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MESSAGES IN THIS FORUM ARE PRESENTED AS NEWEST TO OLDEST.

I was at my favorite duck watching spot last Thursday September 20th and saw the first pintails had migrated. There was a group of nine still in eclipse plumage but could tell there was both hens and drakes in the bunch. This spot is on the San Diego River near the San Diego coast. They may have come in due to the full moon. They were accompanied by about five widgeon. These had to be migrators as no Pintails spend the summer in this area. Any idea where they might have come from? Just goes to show Pintails are early migrators.

Moderator's Response: John, I can't reliably tell you where these birds came from. We do know that beginning in early to midAugust, pintails begin arriving back in California at all major wintering areas at about the same time. Based on fall data from our PTT-tagged birds the past three years, the early birds to the Sacramento Valley have come from the prairies of Alberta. We marked some birds at Point Magu previously, and they didn't go too far, most to the San Joaquin Valley. So, the origin of your San Diego birds could be near or far. Sorry I can't be of more help!

Will the survey be conducted in 2003? I noticed that some of the South Texas birds migrated close to where I live. Would mind trying to track one on next years migration.

Moderator's Response: Chris, Yes we will be doing another field season in spring 2003, and that will in all likelihood be the final year. Tune in about December as we fire up the web site for this last migration. Thanks for your interest.

Any word yet on pintail production this year? Everyone is bracing for bad news. Any idea why the spring surveys showed such a drop in Alaska? I would have expected numbers there to go up or at least remain the same given the poor conditions in the Canadian prairies. Finally, it seems that there was a far higher mortality rate in your study compared to last year, which naturally seems consistent with the drop in overall numbers. Maybe this is a dumb question, but if this is the case is it merely a fluke or do you think it is another symptom of the overall decline. Thanks for the great work this year, and we'll keep hoping for more rain in the prairies.

Moderator's Response: John, There is no official monitoring of duck production by species. Overall number of broods declined 35% from 2001 and were 25% below the long-term average. I'm sure pintails faired poorly. As for low numbers in Alaska, the pintail migration was very late arriving there and many birds were probably counted in the prairies or other northern areas on there way north - so, an artifact of survey timing in an odd year. Mortality was higher, and I think related to adverse spring weather during migration. Any mortality rates determined with transmitters can only be viewed as indices, however, and I don't know if high mortality actually affected the general population.

I am curious to know where the Grande Prairie California Pintail is located, as it has been here for some time. Also will the map feature be up and running again? I have watched with great interest the number of Pintails which pass through the Peace Country. Reg

Moderator's Response: Reg, Thanks for your note. As of August 23rd, bird #12888 is at Latitude 55.225N Longitude 118.353W. This is a good quality location, and appears to be just southwest of Bezanson, south of Highway 43 and just west of the Smoky River. If you live in that area, maybe you could run out there and take a look. Write back and let us know if you see pintails or other flocked ducks in that area. The voltage on this PTT is dropping to low levels, so I expect it will fail before too long. As to the maps, I don't know exactly when the interactive map feature will be back on line. Sorry.

The transmitters appear to have relatives short life spans. I assume this is by design, based on my review of the study objectives? I assume that transmitters with more longevity would be too expensive, too large, etc.?

Moderator's Response: William, Transmitter life is a function of transmission frequency and power, which we specify, and battery capacity. We programmed transmitters to last through June this year. By reducing the frequency and power output for each transmission, we could extend the life of the unit. However, we would miss stopover locations and obtain a greater frequency of poor quality locations. The large number of transmitters going off line in March and May this year, appears to have been predation or other mortality factors.

I was wondering if you had seen the May breeding pair numbers. It's hard for me to believe the numbers. They state that pintail populations are down another 48% to what would be close to an all time low. The empirical evidence that I have observed as a hunter is that the pintail population has been stable or grown over the past three years. Does USFWS count in any areas on the west coast of Alaska where your tag birds seemed to have migrated? Do you have any thoughts on the population status and health of the species from your research? Thanks for doing such valuable work.

Moderator's Response: John, The 1.79 million IS a new all time low. The big drop in population this year is at least partially the result of the severe drought in Prairie Canada, Montana, and western Dakotas. When pintail encounter this situation, they "overfly" to northern areas. When they do, because many settle in unsurveyed areas, the count is biased low. Thus, there are more pintails in the world than the survey indicates, but the North American population is not growing, and is trending downward.

I have noticed that none of the Pintails have gone to Russia this year any ideas why. Also I was curious if you or your staff have drawn any helpful conclusions are Pintail migration routes as a result of your project.

