Minnesota wildlife managers are investigating another die-off of scaup, better known as bluebill ducks, on Bowstring Lake in northern Minnesota.
Department of Natural Resources biologists collected about 60 scaup carcasses from Bowstring this fall, but they suspect the die-off was larger. Hundreds of sick scaup were observed Oct. 21, and estimates based on the size of the lake and collected dead birds put the total of dead at more than 1,000.
Managers suspect the birds are eating faucet snails, which host a trematode, or parasite, that attacks their intestinal system. Dead or dying scaup have been spotted on Bowstring Lake in the past.
About 7,000 to 8,000 scaup died on nearby Lake Winnibigoshish in 2008 and 2007.
“We’ve known for a number of years that scaup have been sitting in fairly sizable numbers on Bowstring,” said Jeff Lawrence, DNR waterfowl research leader. “We’re troubled they are dying there.”
Scientists have not found faucet snails — the snails blamed for the scaup deaths on Lake Winnie — on Bowstring Lake. The snails have been found on Little Winnibigoshish Lake and in the Mississippi River below Lake Winnie, but those waters are not connected to Bowstring.
“It doesn’t mean they are not there,” Lawrence said.
DNR researcher Charlotte Roy, who is conducting research on the die-offs, said little is known about the seasonal distribution of faucet snails. She said it was possible the snails are present in Bowstring.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has given the DNR a $39,000 grant to investigate faucet snail distribution on Bowstring and the snails’ impacts on scaup in the region. Roy is searching for the snails in the lake and will return the next two springs and falls to try to locate them.
“We’re in the very early stages of learning about these snails,” she said.
Faucet snails and trematodes have been blamed for large scaup die-offs in the Missis-sippi River National Fish and Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Minnesota.
Ducks and geese still present: With 10 days left in the Minnesota duck season, waterfowl hunting has been good across the state. Steve Cordts, the DNR’s waterfowl biologist, said many shallow lakes and ponds in northern Minnesota are freezing, as are lakes in southern Canada, thus pushing waterfowl south.
Duck and goose hunting in western Minnesota has been good lately, helped by a strong migration of Canada geese arriving at the Lac qui Parle Wildlife Management Area. Duck season ends Nov. 30, but the statewide Canada goose season runs through Dec. 25. Other rules apply in the Rochester zone.
New leadership in Legislature: A realignment of committees in the Minnesota Legislature means more power has been concentrated in two lawmakers who chair natural resources committees.
Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria, a soft-spoken former county sheriff who was first elected to the Senate in 2006, is chairman of the Environmental and Natural Resources Budget & Policy Committee. Senate Republicans combined a policy and a finance committee into one natural resources committee.
Rep. Tom Hackbarth, R-Cedar, a brash, outspoken lawmaker first elected to the House in 1994, is chairman of the Environment, Energy & Natural Resources Policy & Finance Committee, created by combining three House committees.
Hackbarth has a long history in natural resources issues. He is a strong supporter ATV and snowmobile programs and a frequent critic of the DNR. Ingebrigtsen has a shorter history on natural resources issues, but he has been a member of the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council since it was created.
With the state facing a multibillion-dollar deficit, the DNR likely will face budget cuts. How these two lawmakers balance natural resources needs during lean budget years will be watched closely.
Deer season update: Deer hunting season results are looking strong. The opening weekend kill — Saturday through Monday — is up 16 percent over last year. Deer managers said the deer kill might approach 215,000, compared with 195,000 last year. The agency has sold 445,500 licenses, 2 percent more than last year, and is on pace to sell the highest number of deer licenses in a decade.
DID YOU KNOW?
A new visitor center at Minnesota’s Tettegouche State Park is scheduled to open in the fall of 2012 and will include a new interpretive display, an improved rest area and a meeting room. The park will have an open house to introduce the plans 7-8:30 p.m. Dec. 4.
