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SATELLITE TELEMATRY STUDY ON OUR LATE & SPRING SEASON MIGRATORS

Today I had a good conversation about having the ability to track our late season ducks that always seem to show up just as the normal duck season is closing or has been closed for a few weeks. It is known that ducks do have a geographical home range and with in that home range you may have multiple population sects overlap one another. So the question is, where are these birds coming from? Where are they calling home for nesting and what may be their typical fall migration pattern and winter home range?

Most of what we know about ducks that come through Iowa are based on 1000s of birds being banded in the nesting grounds. You can only report these bands if you kill one. Which lies the problem. Typically our season is closed when these birds do show up and so we have no real way of knowing exactly what the geographical home range is of this population. Do we have a population home range that is different than that of those that migrate through Iowa earlier in the season and if so we need to know so that potential habitat in the said home range can be protected, enhanced. It would certainly show us potential areas that are vital to our region and to duck hunting.

I would like to request your feedback on this very issue as the information gained would be very valuable to our waterfowling future and help us manage a well fitted duck season structure that is relevant to the migration we receive during the fall. Extremely valuable information would be gained about the waterfowl population home range and migration patterns of waterfowl that migrate through the Mo Valley.

It is with further request that we also think about fitting Blue Bills and other potential divers that pass through this region in the spring with the same satellite telemetry tracking devices. Are these birds passing through our region in better shape? What areas are they utilizing as they make their spring flight through our region? If their is a problem with any of those areas / waters based on information gained, we could then utilize the data to address the problems. Potentially new focus areas that we know not of at this time or have paid little to no attention. How are these birds measuring up to the birds that travel up the Mighty Mississippi?

There is No question that such a study on both ends would provide valuable data that cannot be collected from banding alone or that of our present season structure.

So my last question is simple. Would You Support an effort in both of these categories in the Mo. Valley Region?

Sincerely,
Ed Thiele

With the utilization of satellite tracking, I see this as beneficial to the entire flyway. I am very interested to see how this effort progresses!

This is a good thing, speaking with some firsthand similar experience, the information obtained is extremely helpful but also really interesting.  Not lobbying for votes here, but check out the photo I just submitted in the fowlnation photo contest as it somewhat correalates to this topic.  This bird was taken in northern MN.

We are going to start raising some $$$ to buy some and place them on a couple of lucky ducks. We shot a video and made a CD of 2 days of goose hunting last yr that turned out ok so this yr we have a lot more video to make another CD of some duck and goose smacking we will try to sell. All $$ will help so if the CD doesn't sell I might end up dancing which will be scary.. LOL

I fully agree with Shawn on this in that it could be beneficial for the whole flyway and possibly even others if the birds breed in a different flyway than the Mississippi and end up making their way through/to it. Satellite tracking seems to be a great way to get the real story of where the birds spend their time. Banding is a great thing but, as was mentioned, someone must harvest the bird and then they also must report it; this leads to low "return on investment" if you will. With banding there is also only 2 data points that are reported, the banding location and the harvest...what about all the time in between? The satellite tracking can provide a great deal of detailed data that banding will never be able to but there is a place for both I believe. After all...we all still want to fill our lanyards with jewelry 

The Ringbill hen we shot was young, but the report the DNR sent us had the tracking information on this bird.  This was a radio transmitter, so the only time the birds location was recorded was when it flew close enough to a radio tower that would recieve its signal.  If I remember there was only 7 times it was triggered and there was no migration as of yet....so yes, I would agree with the satellite being more efficient.  What would be even better would be an eye in the sky cam on a big Canadian Honker

"What would be even better would be an eye in the sky cam on a big Canadian Honker" Now that would be kewl to watch the video when it flew over a buddies spread and they missed it. The beer would be tasting great listening to the excuses....