Moderator's Response: We don't know why none of our pintails reached Russia this year. Could have had something to do with the unusually cold spring weather that seemed to delay migration and was also related to the very low proportion of birds that migrated directly to Alaska over the ocean from Southern Oregon/Northeast California(SONEC); these birds instead, for the most part, hop-scotched up the coast. We have: 1) identified specific migration routes and chronology of migration along the routes; 2)identified spring stopover areas used most frequently by pintails; and 3) compared distribution of pintails relative to survey boundaries of the Annual North American Breeding Population Survey. All will aid conservation.

We found out that Pintail ducks, on average, lay fewer eggs than other ducks so we did a mathematical comparison. To make a simple model, we did our comparison showing each pintail having 3 babies and each Mallard having 4 babies. Our data showed: Year 1: P=1,M=1; Year 2: P=3,M=4; Year 3: P=9,M=16; Year 4: P=27, M=64; Year 5: P=81, M=256. Our conclusion is that in just a short time, having an average of just one more baby can make a big difference in whole populations. We believe that Mallards and other kinds of ducks that lay more eggs are "edging out" the Pintail population. If ducks are like humans, they gain power in numbers. The larger more aggressive groups of ducks will naturally dominate a habitat, overtaking food, water, shelter, and space.

Moderator's Response: You young scientists may be on to something! Every hunting season, a few chosen duck hunters collect a wing from each duck they bag and send them to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Once the hunting season is over, biologists look at the wings and determine how many are from young and adult ducks. This gives an "age ratio" of young to adult, and the higher the ratio, the more young ducks that were in the population. Biologists have learned at these "wing bees" that mallards generally produce more ducklings per adult than pintails do, for some of the reasons you mentioned. But, pintails have been very abundant in the past, and the trick is to learn what conditions have changed that now limit their populations.

We think that the Pintails' instinct to migrate early may be having a detrimental effect on their population since many of the ducks who migrated early died. We think they want to migrate early because it gets warm in Texas so early. To find out, we wanted to graph weather reports for the past 20 years to see when temps started warming up. However, we did not have time to do that so we talked to many adults to find out how weather patterns have changed over the years. Many people told us that Lubbock winters are much more mild than they were 20 years ago. Do you think early migration leads to sickness in the birds when the cold spells come later? Or do you think there is simply not enough food and water until the spring rains come?

Moderator's Response: Great questions! Early migration would subject ducks to incidents of bad weather, which are so common in spring. As you know, weather can go from warm and sunny to very cold and snowing in a matter of hours, especially out your way. Ducks have been reported killed by ice storms and other weather events. However, over the long term, if early migration consistently killed large numbers of ducks annually, then probably the birds would change their behavior and leave later. Drought was a real problem in Texas this year, and could have made birds more susceptible to the very cold, snowy late spring that occurred. Unfortunately, the transmitters we use don't allow us to know exactly what causes mortality.

During our observation of the Pintails released in Texas we saw that several died during migration. We are interested in knowing if this was a normal percentage that died? If their dying was due to drought conditions here in their wintering area or if bad weather conditions played a part in this?

Moderator's Response: That's a very good question, and one I wish I could answer. First, though, not all of the birds that stopped providing locations can be considered to have died. Some may have resulted from technical failure of the transmitters. But, it does appear an unusually large percentage of the tagged hens didn't survive. In the past, there have been reports of bad weather causing migrating ducks of various species to die. Unfortunately, the type of transmitter we are using does not give many clues on cause of death. We'll hope for better luck next spring!

I have 2 questions: 1. Only two pintail ducks, 17468 and 12897 seemed to fly together into Nebraska and then split off in different directions. No other pintails seem to fly together. Do the North Texas pintails fly together at all on their migration north or are they independent in their flights? 2. The Gulf Coast pintails seemed to stay together or in close proximity going in almost a straight north direction. there were some variations, but the paths are very close. Why do the north Texas pintails fly through the edge of Oklahoma northward and the Gulf Coast pintails fly through central Oklahoma and northward? Do the north Texas pintails and the Gulf Coast pintails ever fly together?

Moderator's Response: 1. Actually, 17468 went through Kansas to South Dakota, then to North Dakota and Saskatchewan, Alberta and Alaska. The 3 North Texas hens that went through Nebraska were 12897, 17003, and 17513. The schedules were different for all these. 2. Pathways north are related to longitude of the starting locations. The farther east the wintering area, the farther east the spring migration route north. Our sample size is really too small to make any generalizations on associations of different populations during spring migration. We might have enough data after next year. Thanks for your questions.

Great Work!! This study is awesome. I'm glad to see science at work. It is very interesting that the birds are migrating to where the water is. Do the traditional counts for pintail for hunting seasons etc. include any birds in Alaska? Just from your two years of research it seems as if breeding hens may be shifting their efforts to Alaska versus the traditional prairie region. Have they made any adjustments in their counts for this? Could this explain at least some of the population decline? Are the birds as prolific and successful in Alaska as they were in the traditional Prairie areas. Thanks for the great work.

