Report Shines Light on Freezout Waterfowl

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Goose, duck and hunter numbers were down this year at Freezout Wildlife Management Area, but tundra swans were present in large numbers, according to a state report monitoring waterfowl and hunter activities there.

The 16-page annual report, put together by Michael Schwitters, a seasonal Fish, Wildlife and Parks employee, is packed with information about the WMA along the Rocky Mountain Front between Fairfield and Choteau.

“Swan hunting in 2009 was very good,” Schwitters writes. “Just about any swan hunter that wanted a bird was able to get one due to the long duration with good numbers of swans present.”

Schwitters estimates 22,000 of the big white birds stopped at Freezout. That number is second largest in the last 11 years, second only to an estimated 23,600 swans that stopped by in 2007.

Both white (snow and Ross’) and dark (Canada) geese numbers were down at Freezout, Schwitters reports.

The migration of white geese, with a peak in early November at nearly 40,000, Schwitters says, “was quite unspectacular.”

To read Schwitters’ report, “Monitoring Waterfowl Hunting at Freezout WMA”, go to the Region 4 link on the FWP web page.

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