Spring news

Spring migration is in full swing for all waterfowl during April. Events happen fast this time of year. There is a limited opportunity to get nesting, brood rearing and molting done before its time to head south again. In fact, ducks spend less than 40 percent of the year on their breeding grounds.

Northern marshes usually begin to thaw in early April. This brings the first wave of pintails and mallards onto the U.S. and Canadian prairies. They either congregate on these thawed wetlands or stand on the ice waiting for it to melt. Many begin nesting within the first week of arrival.
Impressive numbers of snow geese fly over the prairies on the way to their breeding grounds. They move north as rapidly melting snow unearths food and melting ice provides drinking water.
By the second week of April, northern shovelers and green-winged teal arrive just as pintails and mallards begin nesting. On the Atlantic coast, peak egg laying occurs in black ducks the second week of April.

Mid-April brings the main flight of migrant Canada geese - including members of the Richardson’s and lesser subspecies – to the Dakotas and Great Lake states. Interior subspecies of Canada geese arrive along the southwest coast of St. James Bay in mid-April. And farther north on the Slave River Delta, they arrive during the last week of April. At the same time, sub-arctic nesting geese are migrating north, and Giant Canada geese in the Midwest and southern latitudes are on the nest beginning incubation.
By the third week of April redheads, canvasbacks, ring-necked ducks and lesser scaup will arrive and begin their high-speed aerial courtship dances. Gadwalls are arriving on the prairies, too.

While March’s unseasonable warmth made it look like winter was long gone, a heavy snowfall like recently occurred in the northern states, or blast of cold Canadian air, stops the migrants in their tracks and occasionally sends them retreating south.