Halfway done; duck numbers up from last year

We are almost halfway through our survey of Maine and the Atlantic provinces now, having completed Maine, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and much of Nova Scotia. Habitat conditions remain excellent for all the areas we have seen to date. Numbers of black ducks, ringnecks, goldeneyes and Canada geese are up everywhere we have surveyed. Numbers may not be as high as we saw in 2007, but they are much better than 2008. Waterfowl in this part of the world seem to like small wetlands and beaver flowages, rather than the larger wetlands that might see tremendous use out in the prairies. The Atlantic seaboard will never have the sheer numbers of breeding ducks that are found in the prairies, but it’s great to see the numbers up from last year.