MANY FACTORS CONTRIBUTE TO POOR DUCK SEASON
Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 1:10 pm
Many factors contribute to poor duck season
By John N. Felsher
The blame for poor hunting success during the 2004-05 duck season could come down to one word, “numbers.â€
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the dry northern Great Plains held 32.2 million breeding ducks in May 2004. That figure rose slightly above the 31.2 million estimated in May 2002, but fell 11 percent below the 2003 count and three percent below the long-term average.
Duck populations run in cycles, reversing direction about every eight to 10 years. In the early 1960s, ducks numbers plummeted to about 24 million breeding birds. Then, numbers rose steadily, peaking in the early 1970s at about 38 million with a smaller peak in the late 1970s. By the late 1980s, numbers again plunged to a nadir of 23 million.
However, by the late 1990s, ducks found some of the best habitat conditions in a half-century. Verdant wet prairies produced a modern record of 43.8 million breeding birds that produced a fall flight of more than 105 million birds.
“Duck populations have always gone up and down, highly correlated to the wet and dry cycle on the prairie breeding grounds,†said Mike Checkett, a waterfowl biologist with the Ducks Unlimited headquarters in Memphis. “In my opinion, we are midway through a downward trend. We came out of a wet cycle in the late 1990s. When habitat conditions are right on the breeding grounds, we see a big population explosion. Between 1994 and 1999, duck numbers increased by 69 percent after water returned to core breeding areas. This occurred in the complete absence of predator control, proving again that when moisture is plentiful and there is sufficient wetland and upland habitat, duck production overwhelms duck predation.â€
Since 1999, duck populations fell about 25 percent, but fell from record highs. Numbers still approximated the long-term average of about 33 million breeding birds. Therefore, Mississippi Flyway states continued the 60-day, six ducks per day seasons that began in 1997. With fewer birds flying, hunting success suffered, but people still expected the same results they experienced in 1999 because of the liberal season. Between 1959 and 1997, Mississippi Flyway seasons never exceeded 50 days. In many years, hunters could only shoot ducks for 20, 25 or 30 days.
Breeding habitat also decreased. Since 2003, more than 164,000 acres of native prairie grasslands disappeared under plows in North and South Dakota alone, Checkett said. That land can provide habitat to 80 to 100 pairs of nesting ducks per square mile.
Wetlands also disappear at about 100,000 acres a year in places, Checkett said. Louisiana, which contains 40 percent of the wetlands in the 48 contiguous United States, alone suffers 80 percent of the national wetlands losses. The state continues to lose about 20 to 35 square miles of wetlands a year to erosion and other factors.
To reduce grassland habitat losses, the United States government pays willing landowners to conserve native grasses and wetlands under the Conservation Reserve Program. The CRP totals 4.7 million acres of private land in North and South Dakota alone. Unfortunately, many farmers plow right to the edge of potholes or burn off native grasses.
Others employ “no till†practices that leave fields in stubble instead of plowing them under after the harvest. Thinking they found native grasses, ducks, especially pintails, nest in these stubble fields. Farmers planting crops in the spring often inadvertently destroy nests.
However, the vast majority of breeding habitat sits across the border in Canada where no CRP program exists. Most ducks that visit Louisiana and Arkansas come from Saskatchewan. Without conservation incentives, Canadian habitat vanishes at alarming rates.
“We had only one good year of production out of Canada in the past 10 years,†Checkett said. “Canada has experienced tremendous habitat losses. We’ve had an extended drought in the Canadian prairie breeding grounds. If the loss of wetlands and grasslands continues at the present rate, mallards and other prairie ducks will face long-term declines, regardless of precipitation levels. If rains return and the habitat is gone, we’ll miss the opportunity to see duck populations rise again. We must keep the table set for when the rains return.â€
No till farmers certainly keep the table set for wintering birds. The practice leaves incredible amounts of waste grain on the ground. According to some estimates, millions of bushels of waste grain scattered throughout the Mississippi Flyway can feed more than 65 million mallards all winter. Without snow covering these fields and generally warm temperatures during the past several years keeping ponds unfrozen, birds found everything they needed up north and didn’t need to fly as far south.
“There are some distribution changes occurring that are outside of anyone’s control,†said Robert Helm, chief waterfowl biologist for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. “There may be some habit changes among certain species. Ducks attract more ducks. If some ducks stay in one place, others might also stay. Ducks don’t migrate in strong family units like geese, but if birds can’t feed in one place, they move elsewhere. We might see some changes in migration patterns from generation to generation.â€
While reduced habitat in the breeding grounds leads to poor duck production, ironically, too much habitat from Missouri south may contribute to poor hunting in some southern states. Heavy rains during Fall 2004 flooded croplands throughout the lower Mississippi Flyway. Shallow water covering excellent food sources creates ideal waterfowl habitat. When hunters face 25 percent fewer birds starting the fall flight and those birds spread out over considerably more acreage, hunting success suffers on the southern end of the flyway.
