Among the long list of items available to jump-start most outdoor adventures are the surveys conducted by natural resources agencies.

Of interest to late-season waterfowl hunters, population surveys paint a general picture of duck and goose numbers. But, perhaps more importantly, they illustrate the conditions that create good late-season gunning.

For instance, each year the West Virginia Division of Wildlife, in conjunction with the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, conducts a midwinter waterfowl survey to count migratory ducks. The survey is done each year at the same time.

But when combined with the data provided by surveys from other states, the federal folks can paint a good picture of waterfowl numbers on a broader scale.

West Virginia's survey work takes place on the Ohio River, Kanawha River, Tygart Lake (including Pleasant Creek Marsh), the Shenandoah River and the New River. In the case of rivers, only specific river sections are targeted.

During the 2007 survey, wildlife biologists counted 2,200 ducks and 4,980 geese.

"The number of ducks counted was below average, which was expected because of the unusually mild weather in December and most of January," said Steve Wilson, waterfowl biologist for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources.

"The number of Canada geese was above average as a result of a good production in the summer of 2006 and the mild weather," he added.

The DNR's survey is weather sensitive. Winter weather moves ducks from areas up north. Results of the survey vary accordingly.

"We do the midwinter survey the first week of January, and sometimes we don't get the right conditions to see a lot of birds," Wilson said. "I've witnessed times when we did the survey one week, and the birds piled in the following week. Within the last five years, we had one year when we had phenomenal numbers during the midwinter count. Everything played out just right.

"During the last half of December, winter set in big time in West Virginia, as well as in northern Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania, where we get a lot of our ducks from.

"All of that area got frozen over early and pushed the birds south. We had enough cold to freeze the farm ponds and smaller creeks. The fields were snow covered. We counted over 20,000 birds on the Ohio River that year," Wilson added.

The relevance of such surveys is not limited to population trends among waterfowl species; they also show how weather influences the movement of ducks during the winter months, which plays directly into hunter strategy and success rates.

"We always have plenty of Canada geese around here, year round, regardless of the weather," said Wilson. "Duck hunting, though, during December and January is very weather dependent. Most of our resident birds have bailed out of here. What we need is some good winter weather to the north of us to push migrant birds down here.

"If we get the good weather, you can get some really good duck hunting in several areas of the state, but particularly in the Ohio River valley. It's probably the best general area during the late season. When you get the Lake Erie marshes frozen over and those birds have to head south, we get them in the Ohio Valley," Wilson added

Just as with biologists doing a midwinter waterfowl survey, how and where an outdoors person hunts relates directly to the weather patterns within a given winter season.

That's not to say there's no opportunity when less-than- ideal weather patterns emerge; it's just that hunters must make the adjustment. They have to be willing to work a bit harder, head to different areas and be happy with less.

"When it is mild, you don't have as many birds here," Wilson said. "The ones you do have are more scattered out. You have to do a lot of leg work to find the places that have a few birds, where you can have a little bit of good shooting. But there won't be piles of birds around."

During mild winters, hunters still might find a few ducks on bigger reservoirs and river systems, but with the birds more scattered, smaller places will also hold ducks.

Expect birds to be on smaller reservoirs, on creeks and small rivers— places that wouldn't be available to ducks if they were frozen.

Although Wilson's comments were about our neighboring state to the south, the same basic patterns hold true for hunters in southwestern Pennsylvania.