Moderator's Response: John, Pintails are routinely surveyed in Alaska as part of the annual May Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey, which includes the prairies. During droughts on the prairie, pintails "overfly" this area and settle in more northern regions, thought by some to be less productive than the fertile more southern regions. Pintail populations in Alaska and other northern areas are a mixture of birds homing back and those displaced from the prairies. We don't know if productivity is different between these two groups. The breeding population counts tend to drop during droughts because a greater proportion of pintails settle in unsurveyed regions; but, this doesn't mean the actual population has declined.

I too have become hooked on this web site. It seems as though you are collecting information never before obtained. While the existing maps are faciniating, I was wondering if it would be possible to add a new map to show just the latest location of all the pintails? Will this program be extended to other species?

Moderator's Response: Martin, Thanks for your interest in our project. As to your first question, we provide a "Where are they now?" map that shows just what you are after - the latest location of all active birds. You'll find it on the Migration page. We do not anticipate adding additional species, but we will be continuing the Texas work next year on pintails.

I found your website last year and have been hooked ever since. The science of migration is fascinating. I am wondering how the cold weather in Alberta this spring will affect migration and/or nesting. Apparently the Calgary area got hit with a ton of snow last week. Do the birds stick around and wait for warm weather or move somewhere else? I think I read once that pintail are relatively late season nesters, so hopefully no problem, and besides, it is good to see the precipitation. By the way, have you folks heard one way or the other whether the wet spring has had much impact on conditions in western Alberta? It was so dry up there last year, so maybe that is just wishful thinking. Thanks, john.

Moderator's Response: Pintails, actually are early nesters and, as such, are vulnerable to spring snow storms. If the snow is not too deep, the hens will stay on the nests, but will desert the nest if the snow gets over about 6 inches and persists. Conditions are still basically dry, too dry for good pintail nesting over a wide area. Migration seems to be a week or two behind schedule this year, both via inland routes and along the coast to Alaska.

I have been following the drought watch reports along with the migration paths of this years birds. It appears as if they has been some improvements in the amounts of precipitation falling on the prairies of Canada. Do your sources on the ground confirm this and as a result is there sufficient improvement in nesting conditions to prevent this years birds from by passing the so called duck factory for better but less productive areas in the north west territory or Alaska.Thank-you for your time and I will continue to monitor this interesting study.Blair.

Moderator's Response: There has been some improvement in precipitation, but significant only in the Red Deer area of southern Alberta. Of the 12 PTT-tagged pintails that were in Alberta early this week, all but 3 are in northern Alberta or have recently moved to the Yukon or Northwest Territories. I think most of the birds will move on through the heart of prairie pintail nesting range again this year.

On my way to work yesterday (5/6), I saw a pair of Pintails using a vernal pool off of Grant Line Road (East Sacramento County). Do you think they were passing through or is the hen likely to be nesting in the area? How common/rare is it for Pintails to nest in this part of the valley?

Moderator's Response: Virtually no pintail nest in the Central Valley north of Modesto. The bird that had been at Cosumnes Preserve (17730)departed for British Columbia's Graham Island in the Queen Charlottes on the 25th of April, and my guess is that this pair will follow shortly, if they haven't already.

Can we assume that the remaining birds in NE CA and OR will migrate to AK? It appears that the CA birds that linger in these areas the longest, migrate to AK. After nearly three years of this study, are you beginning to get a sense of what percentage of the CA pop. breeds in AK? Is it different from prior estimates?

Moderator's Response: The remaining California and southern Oregon pintails will likely head off to Alaska within a week or so, if past year's are a guide. We can't rule them out hanging around to nest down here, though. About 25% of the birds have been migrating directly to Alaska over the ocean - a few of these have gone on to Russia; a variable number ultimately reach Alaska via overland routes through the prairies or other Canadian provinces, e.g., B.C. and NWT. There are no previous data, because so few band recoveries occur in spring. We don't know, unfortunately, if any of these birds are attempting to nest - we only know where they are.

I'm up here in Juneau, Alaska for the summer and am surprised to see pintails here. Here in Juneau there is about a 3,000 acre refuge it's in the Gastineau Channel, it has birds on it already primarily mallards and GW teal but there are some pintails. A few widgeon too. On the way up here I drove to Prince Rupert BC Can from my home in California. Across BC I saw some pintails too. They were about 100 miles west of Prince George.

Moderator's Response: Mike, You needn't be surprised to see pintails in southeast Alaska now. Several of our PTT-tagged birds are up there (Yakutat area, Cook Inlet, Bering Glacier southeast of Copper River Delta). The area 50+ miles west of Prince George along the Nechako River (and highway 16)and the Babine Lake area 100 miles west northwest of Prince George have been used by our PTT pintails in past years, but not this year so far. Anahim Lake north of Nimpo 150 miles southwest of Prince George is temporary home to one of our birds (#17708) right now, though. Thanks for your report and have a great summer!