In addition, many waterfowlers create their own duck holes by flooding cornfields. Federal law says that people can bring water to bait, but not bait to water. These private flooded fields add acreage to winter habitat, keeping ducks in that vicinity. Ducks that find food and water might return to the same general areas year after year, teaching new generations to do the same unless severe and sustained freezing temperatures force them farther south.
Cold temperatures do not necessarily affect birds that can find food. Mallards can live for a week without eating. During intermittent cold fronts, birds might stay put and weather the storm for three or four days. Even with severe cold, ducks may find open water in major rivers, such as the Missouri and upper Mississippi. Some power supply reservoirs discharge warm water that keeps lakes unfrozen.
“This year, it was fairly warm up through December,†Helm said. “We had some cold pushes, but they weren’t sustained. The northern states didn’t have the snow covering like in years past. It’s the snow covering the food that pushes mallards south. Around Christmas, we did see some cold weather, but we did not see a significant push of birds to south Louisiana. In my opinion, every green-winged teal and gadwall in the Mississippi Flyway should have flown to coastal Louisiana because Arkansas and everything north was frozen for several days, but we did not see a marked change of bird numbers at that time.â€
With warming trends during the past several years, many southern duck hunters pushed for later seasons. In 1998, Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), then the senate majority leader, pressured the USFWS to extend some southern state duck seasons to Jan. 31. In 2002, the USFWS permanently allowed all states of the southern Mississippi Flyway to close on the last Sunday in January instead of the Sunday closest to Jan. 20.
Consequently, sportsmen up north cried foul and demanded earlier seasons in their states. Now seasons in northern states open on the Saturday nearest Sept. 24 instead of the Saturday nearest Oct. 1. Much of Canada opens Sept. 1.
With earlier opening dates and milder winters, northern hunters spend far more days in duck blinds than in previous years. In the past, some only hunted a few days before ponds iced over, snow covered the fields and birds migrated south. Today, many northern sportsmen might hunt the entire 60 days.
Although people cannot directly compare annual harvest numbers because of varying season lengths and bag limits, coupled with different methods of gathering data, most northern states harvest far more ducks now than a decade or two ago. For example, during a 40-day season, North Dakota hunters bagged 77,600 ducks in 1961, said Paul Padding, chief of the USFWS Harvest Surveys Section. In a 50-day season in 1985, North Dakota hunters bagged 135,000 birds. In 2001, hunters in North Dakota bagged 694,700 birds during a 60-day season.
“We are certainly seeing more ducks being shot because of the longer seasons,†Checkett said. “With 10 more days on the front end, northern hunters can hunt a higher percentage of days so they shoot more birds. North Dakota averaged about 365,000 birds a year in the 1970s. Now, they are shooting between 500,000 and 700,000.â€
During those same years, Louisiana sportsmen bagged 211,000 birds in 1960-61, 1.717 million in 1984-85 and 1.710 million in 2001. In 1985, Louisiana hunters bagged about 31 percent of the birds taken in the entire Mississippi Flyway and 300,000 more than the entire Central Flyway.
Recent North Dakota bags contained high percentages of gadwalls and green-winged teal, two ducks that comprise the bulk of birds harvested in Louisiana. Only so many birds hatch in a given year, and that figure dropped by 25 percent over the last five years. Any bird short-stopped by steel in North Dakota or elsewhere simply cannot fly south. Starting with smaller numbers and taking more along the way equals fewer and smarter birds that arrive on the Gulf Coast.
Also in the late 1990s, spinning wing decoys hit the market. Initially, these devices that simulate birds landing in ponds led to increased harvests even in marginal habitat. They work especially well for fooling young birds or birds unaccustomed to shooting pressure, increasing harvest rates of juvenile birds, especially in northern states.
“Adult birds are much more difficult to hunt,†Helm said. “They learn quickly how to avoid hunters. Birds can change their habits to respond to hunting pressure.â€
Fortunately, duck populations can rebound quickly if they find good habitat on the prairie breeding grounds, as they did in the late 1990s. In even a poor season, Louisiana still leads the nation in duck harvests. Louisiana hunters bagged 1.34 million ducks during the 2003-04 season, a figure more than half of the entire Central Flyway bag. Hunters in other states who bag half as many ducks as Louisiana does in a poor year would celebrate a banner harvest.
