Conditions across the praire / parkland areas?

Northern Alberta has been getting more rain lately. Fort Mc fire is now contained, residents have been moving back in now since June 1 and fire bans have been lifted.

Overall wetland conditions across central Alberta would have to be considered as fair now with pockets of good and poor mixed in here and there according to where the heavy showers hit or missed. Looks like with the improved conditions there has been a significant nesting effort by the local ducks,,, seeing very good numbers of lone drakes in areas with good habitat.

Crops, pastures and hay fields are doing very well,,, a far cry from what it looked like a month ago,,, if the showers continue, maybe the hay mowers can be delayed long enough to allow the new nests to hatch.

 

Our area continues to get rain. Locally we have received from 10 - 16" since May 20. Since the end of June there has been from 5- 8 inches of rain in our area. Sloughs are full, there is standing water in the low spots in many fields and lake levels are improving.

All this rain continues to keep most of the mowers out of the hayfields which will allow late nests to hatch. Pastures, crop and hayfields are very lush and green.

The numbers of lone drakes is very good as well hopefully indicating a strong nesting effort by the hens.

I continue to see newly hatched clutches each day. Brood water is in excellent shape being flooded well into and beyond the grassy margins.
This should favour hatchling survival from predators.

Hard to believe that on May 19, ducks and water were very scarce. In my 60 years of living in this country, I have never seen such a quick dramatic turn around in habitat conditions and waterfowl numbers!!!!

 

fowlogic,,,, we are in east central Alberta. Habitat conditions have improved significantly in a diagonal band from SE Alberta (where I have heard spring/ early summer accumulations in 6 - 10" range) upwards to the Peace Country. The sw part of the province hasn't seen as much rain yet.

A lot of ducks did overfly the northern prairies into the parkland / boreal regions which have seen much improved conditions with all the rain, which seems to be encouraging a strong late nesting effort in these areas. Many of those ducks will be your ducks come fall. I guess the point is that up until late May, it looked like 2106 would be wreck for waterfowl production, but the rains appear to have come in time to salvage the year as far duck production goes. Certainly the northern boreal and arctic ducks and geese are going to find ample roosting water during the fall migration now.