James Wille of White Rock Decoys had the unique opportunity to sit down with Delta Waterfowl's leading Research Scientists to discuss the state of the 2020 waterfowl populations. Surveys this year were anything but usual with the current covid restrictions - in fact most have not and will not happen.
The long and short of it, the only official waterfowl population survey that has been done this season in the US or Canada, has been a ground based survey in North Dakota. The duck count in that survey was 14th highest on record.
Information on the snow goose hatch has been extremely hard to get. It sounds like it was a late spring, but no catastrophic events took place across the breeding grounds at critical times like bust years of the past. Average numbers are what they're expecting, but likely nothing will be completely confirmed until go time this year.
As for Duck numbers and habitat:
East: Average to slightly above average
Mid Continent (USA): Really Good
Canada: Very Dry
This 20 minute interview is jam packed with an incredibly unique look on the state of waterfowl conditions for the 2020 season.
