learn to identify it. Get a copy of The Black Book get out of occasionally study it and carry it with you into the blind. Now for some pointers. The Black Duck can be easily mistaken for the hand of several kinds of puddle ducks. Even those who know ducks can be mistaken. Unlike the Mallard and

most other ducks the male and female black dog are very similar in appearance. Note the dark body and the light neck and head of the black dog. Now let's compare the Black Duck to the Mallard. This is a mallard him study this illustration. The Black Duck has a dark body that contrasts with the light under way. The Mallard has less contrast than this part of the body. Note the contrast between body and under wing in these three light sequences of black ducks. Here's

a mallard. Now compare the contrast between under wing and body of these Mallard hymns. Now another difference distinct white lines occur in front and behind the blue patch on the upper wing of the Mallard. These lines are missing or appear as a very faint line on the trailing edge of the black duckling. Let's look at the Mallard first. Note the two distinct white lines on the wing. Another example of the Mallard showing two white lines on the way. Now a black duck.

This particular black duck has a white line on the trailing edge even if the line occurred. It is never as pronounced as on the mouse. This illustration shows another difference. Note the light tail feathers on the hen Mallard. The black ducks are dark again like tail feathers on a mallard. Now a black duck. Its tail is dark. Let's review the privilege features we've identified the black dot has more contrast between under wing and body. The Mallard has two distinct

white lines on the upper wing. The Mallard has light tail feathers. The black ducks are dark. Now let's test our ability there were down to five some ducks in Flight three multiple choice questions will follow. Is it a mallard a wooden duck or a black. How many got it right. It's a mallard. Now is that amount owed. Let's go up for a gadol. A gavel. Finally is it a mallard a black duck or religion. I hope you all got it right. It's a black duck.

Please use caution when you should. It is better to pass up a shot rather than shoot a black duck by mistake. Jim you know the services use this technique on other species where states have a point system. Several years ago put the chemist back in the red head up to a hundred points and for those that are not hunters This means that we shoot a hundred point duck first. You're through. Correct. And so if you'd shoot a black buck a During the season or a canvas bag or a red head that's it. And I think I've read where they feel like that the camel's back is made somewhat of a comeback. The canvasback has reacted positively to the you know restrictive regulations and. Of

course it's you know the biology of the thing is is so critical and so there's not a lot of understand I could have very well been attributed to you know better breeding conditions and of course this is what we're under now in Arkansas throughout the Flyaway a five year period to stabilize regulations to see what effects are responsible for these kind of fluctuations of the Fish and Wildlife Service for years would vary the bag limit or the point system or the length of the season just from year to year to year and it's pretty hard to pinpoint anything is whether it was the breeding conditions up there or the wintering conditions and so this five year stabilization will certainly let the biologist take a definite look at it and be able to categorize it better. You bet it's taken a lot. The majority of the variables out the pitcher and of course we're getting back to nature and sometimes not a lot you can do about those conditions but at least we need understand of one of the things that I've enjoyed about water fell down through the years

when I had the opportunity of gotten out with my camera and taken some pictures of big concentrations and we got some slides lined up and this is what I shot a good long while ago on a reservoir from a fairly high bladder looking down the water just literally covered with mallards. And of course most of these are mallards. Might be something else in the picture if you look real hard you might see a pin tail but most of our ducks come here mallards on them you bet humans and we look about. Course your sayings are are changing somewhat to new conditions in Canada. Breeding habitat was but we generally look about 80 percent of our harvest. Now we're going talk a little bit about Canada geese and other types again. Thought this would be an appropriate topic to discuss. You know this year according to a midwinter survey which was conducted during the first week in January we endured about 94000 Canada geese in the state and

this is the most we've had in the state in how many years I have not gone back to check. You know for comparison purposes but I guess more than I have that I'm aware I'll say it's more than we've had time for more than we've had 25 you imagine you're right I'm at you're right but we have had had larger numbers and this is what several of those areas looked like we're looking about 500 or 5000 Canada geese per picture here. Now where were these OK these are actually taken up north. But we had these types of concentrations here in Arkansas as a matter of fact over in eastern part around Mariana we inventoried one. Bunch of birds that had about 11000. So I wanted to do. We had a lot of public interest in these and these birds and our season is close presently where working with the Mississippi Flyway Council and corsets 14 member state organization

in conjunction with the Canadian wild Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service we're trying to manipulate the Wildcat and these populations and this slide shows eight of the most commonly at sub species that you'd run into if you're hunting say from La Canada to Louisiana this time and those are stuffed birds these are so tough that he said these are study scales this was a workshop which was sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a council of big variation between the one of the top that's And the one that the bottom you can look down at Wild Waves from six to some cases the Maxima run up 15 pounds and some of the even been documented and you have your net and of course these studies and clued a lot. As far as movement locations times and movements and locations and these are some collars that we place on Canada geese to track their

