According to today’s press release from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, numbers of breeding ducks in the prairie regions of the United States were down in 2008 compared to 2007. The report covers 58 years (1955-2008) and is available on the FWS website here as a PDF file.

Here are some excerpts from the press release:

The preliminary estimate of total ducks from the 2008 Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey was just over 37 million, which is a nine percent decline from last year’s estimate, but still 11 percent greater than the 1955-2007 average. In the U.S. and Canadian prairies, population estimates of many species declined; while populations increased in the boreal forest to the north, likely reflecting in part those birds that overflew the prairies because of drier habitat conditions there.

The Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey, the largest and most comprehensive survey of its kind in the world, samples two million square miles across the north-central and northeastern United States, south-central, eastern, and northern Canada, and Alaska. The survey estimates the number of ducks on the continent’s most important nesting grounds.

Overall, habitat conditions for breeding waterfowl in 2008 were generally similar to or somewhat worse than to conditions in 2007.  The total pond estimate (Prairie Canada and United States combined) was 4.4 million ponds.  This was 37 percent below last year’s estimate of 7.0 million ponds and 10 percent below than the long-term average of 4.9 million ponds.

The survey does not appear to cover our region, or “our” ducks, except insofar as “our” ducks winter here and head to the midwest and Canada to breed.