After a two-year hiatus, the complete Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat survey is back for 2022!

Before you pack your decoys and start scouting, tune in to watch waterfowl experts from Ducks Unlimited in the USA and Canada as they dip into the survey results and share their expectations for waterfowl numbers and hunting prospects for the upcoming season.

Mike Brasher, Senior Waterfowl Scientist, Ducks Unlimited Inc.

Matt Dyson, Research Scientist, Ducks Unlimited Canada

Fred Roetker, Pilot Biologist (retired), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Jim Ronquest, Vice President of Development, Drake Waterfowl

Dr. Mike Brasher is a Senior Waterfowl Scientist at Ducks Unlimited’s National Headquarters in Memphis, TN. Prior to this role, Mike served for 13 years as Biological Team Leader for the Gulf Coast Joint Venture in Lafayette, Louisiana. In his current position, Mike collaborates with DU staff and partners to communicate and advance the scientific foundation of DU’s conservation activities. Mike also serves as a co-host of the Ducks Unlimited Podcast.

Matt Dyson is a Waterfowl Research Scientist at Ducks Unlimited Canada’s Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research who studies the behavioural and demographic responses of ducks to landscape change. Matt has studied duck nesting ecology in Alberta’s boreal forest, nesting and brood ecology of wood ducks in southern Ontario, Canada goose nesting ecology on James Bay, and even woodland caribou in northern Ontario.

Fred Roetker is a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Pilot/Biologist. For more than 30 years, Fred headed north each spring to participate in the Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey (BPOP). He flew the Manitoba and Saskatchewan prairies and parklands in his early years, then transitioned further north to the boreal forest region of the same provinces. Fred finished his career flying transects in northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories, extending as far north as the Arctic Ocean. He has also flown wintering waterfowl surveys in all four flyways, Mexico, and Central America. Fred rejoined the BPOP effort in 2022 as an aerial observer, to assist in northern Alberta and Northwest Territories.

Jim Ronquest grew up hunting ducks and is currently Vice President of Development at Drake Waterfowl. Jim’s past roles include work with RNT calls, producing and co-hosting RNT-V, and commercial guiding. In 2006, Jim was named the World Duck Calling Champion.

2022 Waterfowl Forecast