Cordova, Alaska: Ducks Unlimited Dusky Canada Goose Intern - Summer 2022

         Learned a lot last week as we monitored about half the nest islands in the program. Found evidence of successful nests, but also found several eggs that didn't hatch or succumbed to predators. The sloughs that we navigated through with the airboats held goslings, and we saw many other young feathered beings like Swan cygnets. Still have a lot of work ahead of us finishing up islands and analyzing data, but last week was a step in the right direction. This year we are taking a special look at Equisetum, which are horsetail plants, and if they have any effect on nesting Duskies. Several ponds on the delta are becoming completely engulfed in horsetail, but it is unknown how that impacts Duskies. Other ponds have horsetail around some edges, while some have none at all. Also, this year was the first year the Dusky Crew transitioned away from paper data sheets to an online format, using ArcGIS Survey123. A benefit of using Survey 123 is the use of pictures of each island, so th

          Dusky Camp is ready to go after setup last week and some of the weeks prior. This week will be spent monitoring every nest island in the program, looking for signs of any avian activity. By monitoring islands this week, it will help us better gauge what islands need maintenance once August, the nest island maintenance period, rolls around. Some variables that are recorded when we visit islands in our monitoring period are things like avian activity signs (hopefully some Dusky egg shells from a successful hatch), pond depth at island, percent of shrub cover, height of shrub, free board (how far the island protrudes the waters surface), distance to shore, and any suggested maintenance (new anchors, more shrubs, move to a new location, etc). We'll also collect any island cameras we put out to help us determine outcomes of those islands that had them, and eliminate any human error in determining the fate of that nest. I also took some time last week to help the Forest Service

Here is a video showing the candling process of a natural nest site we flushed a Dusky off of on May 6th.