In the 1950s there used to be a few hundred thousand of the canvasback ducks resting along the Chesapeake but as the food supply disappeared, the numbers declined heavily. Even in recent years there were still somewhat respectable numbers passing through but this year the visiting population dropped off of a cliff due to the unusually warm winter.
Department of Natural Resources officials counted 13,700 canvasbacks during their annual midwinter waterfowl survey, which tracks about 20 species of ducks and geese that fly south each winter. That marked a precipitous drop from the four previous years, when canvasback numbers hovered between 30,000 and 40,000 during the annual count.
The survey found declines in other species of ducks as well, and recorded the lowest numbers of waterfowl in Maryland's portion of the Chesapeake Bay in five years.