By John N. Felsher
The blame for poor hunting success during the 2004-05 duck season could come down to one word, “numbers.â€
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the dry northern Great Plains held 32.2 million breeding ducks in May 2004. That figure rose slightly above the 31.2 million estimated in May 2002, but fell 11 percent below the 2003 count and three percent below the long-term average.
Duck populations run in cycles, reversing direction about every eight to 10 years. In the early 1960s, ducks numbers plummeted to about 24 million breeding birds. Then, numbers rose steadily, peaking in the early 1970s at about 38 million with a smaller peak in the late 1970s. By the late 1980s, numbers again plunged to a nadir of 23 million.
However, by the late 1990s, ducks found some of the best habitat conditions in a half-century. Verdant wet prairies produced a modern record of 43.8 million breeding birds that produced a fall flight of more than 105 million birds.
“Duck populations have always gone up and down, highly correlated to the wet and dry cycle on the prairie breeding grounds,†said Mike Checkett, a waterfowl biologist with the Ducks Unlimited headquarters in Memphis. “In my opinion, we are midway through a downward trend. We came out of a wet cycle in the late 1990s. When habitat conditions are right on the breeding grounds, we see a big population explosion. Between 1994 and 1999, duck numbers increased by 69 percent after water returned to core breeding areas. This occurred in the complete absence of predator control, proving again that when moisture is plentiful and there is sufficient wetland and upland habitat, duck production overwhelms duck predation.â€
Since 1999, duck populations fell about 25 percent, but fell from record highs. Numbers still approximated the long-term average of about 33 million breeding birds. Therefore, Mississippi Flyway states continued the 60-day, six ducks per day seasons that began in 1997. With fewer birds flying, hunting success suffered, but people still expected the same results they experienced in 1999 because of the liberal season. Between 1959 and 1997, Mississippi Flyway seasons never exceeded 50 days. In many years, hunters could only shoot ducks for 20, 25 or 30 days.
Breeding habitat also decreased. Since 2003, more than 164,000 acres of native prairie grasslands disappeared under plows in North and South Dakota alone, Checkett said. That land can provide habitat to 80 to 100 pairs of nesting ducks per square mile.
Wetlands also disappear at about 100,000 acres a year in places, Checkett said. Louisiana, which contains 40 percent of the wetlands in the 48 contiguous United States, alone suffers 80 percent of the national wetlands losses. The state continues to lose about 20 to 35 square miles of wetlands a year to erosion and other factors.
To reduce grassland habitat losses, the United States government pays willing landowners to conserve native grasses and wetlands under the Conservation Reserve Program. The CRP totals 4.7 million acres of private land in North and South Dakota alone. Unfortunately, many farmers plow right to the edge of potholes or burn off native grasses.
Others employ “no till†practices that leave fields in stubble instead of plowing them under after the harvest. Thinking they found native grasses, ducks, especially pintails, nest in these stubble fields. Farmers planting crops in the spring often inadvertently destroy nests.
However, the vast majority of breeding habitat sits across the border in Canada where no CRP program exists. Most ducks that visit Louisiana and Arkansas come from Saskatchewan. Without conservation incentives, Canadian habitat vanishes at alarming rates.
“We had only one good year of production out of Canada in the past 10 years,†Checkett said. “Canada has experienced tremendous habitat losses. We’ve had an extended drought in the Canadian prairie breeding grounds. If the loss of wetlands and grasslands continues at the present rate, mallards and other prairie ducks will face long-term declines, regardless of precipitation levels. If rains return and the habitat is gone, we’ll miss the opportunity to see duck populations rise again. We must keep the table set for when the rains return.â€
No till farmers certainly keep the table set for wintering birds. The practice leaves incredible amounts of waste grain on the ground. According to some estimates, millions of bushels of waste grain scattered throughout the Mississippi Flyway can feed more than 65 million mallards all winter. Without snow covering these fields and generally warm temperatures during the past several years keeping ponds unfrozen, birds found everything they needed up north and didn’t need to fly as far south.
“There are some distribution changes occurring that are outside of anyone’s control,†said Robert Helm, chief waterfowl biologist for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. “There may be some habit changes among certain species. Ducks attract more ducks. If some ducks stay in one place, others might also stay. Ducks don’t migrate in strong family units like geese, but if birds can’t feed in one place, they move elsewhere. We might see some changes in migration patterns from generation to generation.â€
While reduced habitat in the breeding grounds leads to poor duck production, ironically, too much habitat from Missouri south may contribute to poor hunting in some southern states. Heavy rains during Fall 2004 flooded croplands throughout the lower Mississippi Flyway. Shallow water covering excellent food sources creates ideal waterfowl habitat. When hunters face 25 percent fewer birds starting the fall flight and those birds spread out over considerably more acreage, hunting success suffers on the southern end of the flyway.
