As duck/goose season comes to a close; this post will be dedicated to all the water fowl that fly over the rivers, marshes, and swamps of the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula.

Ducks and geese fly thousands of miles each year to find habitat suitable for feeding, nesting, and protection.

Each Fall these waterfowl fly over the United States in four main zones or ‘flyways’. As you can see in the image below, that the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula (really all of Eastern Virginia) is in the middle of the Atlantic Flyway. This is because the marshes, rivers and wetlands provide millions of acres of habitat for these birds.

The cold air that freezes lakes, streams, and rivers push waterfowl to their wintering grounds. When Arctic air is pushed down into the mid-west migrations move faster as the birds stay in front of the extreme cold. With a strong tail wind (~50 mph) ducks can fly around 800 miles in an 8 hour period. After such a long flight, ducks would have to spend two or three days feeding and resting to recover from the journey. But when extreme cold comes (like the 2013-2014 winter) where the cold Artic air is pushed into the South, ducks and other waterfowl struggle to find suitable feeding grounds and in turn die of starvation.

Migration and population data has been studied by biologist for over 60 years. Biologists look for patterns to help and preserve healthy populations. Check out www.flyways.us/ for more information.

Thanks to www.ducks.org and www.wildfowlmag.com for information in this article.