Interesting hen house stats
just perusing some info put together by the grad student that is studying the hen houses. Here are some highlights:
--"During the 2006 nesting season, 15 mallard hens were banded in NW Penn and southern Ontario to determine if successful hens are returning to the same hen house from year to year. During 2007, 8 hens (55%) were recaptured in the same or nearby hen house....in 2007, 20 more hens were captured and banded. In 2008, 13 of 15 hens in PA and 8 of 15 hens in ON returned to nest in the same or adjacent structure...."
--"In 2007, 34 mallard nests hatched producing 313 ducklings in PA and ONT combined. Of those, 251 ducklings were web-tagged....During 2008, four web-tagged hens returned to nest in hen houses."
--"During the three year study, over 130 mallard nests were initiated producing over 900 ducklings!"
but here's the rub....
go check out Long Point Waterfowl. They are one of our partners in this hen house study. They have a VERY neat program up there and are well-known in all waterfowling circles when it comes to scientific study. They are likely the preeminent waterfowl center in north america....but i digress....
They need money to continue their many projects. One is scaup tracking and determining the cause of the decline in lesser scaup populations. They are thinking that high selenium levels from eating mussels is to blame. They also need to raise money to continue the hen house monitoring. You can check out all the cool stuff they are working on at this link.
http://www.bsc-eoc.org/research/lpwwrf/index.jsp
AND you can donate money thru the FF or buy the book they are selling "To Ride the Wind" which is very cool as I have a copy in front of me right now...
here is where you can buy the book:
http://www.bsc-eoc.org/download/LPWbook.pdf
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