USFWS Survey 2009/10
 

I was again selected to participate in the duck harvest survey by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. I sent in the wings of 20 ducks which they analyze to determine if the birds or adult or juvenile. The results are below.


6 Blue Winged Teal - 3 adult - 3 Immature
3 Green Winged Teal - 2 adult - 1 Immature
5 Gadwall - 2 Adult - 3 Immature
3 Wigeon - 1 Adult - 2 Immature
2 Pintail - 2 Adult
1 Northern Shoveler - 1 Immature

They notified me that I would again be selected to participate in the study and will receive my wing envelopes shortly. Time for Teal.

hey thats cool, I can't wait for teal and duck season! hopefully they don't close too many areas or lower limits.

Next year I'm only going to shoot 4.5 year old dominant drakes...

sounds like a good idea... me too

Cool, the biologists in the refuge taught me how to recognize the juveniles by the tail feathers. If the end of the feathers has a "Vee" they are younglings. If the tail feathers are fully rounded they are adults. I sent them some wings one year, it's kinda fun, kinda a hassle.

I'm only gonna shoot the non-typical ones though, ya know, the ones with more feathers on one wing than the other...

That's some good info, I'm gonna have to remember that if I ever kill a duck again, just to see what the ratio is of juvies to mature ducks killed.

Quality Duck Management...

lol to hell with that, I'm shooting anything that's legal!!! I only go on about 2 hunts a year so I try to make the most out of it.

Only shooting green heads with at least 3 curly tail feathers. "Let em grow"

hahaha 3 feathers or better huh :*****: Any minimum spread between them?

don't want to hijack but i talked to my good buddy (Ernie) he showed me a picture of him on the front page cover of the Cajun Outdoors magazine , he did the fishing misson, catch 10 sac a lait over a pound, congrats Ernie, i taught that was pretty cool, i was thinking of doing the one of catching a red, speck and a flounder, it happens 90% of the time for me but the 1 time that i try to do it my luck it won't happen.

Yep, a lot of the things aren't that hard to do, but hard to do the one time you try and do it. I've been out on dozens of trips where they were "tearin'em up" and the camera has a way to shut things down.

This year I'm only using a 22......gonna give them a fighting chance...

yep, i can believe it, nice magazine you got there, first time i checked one out.