Wish I had some pretty pictures.

Dismal waterfowl scouting trip east of Jamestown this PM. Loaded up dog, binoculars, my 12 ga Western Field 30", and drove about 50 miles. I glassed seven of my old favorite diving duck lakes, some several miles long, and looked at about 50 smaller semipermanent wetlands while looking for a migrant Great White (Tundra Swan). Did not see any divers or swans. No geese seen. An isolated bay of one large lake had about 10k Mallards concentrated well off shore. Saw one skittish flock of 25 in one small basin, and a handful of Gadwall in another. Maybe a dozen Ruddy Ducks and a few Pied-billed Grebes rounded out the aquatic birds. The lakes are suffering from extremely high water levels and there are almost no submerged plants. Since water levels got so high, all the lakes have fish populations and have been heavily used by White Pelicans, Double-crested Cormorants, Western Grebes, gulls, and other carnivores since the mid-90's, but I saw none today. Most of these lakes were once full of sago pondweed, principal food of swans and Canvasbacks and nursery for shrimp and other invertebrates eaten by migrant Lesser Scaup and many other ducks. All that remains now are a few clumps of Water Milfoil weighted down with algae in the muddy, nutrient rich water. I suspect the glyphosates and other herbicides killed the aquatic plants. The wet meadows surrounding nearly all wetlands in this area are regularly sprayed with the same chemicals used to kill both broadleaf and grassy weeds and this wetland zone has all but disappeared, replaced by bare soil or dead crop residue from previous growing seasons. They will be sprayed with pre-emerge formulas this coming spring. The meadows are the first to receive runoff water from the cropped uplands and are important feeding areas for our breeding waterbirds as well. Next trip will be in more hilly country west of town, but Im afraid conditions will be no better, as most of the hayland and pastures have been converted to bean and corn fields.