movements. The one on our right is solar powered one on the left it's battery powered and their radio. Yes transmitters Yes. And these have been followed by airplanes and also observed at various concentration areas enough and fly away. This gentleman is holding a neck collar it simply has some alpha numeric numbers which are placed around the neck of the geese. Of course weights are very important and these these points are stressed considerably. The sex of the bird of course we need to maintain a about a 50/50 balance between. Sex is with out in the wild and of course the number of females in your fall flat has a lot to do with a number and the external features of Canada geese are identical between sexes is pretty much so. Pretty much so and it's hard to tell. You know when you work a lot of birds when you put when you put a band on a bird you need to know exactly what it is

not what it looks like. And of course the bird by looking at the tail feathers and it gets him down between the MTR and second class which is about all that we need for management purposes at this time. The length of the comb and over the top the portion of the build is measured this helps to do differentiate between the subspecies and help us learn a little bit more. As far as management concerned this is a picture of our project at commons. These are some bar areas that we have and close down a 40 acre and. Fan structure we've got 400 Canada geese down there that we have obtained from Illinois and Missouri. These were young the year when we obtained them and were holding them for three years. Their early migratory segment which we feel has more of an association with Arkansas than then other geese. And this

project is underway at this time where they joined by other geese this year. They get any kind of a goose flock that you put out is going to have a certain decoys and we saw the decoys fact we had it at certain times at Gammons about twelve hundred Canada geese in that area. They never actually mangle with these birds or anything like this but yes they do. This project was done in cooperation with the Department of Corrections Department of Corrections and the inmates actually did the labor. Yes. Yes we we were out. You know we save a lot of money by using their labor and of course we furnish the materials and we had some nasty to take place in the pans and this is a three year project the scope of the project is to hold these birds for three years release the birds let them fly north raise young and hopefully this three year period in the wintering ground in Arkansas will imprint into this area in the brain of a young of course imprinted young.

Another project which we've had a lot of success with is that the building of a resident population here in the state. These birds that you're looking at are Maxima subspecies say they're different from the aspect that this was a larger subspecies of Canada geese and they're more easily manageable they were thought to be extinct in their early 1900s and they were found up in Minnesota some park and of course they've been bred and now they're throughout the Flyaway. These birds. Are designed to be a resident type flock they are not migratory. Yes non migratory they will stay here year round and how many we brought in so far we have brought him close to 2000 or so now we have brought in this picture illustrates our last year's egg all we annually bring him for four to

six hundred Canada goose eggs. We've gone through Hatcher systems down in Russellville area. Tasty bird is at the new tasty bird Yes and one year at Tyson's fate will help us out and we were able to hatch these eggs as the success ratio of hatching been pretty high. Yeah now we had some refinement to make initially we were looking about 67 percent of the land the last hatch in 83 that we experienced was around as close to 90 percent. That's great it rated right up there with Mother Nature. And here's about one Dale bird after it's hatched after it's been put in Bruder and dried out fluffed out. And taste of bird furnished us with holding facilities and bird or house type environment that they were no longer using and we had fenced off some outside past year with water. We expose these birds as early

as we could to the outside environment as far as agreeing browse and we also had adult birds and I think that's probably going to be the best thing that you've done. Just put the adult birds in there and that way they get imprinted with goose talk rather than with people. You bet we kept human disturbance to a minimum and we put them out there as far as we could with those adult paired candies and they fit in real well and and we were were happy with the progress we're seeing. We've got a fenced in area right by the interstate at Clarksville. Yes that is right by the Clarksville sewer upon oxidation ponds. Yeah and you can see those birds from the highway and what a couple hundred of their reform. Yeah we've got to right now this probably for the 500 and they did some nesting there this lay there and we had had good good luck there we also had some good looking guns and also there's as I recall there were a number of reports of Canada geese that are outside of the fan zone up and down the Arkansas

River doing some nesting on their own in other places. Last year during spring we had 25 confirmed asked that were spotted and actually looked at. You remember we had mild floods along Arkansas River and I'm not sure we're not certain how many of those massed did make but we did have some confirmed nastiness tamps eggs and also gobbling survival from the mass. This stay at home non migratory concept is not really new is it. No no it's it hasn't been practiced a lot in the southern states but it's been around for probably 40 years or so 50 years in a management practice to the station up north and I know up in Colorado they have a big stay at home flock of Canada geese that just migrate around in Colorado you know and so we're hoping that this is going to come along or we're going to get more exits year and more belts for this broad I haven't made any contact having confirmation on the eggs we are expecting to get from 800 to fourteen

hundred Canada geese adults and possibly later on this fall. You know things are still in the mail. There's no confirmation but Boston out of 400 from whence Casa Sol last year is kind of a dry run for us we were rowing. Able to obtain a hundred birds so it's looking much better. So the prospects right now look a lot better for the goo situation that has been along that oh yeah of course this is a real cold winter. Drove a lot of geese down here that normally wouldn't have come this far south. Yes but this gave I think people a lot of false hopes they think. Well our restoration program is really working but we gotta give the weather some credit Sure. Sure it's a restoration programs are long term and you know Mother Nature didn't change around you know a year or two and the birds which we had 20 years ago it took several years for them to go right it's going to take a little while to get it but we've been busy tonight with the jam Walter waterfowl biologist with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission I mean this morning and hoping to in this same time next week to Lancelot

you.