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May 15, 2023
Preparations for the 2023 Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Surveys were hurried this year as the aircraft we were using was just finishing up other missions and had to go through a maintenance inspection. While in maintenance, the heavy remote sensing equipment used for the previous mission was uninstalled and the aircraft was configured for the waterfowl survey which consisted of removing all but the front two crew seats, installing our recording systems, and loading specialized survival and camping gear for our time in Canada.
Next it was off to Mississippi to rendezvous with our observer, Pat Stinson, Refuge Manager for Red River National Wildlife Refuge. Pat has extensive experience in aerial surveys for waterfowl and other wildlife including previous work in Canada, wintering waterfowl surveys across the southern states, and specialized surveys in the desert southwest, mountains, and offshore. I, myself have been surveying western Ontario and northern Quebec for over a decade and so have had opportunity to witness changes to these landscapes over the years first-hand.
May 17
Today is our first day of data collection in western Ontario. There is still ice on some of the lakes as the Spring came late to a broad swath stretching from the James Bay down to Lake Superior, however the habitats look great along these transects.
May 26
We have transitioned from western Ontario over to northern Quebec. The landscape here is rocky with many deep wetlands and few trees and is typically sought out by scoter, long-tailed ducks, and Canada geese. This year conditions are noticeably drier and most shallow ephemeral wetlands can be easily accessed by nest predators.
June 2
We are all finished up with our crew assignments and are crossing the border back to the states today. Already wildland fires are sparking up behind us as a result of the dry conditions. Overall, we were happy with the numbers of black ducks and Canada geese we found, and encouraged by the overall habitat conditions in all of our areas.
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