2015-16 Kentucky Waterfowl Forecasts

Kentucky duck numbers are expected to be strong during the 2015-16 winter season, according to Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.

“This year, we’ve had the highest counts of ducks as a whole by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Canadian Wildlife Service,” said John Brunjes, migratory bird coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “It is the highest counts ever with 49,522,000 ducks as well as 11,643,000 mallards, also a new record.”

Green-winged teal populations are at their all-time high with just over 4 million birds and numbers of gadwall numbers are also exceptionally high with 3,834,000 birds.

Cold weather could push northern duck populations into Kentucky. “The migration maps show many ducks in the upper Plains and upper Midwest,” Brunjes explained.

Popular areas for viewing waterfowl in Kentucky include Clarks River National Wildlife Refuge, numerous state parks, and private refuges.

Wildlife Themed Gift Ideas

Featured in this post are a variety of wildlife and nature themed products which are suitable as holiday gifts.

Calendars are popular for winter holiday gifts:

Nature Calendars

This collection of calendars includes gift ideas for birdwatchers, beach combers, shell collectors, and other nature enthusiasts

A popular accessory is wildlife themed wrapping paper:

Wildlife - Nature Wrapping Paper

Wildlife and nature themed wrapping paper in this collection are suitable for Christmas, birthdays, and other occasions. Designs feature birds, fish, mammals, floral patterns, foliage, and others.

Wildlife and nature theme doormats are another possibility:

Nature Doormats

A doormat can be a practical gift while also serving as an accent or decor piece. Nature doormats depict beautiful landscapes, native plants, floral prints, tree bark, animals, birds, fish, and others.

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Chesapeake Bay Waterfowl

Mallard Drake

Many of North America's best known waterfowl can be found on the Chesapeake Bay. Located along the Atlantic Flyway, the estuary is an important stopover and wintering area for waterfowl.

During spring, mallards, black ducks, green-wing teal, and Canada geese nest in saltwater marshes of Chesapeake Bay. Farther up the watershed, wood ducks raise their young.

In summer, some waterfowl become secretive and move into backwater hideaways where abundant vegetation conceals their presence. In contrast, mallards and Canada geese often remain in areas where human activity occurs. 

As days shorten and nights become cooler, flocks of migratory Canada geese appear in the skies over the watershed. By late fall, surf scoters and long-tailed ducks appear on the open waters of the Chesapeake Bay.

By mid winter, waterfowl populations increase as residents and early season migrants are joined by Atlantic brant, snow geese, and tundra swans.

Despite cold temperatures, many of the watershed's creeks and rivers become feeding areas for common mergansers, red-breasted mergansers, and hooded mergansers.

In spring as temperatures begin to rise and daylight increases, many species begin to move out of the Chesapeake Bay as the migrate towards their summer breeding grounds.

Some waterfowl remain on the estuary year round. The marshes, swamps, and other secluded habitats of the Chesapeake Bay watershed provide important nesting and nursey areas for black ducks, wood ducks, teal, Canada Geese, and other waterfowl.

Top 10 USA National Parks

In 2014, there were 292.8 million visits to U.S. national parks, breaking the previous record set in 1987 when parks saw just over 287.2 million visits.

The official number of recreational visits to national parks in 2014 was 292,800,082, an increase of 19 million, or seven percent, from 2013 visitation of 273,630,895. Visitation in 2014 rebounded from a 2013 decline that included a 16-day government shutdown and many park closures for repairs after Superstorm Sandy hit the northeast in late 2012.

Several national parks saw record-breaking visitation in 2014, including Joshua Tree, Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton and Glacier national parks. The re-opening of the Washington Monument, some 21 months after it was rocked by an earthquake and repaired, also added to 2014 visitation numbers.

Grand Canyon National Park bumped Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area out of the top 10 most visited areas in the national park system. The list of top ten national parks remains unchanged, although Rocky Mountain and Olympic National Parks switched places.

Top 10 most visited places in the National Park System:

Golden Gate National Recreation Area     15,004,420
Blue Ridge Parkway     13,941,749
Great Smoky Mountains National Park     10,099,276
George Washington Memorial Parkway     7,472,150
Lincoln Memorial     7,139,072
Lake Mead National Recreation Area     6,942,873
Gateway National Recreation Area     6,021,713
Natchez Trace Parkway     5,846,474
Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park     5,066,219
Grand Canyon National Park     4,756,771


Top 10 most visited national parks:

Great Smoky Mountains National Park     10,099,276
Grand Canyon National Park     4,756,771
Yosemite National Park     3,882,642
Yellowstone National Park     3,513,484
Rocky Mountain National Park     3,434,751
Olympic National Park     3,243,872
Zion National Park     3,189,696
Grand Teton National Park     2,791,392
Acadia National Park     2,563,129
Glacier National Park     2,338,528


10 national parks with the lowest number of visitors (2014):

Salt River Bay National Historical Park & Ecological Preserve, Virgin Islands
Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, Texas
Nicodemus National Historic Site, Kansas
Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site, California
Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Alaska
Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Alaska
Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, Pennsylvania
Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Monument, California
Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River, Texas
Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve, Alaska

For more information, visit: www.nps.gov.

source: National Park Service