West Virginia Division of Natural Resources biologists take off making their 30th annual winter water fowl survey, migrating, much like the birds they are tracking, along the rivers of West Virginia.
Gary Sharp a biologist with the division says this survey is important, "This is the mid-winter waterfowl survey. We do it in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The purpose of it is, it's another tool to manage wildlife populations."
The timing is crucial, if they go too early or wait too long, they'll wind up counting ducks and geese already counted in other states. That's why we braved freezing temperatures, heavy ice and low visibility to go up in the chopper and count birds on the water below.
"There are seven segments in West Virginia, we'll fly four of them today, two on the Kanawha River and two on the Ohio River. We fly the main stream of water and the embankments as long as there is backwater. We're gonna see a lot of Canada geese, mainly black ducks and mallards, but also do an eagle survey in conjunction with this." says Sharp.
While the eagle survey gives biologists a lot of useful information, the stuff they get on ducks and geese translate directly into your hunting opportunities.
"This and other surveys are used to set hunting regulations and we've been conducting this survey in early January for 30 years." says Sharp.
So, thanks to the cooperation of the pilots who take us up, the survey gets done despite the tough conditions we seem to run into every January.
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