Division of Wildlife Resources Migratory Bird Section, Periodic Report No. 13Report issued on: April 21, 197

Arthur, George C.

Houk, James E.

Kennedy, David D.

English

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ILLINOIUNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGNPRODUCTION NOTEUniversity of Illinois atUrbana-Champaign LibraryLarge-scale Digitization Project, 2007.SA ie4Y ~(457t SIllinois Department of ConservationDivision of Wildlife ResourcesMIGRATORY BIRD SECTIONCTIpTOnTTR RfPORT NO- 13April L1, 191JNATURAL HISTORY SURVEYCHARACTERISTICS OF WATERFOWL HARVEST AT HORSESHOE LAKE, Al 6 76MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS LIBRARYJames E. Houk, Belleville Area College, Belleville, IllinoisDavid D. Kennedy, Waterfowl BiologistGeorge C. Arthur, Chief Migratory Bird SectionAbstract: A survey of hunter use and waterfowl harvest on Horseshoe Lake,Madison County, Illinois revealed that 804 hunter trips yielded 1,206 ducksfor an average daily success ratio of 1.50. Success was better earlier in theseason than late. The dominant species in the bag was lesser scaup making up45.8 percent of the total harvest followed by mallards at 27.7 percent. Bandrecovery records indicate normal recovery patterns. Recommendations for statemanagement were to maintain waterfowl hunting with a low use, high qualitystake blind system.INTRODUCTIONThe impending purchase of Horseshoe Lake, Madison County, Illinois by theIllinois Department of Conservation implies wise management after a completereview of resource potential and development alternatives. The purpose of thisreport is to supply information of waterfowl harvest and hunter use for inclusionin the planning and decision making process. Appreciation is due to Richard Houkand those hunters on Horseshoe Lake that contributed freely of their harvest records.Horseshoe Lake is located approximately one mile south of Granite City, Illinois(Fig. 1). The narrow western portion of the lake is one and a half miles from theMississippi River and the main lake body lies three miles from the river. Thislocation is four miles directly east of St. Louis, Missouri. The lake is 2,107 acres(Lockart, 1970) and contains Walkers Island, approximately 420 acres. The lakeis bordered on all sides by various types of roads and highways. The Alton andSouthern Railroad has a causeway across the southwestern arm and Granite CitySteel has a 290 acre settling basin on the northwestern shore. Approximately1,000 acres are presently being used as a private duck hunting club. The lakehas long been recognized as an excellent diving duck hunting area. THE1USri B.E BQIEMAR 1 8 i976METHODS AND MATERIALS UUNIVERSITY OF ILLINOISAT URBANA-.C•^MPAIGNHarvest and use data were taken daily from each hunter throughout the 1974waterfowl season.No precise measures of duck use were taken although daily visits to thelake yielded a subjective determination of migration peaks.L---:jL .XA Ll % 6Lalm^-2-Band recovery records for all waterfowl bands recovered in the ten minutedegree block of Horseshoe Lake were solicited from the Banding Laboratory, Officeof Migratory Bird Management, Laurel, Maryland.RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONFor ease in discussion the results are broken into five sections: huntingpressure, hunter success, harvest, species composition and relationship of bandrecoveries.Hunting PressureThere was a total of 16 blinds on the hunting club at Horseshoe Lake whichforty different hunters made use of during the 1974 season. A daily average of16 hunters and eight blinds were used. There was a total of 804 man-days ofhunting effort expended or 35 percent of the potential.Hunter use was much heavier on weekends than during the week. On weekendsthere was an average of 22.7 hunters per day, while during the week there wasan average of only 13.2 hunters per day. Opening afternoon had the highesthunting pressure with 37 of the 40 hunters in their blinds. The Thanksgivingholidays constituted the heaviest continuous pressure.Weather apparently had no effect on hunting pressure except during the finalweek of the season, when