Annual Report 2007-2008 - 11

consisted of 15,174 birds, which were released at designated sites throughout the commonwealth in early October. In FY 2007-08, 19 clubs conducted mentored youth hunting events and were provided 1,504 pheasants. For the regular, fall season 81,995 birds (52,093 males and 29,902 hens) were stocked in October and November. An additional 4,940 hens were held for the late small game season and stocked prior to the Christmas holiday season. Fall releases were limited to a preseason and two in-season releases. The Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI) is a 22-state restoration plan published in 2002 by the Southeast Quail Study Group (SEQSG), a technical committee of the Southeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. The NBCI, which aims to restore populations of northern bobwhite quail by landscape-scale restoration of native grassland habitats, is being revised to include additional states in historic Northern bobwhite range. Populations of bobwhites have declined by 75 to nearly 100 percent over the last 40 years across most of their historic range. They have declined by 97 percent in Pennsylvania. Preseason duck banding continued in cooperation with the Atlantic Flyway duck banding program. Banding information is essential for determining the timing and distribution of the duck harvest, survival, harvest rates and migration patterns, and allows evaluation of changes in hunting regulations. The 2007 pre-season (August & September) duck banding at 21 banding sites in the commonwealth contributed 2,946 newly banded ducks to waterfowl research and management efforts in Pennsylvania and the Atlantic Flyway. Avian influenza monitoring was also an important component of the 2007 preseason banding efforts. A sample of mallards, wood ducks, blue-winged teal, green-winged teal, pintails and black ducks were tested as part of combined state and federal early detection monitoring for the Asian H5N1 virus. More than 260 samples were collected from hunter-harvested ducks in the Northwest, Southeast and Northeast regions. As expected, various naturally occurring low pathogenic (LP) AI viruses were detected in some of these samples. Only one LPH5N1 positive sample was detected, but it was of the same LP North American strain that was detected in 2006. The role of migratory birds in transfer of the highly pathogenic (HP) AI virus remains unclear and controversial. The Atlantic Flyway Midwinter Waterfowl Survey (MWS) provides information about waterfowl populations and distribution, and is an important component of management programs at the state, flyway and even continental levels. Although breeding ground surveys have become the primary source of population status information used in setting most waterfowl hunting regulations, MWS results still guide harvest management for some species, including tundra swans and Atlantic brant. MWS data is also important in assessing progress toward species population goals set forth in the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, and is useful for documenting long-term shifts in the spatial distribution of wintering waterfowl, assessing the locations and status of key wintering habitats, and various other applications. A total of 61,388 waterfowl were observed in Pennsylvania during the 2008 MWS. This total included 4,778 dabbling ducks (mostly mallards and black ducks); 416 diving ducks; 2,360 mergansers; 52,504 geese (74 percent Canada geese and 26 percent snow geese); and 1,201 swans (98 percent of which were tundra swans). The number of waterfowl observed was 25 percent lower than in 2007. Although four of the six major individual wintering species increased from 2007, Canada and snow geese (the two most numerous species) both decreased, accounting for the lower overall numbers. Southeastern Pennsylvania continued to account for the highest numJANUARY 2009 11

Annual Report 2007-2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Annual Report 2007-2008