JrSmlEADING? Tracking Migrating Geese Could Produce Answers

By Douglas Osborne

Commonly known as specklebellies or specks, greater white-fronted geese have become a familiar sight and sound through the Grand Prairie and Delta in eastern Arkansas during fall and winter.

White-fronts that spend winter in Arkansas are part of the bird's midcontinent population, which is one of two populations that breed and winter in North America. Midcontinent white-fronts nest across a vast stretch of the Arctic tundra, extending about 2,000 miles from central and northwestern Alaska to the northwestern shore of the Hudson Bay.

The second, much smaller group is the Pacific population, which nests in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta of Alaska and spends winter in California's Central Valley.

Wildlife biologists believe the midcontinent population has increased in recent years, according to aerial inventory surveys each year in late September and early October in Alberta and western Saskatchewan, Canada. This region is a critically important fall migration staging area for the midcontinent white-fronts.

The fall inventory survey allows wildlife biologists to monitor and track annual and long-term trends in white-

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front populations. These data are used to set harvest management recommendations. The 22nd annual survey during fall 2014 found a little more than a million white-fronts, which is a 29 percent increase compared to 2012. The survey was not conducted during 2013 because of inclement weather.

Shifting Birds? Evidence suggests that the core of the

winter distribution of midcontinent white-fronts may be shifting east to Arkansas. The winter distribution of this population historically stretched across the rice prairies of eastern Texas and western Louisiana. Because of a decrease in rice production and flooded agricultural fields during winter, fewer wintering white-fronts have been reported in the western part of the region in recent years.

The Grand Prairie and Delta regions in Arkansas appear to be attracting more wintering white-fronts because of more suitable habitat. Rice production has been stable or increasing, and more rice fields are flooded during winter. Whatever the case may be - an increase in population, a shift in winter distribution or a combination of factors - more white-fronts in Arkansas means new and exciting opportunities for waterfowl hunters.

On the flip side, wildlife biologists have growing coH,cerns about the increasing population of white-fronts wintering in Arkansas. Biologists have estimated the amount of food needed on the landscape to support the energetic demands of mallards and other dabbling ducks during winter. I f midcontinent white-front populations that winter in Arkansas are increasing or i f distribution is shifting, wildlife professionals may be underestimating

LEFT; More white-fronted geese appear to be wintering in Arkansas thanl<s to increased rice production. Photo by Mil<e Wintroath.

RIGHT: A study at the University of Arkansas at Monticello is tracking white-fronted geese with the use of GPS locators and satellites. Photo courtesy of Douglas Osborne.

Most GPS-tagged white-fronts the first year of the study. Map

the amount of food needed during winter to support daily energy requirements for waterfowl.

Wintering geese may be competing for food and may deplete food resources before the peak duck migration. An inadequate supply of food for ducks and geese on the wintering grounds may result in reduced survival and body condition, and may impact reproduction potential and the health of the population. That's why biologists have recognized the need to determine the potential for resource competition between ducks and geese on the wintering range.

Tracking Geese The Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station is using

advanced satellite telemetry to learn about the resource needs of midcontinent white-fronts on the wintering range. The study is investigating white-front habitat use patterns during winter, and assessing migration corridors during fall and spring migration. The study may provide wildlife professionals with insight to the potential impacts of increasing goose populations on food resources and competition among waterfowl species.

During July 2014, I traveled to the Queen Maud Gulf Bird Sanctuary in the Canadian Arctic to deploy transmitters on 10 white-fronts. During July, white-fronts lose and replace their primary and secondary flight feathers. They are flightless for almost three weeks during the molt and flock together in large gj^ups to increase their chances of survival.

fol lowed a predictable path during courtesy of Douglas Osborne.

This flightless period gives wildlife professionals the opportunity to capture geese using a helicopter. Geese are herded off Arctic ponds into nets on land. Biologists mark all geese with uniquely numbered federal leg bands and record the bird's sex. During this trip, almost 3,000 white-fronts were captured and marked with federal leg bands.

I selected one or two individuals to receive transmitters from several molting flocks. Researchers attached backpack-style transmitters to the geese with a Teflon ribbon harness. Transmitters were equipped with GPS and programmed to record

the location of the bird seven times per day during winter. The GPS coordinates are stored in the transmitter for three days and transmitted through satellites to a data processing center. Researchers have access to data via the Internet.

Graduate Work Ryan Askren, a University of Arkansas at Monticello

graduate assistant from Muscatine, Iowa, is managing the project as part of the requirements for a Master of Science degree in natural resources, with an emphasis in wildlife management. Askren is managing the data downloads, and interpreting movement patterns and habitat use with advanced analytical techniques, aerial imagery and mapping software programs.

During the first year of this two-year study, white-fronts equipped with transmitters stayed on the Canadian Arctic molting grounds until early September. When geese left the Arctic, they made non-stop flights to the agricultural-

Banded greater white-fronted goose feeding in a dry rice field near Humnoke, Arkansas . Photo courtesy of Ryan Askren .

dominated landscape of Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada.

The geese spent nearly four weeks in the region, foraging on high-energy foods required to fuel their migration to the wintering range. Most geese left Canada between Oct. 24 and Nov. 3.

The travel corridors of these white-fronts were relatively consistent. They migrated non-stop through North and South Dakota, Iowa and Missouri. From Missouri, one goose traveled west through central Kansas before turning south through Oklahoma and into northern Texas. Four of the 10 white-fronts stopped in the Grand Prairie and Delta of Arkansas at some point during migration. Three remained in Arkansas and one moved south through Louisiana to settle, at least for the time being, just inland along the eastern Texas coast.

The research team is tracking five white-fronts that have survived the fall migration. These geese wil l begin spring migration toward the breeding grounds of the Arctic in February or March. Unti l then, we plan to continue tracking their movements and habitat use patterns.

Come spring, the research team wil l have one full winter of data and wil l begin assessing those factors that may be influencing habitat use on the wintering grounds, including crop type and water availability. The team plans to deploy 10 more transmitters during July this year that wi l l be tracked through the winter of 2015-16.

Data from this study wil l provide critical information about habitat use and migration of the species that wi l l affect resource management decisions about white-fronts and other waterfowl species. Recent advancements in satellite telemetry technology have allowed researchers to learn much more about long-distance migrants such as the white-fronted goose. 22

Douglas Osborne, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of wildlife at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. His research focuses on waterfowl and upland game birds.

Canton, a Chesapeake Bay retriever, brings back his favorite trophy while hunting in a soybean field. Photo courtesy of Ryan Askren.