Fall Flight Surveys

• 2009 Fall Flight Surveys (Previously called Waterfowl Surveys)
• Past Waterfowl Surveys

Spring Waterfowl Surveys

• Pools 4-9 March 20, 2009
• Pools 4-9 March 30, 2009
• Winona District, Pools 4-6
• La Crosse District, Pools 7 & 8
• McGregor District, Pools 9 only

Refuge managers and biologists have long recognized that spring migrating waterfowl rely heavily on the Refuge as a feeding and resting stop-over point. On March 20 and 30, 2009, the Refuge completed aerial waterfowl surveys over Pools 4-9.

On March 20, 2009, refuge observers counted 147,000 birds on Pool 4-9. Surveys did not follow pre-established routes due to ice cover.

March 30, 2009 we had 241,000 birds; surveys followed standard fall transects. This data sheet included two columns that show refuge-wide totals for "open and closed areas." These designations are used in the fall during the hunting season when some parts of the refuge are closed to hunting. Most birds were in the open areas during this survey; exceptions Pools 5A and 7 where the majority of the duck habitat is within the closed areas. Human disturbance is not as great in the spring because fewer people are out and no hunting is allowed.

A substantial number of waterfowl remained on the Refuge into the week of April 13, 2009.

This month-long waterfowl stop-over confirms what biologists and managers have known all along: the refuge is crucial for spring migration as well as fall, when up to 500,000 birds are counted in the entire refuge, Pools 4-14.

The Refuge will also correlate scaup and coot distribution with incidence of trematodiasis, a parasitic infection the birds acquire from eating snails laden with certain trematodes that disrupt electrolytic balance and cause internal bleeding.