Snow Goose Hatch!?

[WallyGader]

Anyone got any reports or hear anything on how our little white friends are doing up on the tundra??

[Bryce]

No reports out yet. Think it's usually mid July when those reports come out. I follow a couple links on facebook that will have them as soon as they're out.

[WallyGader]

If you could please share the info. when you get it that would be appreciated. Hope its another good one, had too much fun the past few years.

[Finlander]

Here you go!

Copied from another HSOforum:

Evaluation of special management measures for midcontinent lesser snow geese and ross’s geese

Report of the Arctic Goose Habitat Working Group

A Special Publication of the Arctic Goose Joint Venture of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan

http://www.agjv.ca/images/stories/pd...2012_FINAL.pdf

The link is courtesy of our old friend AQ who gave me the heads up on it.

It is a long read. A couple of things I picked out in a 1/2 hr of reading:

Central flyway harvest and hunters are 1/2 of what they were 12 years ago.

The Snows are still increasing.

The northern colonies have not been effected by the Conservation order at all, where as the sourthern colonies saw a reduction in population, but still far from the target set 15 years ago.

MB harvest is way down, as is ND, where as SK harvest went way up.

I am sure that there are many more points--but that is it for the 1/2 hr reading that I did, as I need to scoot right now.

[brittman]

They don't really stop in ND in the fall anymore. Well at least in October.

Last fall the big surge (millions) occurred in mid-November and they stayed in an area of about 70 miles by 70 miles. A few groups of hunters stacked 'em up big time, but most goose hunters had switched gears to other things. So while a few groups killed 100s if not 1000s of snows, the total harvest wained.

They rush North in the spring, but most now only head south in the fall as winter drives them.

[brittman]

Hunter's kill is predominatly juvie geese (they are young and nonbreeders).

Compensatory theory (sorry Tyler - had to bring it up again) revolves around the idea that hunting does not impact healthy wildlife populations. A portion of the population will die each year - hunting is just one of them.

Seems to me the Biologist that developed Compensatory management theories now have their poster child (snow geese) to prove their theory is valid.

Tundra is in good enough shape to get the birds off the nest and into flight stage. All the waste grain (food) and refuges down and back up the flyway allow the snows to arrive next year on the tundra in excellent shape to start again.

Late springs seem to be the only real factor ... poor nesting success = lower population. But then the lack of juvie geese means hunters kill a lot less birds too.

[Bryce]

Pretty sure op is looking for hatch report. Good hatch = high juvie count = high hunter satisfaction. That report is generally mid July. Total count numbers pretty much a sillytown question when count varies from 7 million to 20+ million depending on your source.

[Bryce]

Copied from fb. Not exactly sure of the source and could possibly be east coast population.

Goose breeding densities are considerably higher along much of the Hudson Bay coast than in the interior or along the Ungava Bay. The region from Akulivik south past Purvirnituq and on to Inukjuak is a particularly important breeding area. Habitat conditions at the time of the survey were good; however, spring along the Hudson Bay coast was considerably colder than in the east, causing snow and ice to persist longer. Consistent westerly winds while we were on the Hudson coast caused morning fog and chilly, damp conditions during our brief stay. Despite this, we had decent flying and on June 20 we completed the survey and started home, arriving back in Bangor on June 21. Now the process of data error checking and estimation begins, and final decisions on survey re-stratification must be made. It will be a couple of weeks before final estimates are available to inform hunting regulations.

[WallyGader]

Hunting should be good this year by the sounds of it.. However the snows did not fare too well, sounds as ross geese are doing well though.

Status of waterfowl 2012

[Bryce]

Really not much interweb chat on these reports. Juvies may be down? Who knows? How many snows are there? Some say 10 million while others say 25 million. Big disparity but agreement that breeding range is expanding. Are breeding result reports keeping up with this expansion?

My guestimate is that they will migrate back north through the the dakotas next spring. I will either be awaiting their return or enroute to shortstop a few when that happens.

[Meyer8043]

Spring is way too long to wait! Hopefully this fall we'll put the beat down on em!