freezing reduced activity.Hunter SuccessThe daily average of ducks bagged per hunter at Horseshoe Lake for the1974 season was 1.5. The season average for each blind was 75.4 ducks, with eachhunter averaging 30.2 ducks for the season. These figures were moderate increasesover 1973.The first half of the season was more productive than the latter half (Table 1and Fig. 2). During the first 25 days of the season 833 birds were bagged comparedto only 373 during the second half. Hunters averaged 1.80 birds per day in thefirst half as opposed to only 1.09 birds per day in the second half. The secondweek of the season, October 30th to November 5th, had the highest success ratiowith each hunter averaging 2.25 birds per day (Table 1).After November 16th hunter success decreased, as has been the case duringpast seasons at Horseshoe Lake. This is attributed to the fact that over 60percent of the bag at Horseshoe Lake is made up of diving ducks whose peak migrationin Illinois occurs during the first week of November (Kennedy and Arthur, 1973).The best periods of sustained harvest was from November 3rd to November 6thand from November llth to November 14th (Fig. 2). During each of these four dayperiods hunters averaged 3.2 ducks per day. November 4th was the most successfulday of the season, as 22 hunters bagged 120 ducks for an average of 5.5 per hunter.HarvestThe total duck harvest at Horseshoe Lake during the 1974 waterfowl season was1,206. This represents an 18 percent increase over the 1973 season when 1,018 duckswere bagged.A breakdown of ducks harvested by weekly periods is found in Table 1.-3-The reasons for reduced harvest during the final three weeks, November 20thto December llth, was the departure of diving ducks and freezing weather. Althoughmallards were more abundant later in the season, harvest results show that aboutthe same number was bagged in the first half of the season as the second half(Table 2). This suggests, as reported by Kennedy and Arthur (1973), that thenumber of ducks on an area has little direct relationship to the number bagged.Also, mallards had established regular feeding patterns and had stopped usingthe hunting areas on the lake by the fifth week of the season.Species CompositionThe dominant species harvested at Horseshoe Lake was the lesser scaup makingup 45.8 percent of the total bag. Mallards were next, accounting for 27.7 percent,followed by ring-necked ducks with 8.1 percent of the total bag. Seventeen otherspecies were harvested in lesser amounts (Table 2).Lesser scaup were harvested throughout the entire season with at least onebagged on 49 of the 50 days. They made up 45.7 percent of the total bag duringthe first half of the season, October 23rd to November 16th, compared to 46.1percent of the bag during the second half of the season. However, there were 381harvested in the first half and only 172 during the second half. The peak oftheir migration occured on November 13th with over 5,000 birds on the lake. Afterthis date there was a sharp decline in their numbers as well as most other species.Since Horseshoe Lake is almost entirely an open body of water there is notmuch desirable habitat for mallards. The 1974 harvest of 334 mallards representsa slight decrease from 1973 when 350 mallards were bagged. During the first 25days of this past season 164 mallards were harvested accounting for only 19.7percent of the total bag. They were more important in the bag during the secondhalf of the season as 170 were bagged accounting for 45.6 percent of the totalharvest.There were 777 diving ducks harvested on Horseshoe Lake accounting for64.4 percent of the total bag. There were 429 puddle ducks bagged, which is 35.6percent of the total harvest. During the first half of the season, 583 divingducks were bagged or 70 percent of the total harvest. Two-hundred and fiftypuddlers were bagged in the first half or 30 percent ot the total harvest. Onehundred and ninety-four diving ducks were bagged in the second half or 52 percentof the total harvest. Puddle ducks accounted for 48 percent of the total bagduring the second half as 179 of these species were bagged.Relationships