Wow..this study is awesome.I was wondering if you guys are going to do this study again next year on the Texas coast. These birds followed the river up north, right by my house. I find that absoutly intregining and awesome. Hope all goes well and the praries get wet!

Moderator's Response: Pintail Charlie, Yes we plan on continuing the work in Texas next year. We are disappointed so few of the hens fitted with transmitters on the Gulf Coast are providing migration data this spring; excessive PTT failure or mortalities are to blame; hopefully, there will be more marked birds going by your house next year! As far as the prairies getting wet, see my response to Dave in the previous message - not good news, at least for Alberta.

We have been having a very late spring this year around Edmonton, Alberta. A few Canada geese just started to arrive and sit on the frozen ponds within the past week but as of tomorrow (April 10) we will finally get our belated spring with temperatures slated to be well above 0 Celsius (freezing) for next few days. Southern Alberta temperatures will be in the +10-18 Celsius (50-70 F) range...so we can expect a bunch of birds to move quickly further north to Alberta. Wish we had some precipitation to make them stay and pump out the ducklings but alas we're dry again. Any signs that the birds that stage around northern CA or southern OR are nesting?

Moderator's Response: Dave, Bad news about Alberta being dry again! Dry ponds make no ducklings. field folks engaged in Klamath Basin work suggest pintails are not nesting yet. Radio-marked pintail hens have not been noted in upland situations as yet. About 600 pairs of pintail nest on the Klamath Basin NWR complex on average.

I am enjoying this years study with the addition of the Texas and New Mexico projects. I have noticed this years' migration appears to be alittle behind schedule. During the two previous years we had birds back on the nesting grounds by April 1st. Is there an explanation for the delay (ie. weather). Do the hens arrive on the nesting grounds with a mate and how long after arriving does serious nesting efforts begin. Continued good luck on this years project and I am keeping my fingers crossed for lots of spring rain. Sincerely, Blair Summey

Moderator's Response: Blair, Migration is way behind this year owing to extended winter weather in the prairies of Canada and the Great Plains in the U.S. Last year the first pintail reached Alberta on March 23rd! Hens do arrive with a mate, having paired during the winter. Nesting can begin very soon after arrival, but this varies with local conditions of snow cover, open water, etc. There has been late snow, which is continuing, in the prairies.

Great compliments for your continuous effort in understanding pintail ecology. Do you think that the three years data will permit you to understand mortality rates of pintails during late winter and spring migration ? If yes there is something new on this subject coming from your data? Thank you very much for your answer.

Moderator's Response: Michele, Our study is not designed to determine mortality rates. The data provided by satellite transmitters are too imprecise for that. However, we have estimated winter mortality using pintails tagged with standard transmitters in the Sacramento Valley (Miller et al. 1995. Survival of adult female northern pintails in the Sacramento Valley, California. Journal of Wildlife Management 59(3):478-486). With the satellite transmitters, it is too difficult to differentiate technical failure from bird mortality.

What size flocks do the pintails generally fly in when making a migration? How high up will they go when making long travels? Thanks, Mike

Moderator's Response: Data for waterfowl in general suggest their elevation is related to what they are flying over. Inland, over mountains, they can reach several thousand feet. Over the ocean, they may fly just above the wave tops up to a couple hundred feet. Flock size is variable, too, probably in the hundreds. In ducks, migration is probably done at night. Birds take advantage of following winds and other meteorological events to assist efficient long distance flight.

Hi, Mike. Do you see any benefit to 'enriching' the map backgrounds in order to better illustrate the pinsat information in relation to lakes, towns, cities or other geographic themes? It would certainly enhance the experience for the viewer, but would it benefit the study at the same time? Regards Don Watson Lethbridge, Alberta

Moderator's Response: Hi Don, For "enriched" maps, use the interactive maps feature. As you zoom in, additional detail is provided. We are, however, working on providing more detail on the general migration maps too. We will be using very detailed geographic coverages for data analysis. Thanks for the suggestion!

The Texas' coastal birds are starting to move northward. I would have thought the birds would take the "panhandle" route. But as time iks showing, they want to fly up the middle of Texas. The first bird I assume is on the Brazos river near Austin? Are you guys going to be able to give a better idea of the exact location of the birds as they pass through the area, plua the map is dated the 14th and it is the 22nd, may have the bird already moved on?

Moderator's Response: Brazos River is correct; but, check the new Journal and new updated maps for some additional movements. Update of maps was delayed this week because the Project Leader was out of town on business. For more map detail, use the interactive maps feature. This allows you to zoom in to a bird's location and as you do, more detail appears on the maps.