OCR Text |
Show Lowest Bird Count In Utah in 10 Years Utah's purt of the Pacific Flyway mid-winter waterfowl survey has been completed by stale and federal biologists and will be compiled with the reports of other states to obtain ob-tain the total picture on populations pop-ulations of waterfowl wintering winter-ing in this Flyway. Eight observers, six state and two federal, covered 1,920 miles to survey the number of ducks, geese, and swans wintering win-tering in Utah. Most of the survey was conducted from aircraft, only 300 miles being traveled on the ground. John Nagel, waterfowl biologist bio-logist for the Division of Fish and Game, reported 18,192 ducks, 1,251 ge-ese, 1,410 coots, and 2(i6 swans were counted during the survey. Nagel reported this to be the lowest count of birds in Utah in 10 years, but he noled this was due to the long span of cold weather we hav.e had this winter. Weather influences the number of birds spending the winter on Utah mahshes, and this survey is important only when combined with the counts of other states in this flyway. A complete picture on waterfowl populations is obtained for evaluation with other data before next fall's duck hunt is set. |