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These bottomland forests sheltered millions of ducks, geese and other migratory birds. The birds came to eat acorns. This staple food provided fuel for ducks' annual migrations. Hunters stood among the area's towering pin oak and swamp white oak trees and watched hundreds of ducks swirl into the flooded timber.
We flew the waterfowl survey on Tuesday, December 22
nd. Coincidentally, this flight was on the last day of Illinois’ central zone duck season. We had noticeable ice on several of the refuges, especially on the northern reaches of both the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. Duck numbers along the Illinois River (249,625) were similar to the previous week and still remained well above average for late December.
The central Mississippi River was a different story. Duck numbers dropped (~50%) along the lower Mississippi River from Quincy to Grafton; however, there were still nearly 300,000 ducks along the river this week. We just didn’t see the large concentrations of ducks at Swan Lake (Two Rivers NWR), Long Lake, Cuivre, Batchtown SFWA, Towhead, Delair NWR, or Ted Shanks CA. We are not sure where the ducks went, but they weren’t in their usually spots on the refuges. With the frigid weather arriving over the Christmas holiday, I suspect there will be fewer birds next week.