Ducks delay their migration as the climate warms » Yale Climate Connections

Every fall, duck hunters wait for the birds to fly south and duck season to begin. But some ducks are extending their summer vacations.

Barbara Frei is a researcher with Environment and Climate Change Canada, a government agency. She’s found that as the climate warms, some waterfowl have started migrating along the Atlantic flyway later in the fall or even spending the winter farther north.

Frei: “They’re taking advantage of that warmer weather. Why migrate if you don’t have to?”

She says the change is occurring in species that time their migration based on temperature and precipitation cues rather than changes in day length.

For example, mallards have been delaying their peak migration by about 18 days per decade.

Frei: “So that’s a huge amount of time that they’re dallying longer in our northern climates before going further south.”

Frei says some hunters are noticing fewer birds.

Frei: “They’re planning their trips or their outings, going to places where they’ve seen loads of ducks in the past, maybe with their father or grandfather or friends, and they get there and it’s just, year after year, there seems to be less.”

So she says hunting regulations may need to adapt. And she hopes hunters – who have long worked on conservation – will also focus on climate change.

Reporting credit: Ethan Freedman / ChavoBart Digital Media