Waterfowl broods managed moderately well despite the cold and rainy start to the summer

The breeding populations of the principal Anatidae game species — mallard, teal, wigeon and goldeneye — has declined slightly on the previous year.

 The decline was sharpest in the goldeneye breeding population, particularly in northern Finland, where the mallard breeding population was also smaller than in the previous year. The coot showed a considerable decline, and the index describing the size of its breeding population fell to its lowest level ever during its extensive monitoring history. The breeding population of the wigeon has been in a worrying decline since the early 1990s, and the trend continued this year too.

Mallards had more chicks this year than last year, and the chick breeding index was the second highest recorded during the monitoring history. The wigeon and goldeneye improved somewhat on the previous year, but the wigeon in particular fell below the long-term average. The teal produced fewer chicks than in the previous year both in the south and in the north. Many birds have had trouble with their nesting this summer; the low number of chicks hatched is attributed to the cold and rainy beginning of the summer. Water fowl, on the other hand, do not seem to have suffered from the bad weather.

The breeding population and brood counts for water fowl on inland waters were conducted by the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute and the Finnish Museum of Natural History at various locations around Finland. Most of the actual work was done by hunters and ornithologists on a volunteer basis. Breeding populations were assessed twice in May and June with counts of nesting pairs, and broods were assessed with one brood count in July. The water fowl counts form part of the long-term monitoring of game stocks manged by the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute. Only locations where counts were performed in both years are included in the comparison. Comparable nesting pair counts and brood counts were performed at 592 and 376 locations, respectively.

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