of Band RecoveriesThere were 146 waterfowl band recoveries in the 10 minute degree block oflatitude and longitude containing Horseshoe Lake. Because of variable proportionsof each species banded the breakdown of recoveries has little merit. Although52 percent (76) of the recoveries were mallards, 17 percent were Canada geeseand eight percent were wood ducks. The most common species in the bag, lesserscaup, was represented by only three percent of the band recoveries. There werenine other species reported from bands: black duck, green-winged teal, blue-winged teal, shoveler, pintail, redhead, canvasback, ring-neck and blue goose.Of the 76 mallard recoveries, 16 or 21 percent were considered to be bandedon breeding areas. The distribution of those banding sites are comparable tothose reported by Anderson and Henny (1972). The 33 recoveries from Illinoisbandings are identical as those reported by Bellrose and Crompton (1970).-4-In summary, there are not sufficient recoveries to warrant an in-depthanalysis. Visual inspection suggests that ducks using Horseshoe Lake exhibita normal recovery pattern.RECOMMENDATIONSThe current private operation offers a limited amount of high qualitywaterfowl hunting. The average daily success ratio of 1.5 experienced in 1974was almost twice as productive as the best of 39 public hunting areas in Illinoisand the harvest of 1,206 ducks exceeded that on 27 of the state areas (Kennedyet al, 1974).We recommend that this quality recreation be continued in conjunction withthe other uses intended for the property. To maintain the existing quality astake blind arrangement such as we presently use at Batchtown but not to exceedthe present number of 16 blinds is advised. Since the current locations of theseblinds have evolved through experience over the years the sites should be maintained.Waterfowl hunting will come at a time that will not present a major conflictto other activities. Site planning should consider the arrangement of activityareas to prohibit such conflicts.This type of waterfowl hunting will have a low number of user days but eachuser day will be of the highest value. Consequently, we conclude that waterfowlhunting should receive a high ranking in the area objectives.Literature CitedAnderson, D. R., and C. J. Henny. 1972. Population ecology of the mallard:I. A review of previous studies and the distribution and migration frombreeding areas. Fish & Wildl. Ser. Resource Pub. 105. 166pp.Bellrose, F. C., and R. D. Crompton. 1970. Migration behavior of mallardsand black ducks as determined from banding. Ill. Nat. Hist. Sur. Bull.30(3) :167-234.Kennedy, D. D., and G. C. Arthur. 1973. Criteria for selection of IllinoisWaterfowl season dates. Illinois Dept. Conservation Migratory Bird Sect.,Periodic Rpt. No. 5. 32pp., G. C. Arthur and V. H. Hamer. 1974. Hunter use and harvest onpublic waterfowl areas during 1974. Illinois Dept. Conservation MigratoryBird Sect., Periodic Rpt. No. 11. 10pp.Lockart, R. 1970. Madison County surface water resources. Illinois Dept.Conservation, Division of Fisheries. 56pp.con oa 0Q)C d0t =0"4.-44-J*CM 0m oS0)0 4J02HO 1.aO<u a4J Qa, v*r- ^dt- ^-5-CJ)0Cl) 'H-a)4-J( JCo~ pZCi)4 Coi a- 4 OCr- r-4c LQCl4 Cj r4 r- rH r- rr- r-4c Mo -O r-4OZZZQQ-000000 00O C ZZ H0 r-_o 0 0 0 0 w 0<<^OO en o rCOsaa4-JQd-6--44-.a)4-ir-0toCl4-1O)0E000C40C-1(Ua)0·r4 4-4- r-) r-3 44J => V4S4- -1a- 0Sa)f -0O C)0z ' 0t - I414< 0<un r\ O < C-4 cr- r-l r-^cnC -4Clr) II C)C CLN l"T-i oon nM NLn r-4 NMooLn Lno o o o( 0m1 OLn 00C) cyC ) c0 C 00 C .4 r-4 Ci. C 0 C*r) 0 C 0 0 C Y Or-1* rl ._Mo r-4- C) Cr C-4 I r-c00 -,o M0r cq * N r6i rr--4 p 0 tCO"I rO 0i 100la)b a) -Q a)r-4' 5- a 0 ) )5oa~a) a) U5-ia)a)H Cl)^^'0 a )~3k'0a) 00 aroa-a)a d I a) I 04a)0c cQ ) 5-4 -r4ir-4V - 0  O O (1) 44 4 a a-i c r C).Q) C -H3 0) : r- P a) 8r 0 X 0 0 I 1U 5ý-4 lZP4 C4 M M 4Ma = u 0cSn:c q 55 54 C r-04a) Q 3 r k 3·r( O O·r( a)~~d~W~5~~~~~~ ~0- .-- Tý %.w -- - Yý --4 -ý W- L"Figure 1. 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Characteristics of Waterfowl Harvest at Horseshoe Lake, Madison County, Illinois

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