This was a forum conversation from 2010 between some DU guys and someone who wasn't revealed.
Mike DU, So I was wrong about Missouri?!?:no
Well, went and did some research and found a few thangs from a book printed in 1964 by the USFWS titled "Waterfowl Tomorrow", but before I blog some excerpts let me post some comments from your Bossman Dale Humburg taken off the article "Heading South for the Winter" and printed last summer in Outdoor Life magazine.
"A perception exists that there have major changes in the timing and distribution of migrating waterfowl",says Humburg."There have been some changes in distribution due to habitat and landscape changes, and some changes to migration due to a general warming trend, but whether those short term changes translate to long term changes remain to be seen".
Now...let's take some perceptions from biologists 50 plus years ago. Wording from these men has been shortened, but the point is made just the same...
"The Canada Goose, more than any other waterfowl, respond readily to management of habitat. Horicon NWR, for example, started from scratch and built up a fall population exceeding 100,000 in less than 20 years. Other developments, most notably Crab Orchard NWR in Illinois gained sharply in numbers at the same time that Southern States were reporting a drastic decline. The implication was that the birds were SHORTSTOPPED by attractive habitat developments".-Mississippi Flyway chapter, Arthur S. Hawkins author.(Note: This was the first time I has ever seen the word shortstopped used. I read this in 1971.)
"The Eastern Prairie Population of Interior Canadas migrate through Western Ontario, Western Minnesota, Iowa, and congregating in large numbers at Swan Lake NWR and nearby Fountain Grove Management Area in north-central Missouri. A major portion of these birds now winter at the Swan Lake Refuge and the remainder move south to the Texas-Louisiana coast. While it is difficult to determine the size of this entire group, 130,000 have been recorded at the Swan Lake Refuge." Honkers Large and Small chapter, Harry Hansen and Harvey K. Nelson authors(Note: Louisiana canceled their Canada Goose season in 1971 when the Interior Canadas wintering there was less than 2,000. Only until the lesser Canadas moved eastward from Texas did they have a return to a Canada season. That was 1991.)
"Lesser Snow Geese leave their staging area after mid October in a spectacular mass migration to the coastal marshes of Louisiana, always arriving between October 22 and November 1. Along major flights lanes, wildlife managers have had some success in stopping these birds for brief periods. In a few places, such as Sqauw Creek NWR in Missouri, wintering flocks have become established." Again, Mississippi Flyway chapter, Arthur S. Hawkins author.(Note: Missouri now ranks next to Louisiana towards the numbers of wintering lesser Snow Geese.)
"The canny greenhead invariably is the first duck to discard tradition and tailor his habits to changing times. Today he is the duck most generally associated with corn, although authorities in 1918 and 1930 did not mention corn as an important food for mallards. Midwestern hunter recently told me he never seen mallards feeding in corn until mechanical pickers were used.
A big drake mallard can eat up to 400 kernels of corn in one meal. Corn comprised more than 26% by volume of the total fall foods of more than a thousand mallards in Missouri one year.
Like many of the geese, mallards have altered their migration and wintering patterns to coincide with the immense new food supply. Great concentrations of mallards now tarry on northern waters until late winter. They cruise out from these resting areas to feed in cornfields at every point of the compass. Some mallards fly more than 40 miles to the feeder fields and descend in cloud like flocks on picked croplands". The Cornfielders chapter,John Madsen author.(Note: Dave Carty, freelance writer for Wildfowl Magazine,wrote Grand Pass WA near Marshall, Missouri winters 250,000 mallards on 5,000 acres of flooded corn. In the same proximity, Swan Lake NWR winters 180,000 on 12,000 acres.)
Now Mike DU, do I believe Ducks Unlimited is responsible for shortstopping? No...but these ATTRACTIVE HABITAT DEVELOPMENTS made by federal and state managers do have DU projects in the same vicinity. Do I think such projects should have not been done? Of course they should be implemented, but THE FACT IS when one project is found to be successful along the Mississippi Flyway, somewhere south( and that being The Bayou State) is going to see a decline of some sort.
The late Robert Helm, asked by Louisiana lawmakers in 2003 to do such, did a statewide tour seminar explaining to disgruntled duck hunters of some of the facts behind the decline of waterfowl in our state. One fact he pointed to was the band returns and the northerly trend it had shown for the last 10 years.
Just for saying as well, in conversation with rice farmers and MoDoc personnel around Sikeston, Missouri (the "Bootheel" portion losing vast acreage as you blogged previously), it is agreed that it will be the next Stuggart as for the amount of wintering waterfowl.