Waterfowlers in Arkansas saw mixed results for the first two-thirds of the season. What’s in store between now and the end of the season on Jan. 27?
An update from the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission:
The state was bracing for another wave of moderate rainfall this week, much of it expected in the southern half the state, on top of what has fallen throughout the late fall and early winter in providing migrating waterfowl with plenty of room to spread out around The Natural State. Observations from a number of sources indicated sporadic waterfowl numbers in many areas, although high numbers were cited in a few spots, particularly in the Delta area and north of Interstate 40.
Large numbers of snow geese and a few ducks were observed Jan. 1 in the northeast corridor of the state south of Walnut Ridge to an area around Tuckerman along U.S. Highway 67. A sizable number of ducks were seen around the L’Anguille River in eastern Arkansas on private land.
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission biologists were scheduled to conduct their third state aerial survey of the waterfowl season next week. The most recent survey, in early December, returned an estimated count of 1.2 million ducks in the Arkansas Delta region, with more than half of those being mallards. Totals were slightly lower than recent averages. Waterfowl counts from southwest Arkansas and the Arkansas River Valley also were down from long-term averages for December.
For more of the Arkansas Wildlife Waterfowl Report head here.
