American Wigeon | Vermont Atlas of Life

Summary

Natural history: American Wigeon are ground-nesting ducks of the northwestern prairies, and their presence in New England is a fairly recent, mid-20th-century development that followed a drought-driven push east in search of new water, including the farm ponds and sewage lagoons that were then spreading across the region. Vermont’s first confirmed nest came in 1962 at Dead Creek, and the state’s breeding record since has been a boom-and-bust story, including a cluster of nesting females at the north end of Grand Isle through the early 1990s that raised as many as seven broods in a single year before going quiet for several years.
Status in VT: Increased from 0 to 1 block. Most records occur in the Champlain Valley.
Data from other research: No additional data for VT.
Conservation status: State rank S1B
Other atlases: NY: -48%
VT’s role North American range: VT is disjunct from the core of the range.
Causes of change since first Atlas: Changes in occurrence reflect population fluctuations in Prairie Pothole and Aspen-Parkland regions of U.S. and Canada; sporadic breeder unlikely to become established in VT.
Management/Monitoring recommendations: No current recommendations.