In addition, many waterfowlers create their own duck holes by flooding cornfields. Federal law says that people can bring water to bait, but not bait to water. These private flooded fields add acreage to winter habitat, keeping ducks in that vicinity. Ducks that find food and water might return to the same general areas year after year, teaching new generations to do the same unless severe and sustained freezing temperatures force them farther south.
Cold temperatures do not necessarily affect birds that can find food. Mallards can live for a week without eating. During intermittent cold fronts, birds might stay put and weather the storm for three or four days. Even with severe cold, ducks may find open water in major rivers, such as the Missouri and upper Mississippi. Some power supply reservoirs discharge warm water that keeps lakes unfrozen.
“This year, it was fairly warm up through December,†Helm said. “We had some cold pushes, but they weren’t sustained. The northern states didn’t have the snow covering like in years past. It’s the snow covering the food that pushes mallards south. Around Christmas, we did see some cold weather, but we did not see a significant push of birds to south Louisiana. In my opinion, every green-winged teal and gadwall in the Mississippi Flyway should have flown to coastal Louisiana because Arkansas and everything north was frozen for several days, but we did not see a marked change of bird numbers at that time.â€
With warming trends during the past several years, many southern duck hunters pushed for later seasons. In 1998, Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), then the senate majority leader, pressured the USFWS to extend some southern state duck seasons to Jan. 31. In 2002, the USFWS permanently allowed all states of the southern Mississippi Flyway to close on the last Sunday in January instead of the Sunday closest to Jan. 20.
Consequently, sportsmen up north cried foul and demanded earlier seasons in their states. Now seasons in northern states open on the Saturday nearest Sept. 24 instead of the Saturday nearest Oct. 1. Much of Canada opens Sept. 1.
With earlier opening dates and milder winters, northern hunters spend far more days in duck blinds than in previous years. In the past, some only hunted a few days before ponds iced over, snow covered the fields and birds migrated south. Today, many northern sportsmen might hunt the entire 60 days.
Although people cannot directly compare annual harvest numbers because of varying season lengths and bag limits, coupled with different methods of gathering data, most northern states harvest far more ducks now than a decade or two ago. For example, during a 40-day season, North Dakota hunters bagged 77,600 ducks in 1961, said Paul Padding, chief of the USFWS Harvest Surveys Section. In a 50-day season in 1985, North Dakota hunters bagged 135,000 birds. In 2001, hunters in North Dakota bagged 694,700 birds during a 60-day season.
“We are certainly seeing more ducks being shot because of the longer seasons,†Checkett said. “With 10 more days on the front end, northern hunters can hunt a higher percentage of days so they shoot more birds. North Dakota averaged about 365,000 birds a year in the 1970s. Now, they are shooting between 500,000 and 700,000.â€
During those same years, Louisiana sportsmen bagged 211,000 birds in 1960-61, 1.717 million in 1984-85 and 1.710 million in 2001. In 1985, Louisiana hunters bagged about 31 percent of the birds taken in the entire Mississippi Flyway and 300,000 more than the entire Central Flyway.
Recent North Dakota bags contained high percentages of gadwalls and green-winged teal, two ducks that comprise the bulk of birds harvested in Louisiana. Only so many birds hatch in a given year, and that figure dropped by 25 percent over the last five years. Any bird short-stopped by steel in North Dakota or elsewhere simply cannot fly south. Starting with smaller numbers and taking more along the way equals fewer and smarter birds that arrive on the Gulf Coast.
Also in the late 1990s, spinning wing decoys hit the market. Initially, these devices that simulate birds landing in ponds led to increased harvests even in marginal habitat. They work especially well for fooling young birds or birds unaccustomed to shooting pressure, increasing harvest rates of juvenile birds, especially in northern states.
“Adult birds are much more difficult to hunt,†Helm said. “They learn quickly how to avoid hunters. Birds can change their habits to respond to hunting pressure.â€
Fortunately, duck populations can rebound quickly if they find good habitat on the prairie breeding grounds, as they did in the late 1990s. In even a poor season, Louisiana still leads the nation in duck harvests. Louisiana hunters bagged 1.34 million ducks during the 2003-04 season, a figure more than half of the entire Central Flyway bag. Hunters in other states who bag half as many ducks as Louisiana does in a poor year would celebrate a banner harvest.
,... WTF, did he just say !,... The 99 season was Ok,... but nuthin like this year,..... I damm sho don't get it !
..... Huh,.... I don't even think I'm on the right MF'n thread !
