Pacific Flyway

And we just got a report from the United States government that we have the lowest turnout of mallards in 33 years.

And we all realize in the Pacific Flyway, California is the place where the flyway comes to lay their eggs, get their chicks going, and then fly back north to parts of Canada and the Arctic Circle where they feed during the summer months.

And then they come back here and that cycle continues.

The Pacific Flyway depends on California to have those areas where there's habitat for them.

So in terms of nutria, nutria are damaging that, correct? So that's like an impact on a different thing in the ecosystem.

Yeah, a lot of these species are kind of interrelated.

But really it's that long term, can we get cold weather up north and force the rest of the birds that are not California-grown to come on south.

That is some awesome news, and I hope all the Pacific Flyway hunters that are out in that area are hearing this and are getting excited about it.

Um, you know, we've, we've given a lot of coverage to the breeding population survey results through over the past several weeks, and we talked a lot about how that number is only one part of the equation when it, uh, when it comes to what ultimately is in front of your blind.

The other big ingredient is production, and that's what we're talking about here in the Klamath Basin, and what was, uh, the, the threat that was thwart- thwarted by, by some collaborative effort and, uh, and benefits of nature.

So I just think that's a really cool conversation.

Alaska North Slope and Pacific Flyway.

So Pacific Brandt, a good production year?

Yeah, I talked to some folks on the North Slope who said it was kind of a good to surprisingly good year.

There's some BRANT research going on there.

USGS has a few folks who are doing quite a bit of research on geese on the north slope as well.

Okay, so it looks like for the Pacific Flyway, you know, all the way up to Alaska, if you go BRANT, snow geese, white fronts, cacklers...

Kind of an up year for production pretty much all the way across the board there.

Oh

... doing that migration, 'cause we're right on the Pacific Flyway.

And so-

Okay

And we've been hinting around about it already this year.

With this super El Nino likely coming, warmer overall in the north, cooler and wetter in the south, possibly drier in the prairies and Great Lakes region, and more wet throughout the Rockies and Pacific Flyway in general.

Remember that the really good information on atmospheric cycles does not come out until around the month of October and into early November.

I know that's a little late, but...

At the eastern edge of Box Elder County, where the Bear River Delta flows into the Great Salt Lake, sits the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, 74,000 acres of freshwater marsh established in 1928, which hosts more than 250 bird species and draws more than 100,000 human visitors a year.

The refuge sits at the intersection of the Pacific Flyway and the Central Flyway, the two great North American bird migration corridors, making it one of the most ecologically critical wetland systems in the American West.

Further into the sagebrush uplands, Box Elder County has done some of the most extensive juniper eradication work in the country, specifically to maintain habitat for the greater sage grouse, the emblem species of the Great Basin sagebrush steppe, whose population has been in decline for decades.

The stratus site drains to the same lake at its northern end.

Do the

Arctic ones typically migrate down the Pacific Flyway? No, they

really

split.

It's very interesting.

Most of the Pacific Flyway pintails are from Alaska, YK Delta, and the Western Arctic.

But, you know, you've got a lot of pintails breeding in the Central Arctic, Queen Mug, Gulf area, and those guys are...

That's our Texas Louisiana pin tail.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I would just say, you know, our farm being located where we are, our entire western border is actually part of the wetlands that are very important for the Pacific Flyway, the Grasslands Wildlife Management Area.

And our family dedicated 650 acres into a permanent federal easement to be managed only for wetland habitat.

So we play an active role in managing habitat that's very beneficial for the migratory birds and for the local species that we have here.

That's, that's gonna be cool.

Well, the Pacific Flyway has pretty liberal limits.

I think you can kill seven ducks a day per person out there, and I think-

Geez