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Key elements in place for good duck season
MDC
10/3/03
Water, food and a larger number of young birds could make the 2003-2004 waterfowl hunting season one to remember.
JEFFERSON CITY - Six months ago, Dave Graber was preparing duck hunters for bad news. Now he says the 2003-2004 waterfowl hunting season could be one of the best in recent memory. It's the kind of reversal that every wildlife manager likes to make.
Graber is a resource scientist at the Missouri Department of Conservation's resource science center in Columbia. His specialty is waterfowl. Each spring, he looks at the number of ducks and geese returning north to nest and the number of ponds, which are an indication of breeding habitat. Those statistics help him form a picture of the coming waterfowl hunting season.
This winter the outlook wasn't bright. Waterfowl nesting success was fair to poor last year, so there were fewer birds to carry on. Furthermore, below-normal precipitation in the northern prairie region -- the central United States and Canadian duck factory -- had reduced available nesting habitat. Based on these facts, it seemed possible that declining duck numbers would trigger shorter hunting seasons and smaller bag limits.
Then came April, and it came in wet. Above-average precipitation on the northern prairies nearly doubled the number of seasonal ponds, and by the time ducks arrived, they found an abundance of nesting habitat.
"It was the kind of spring you pray for but seldom get," said Graber. "No matter how many ducks you have, without suitable habitat, they don't nest. By the same token, you can have fewer birds, but if the habitat is favorable, you can get a bumper crop of young ducks. That's what happened this year."
Aerial surveys conducted in May showed a 160 percent increase in the total number of breeding ducks compared to last year and 25 percent above the long-term average. Brood surveys conducted in July showed a 21 percent increase in numbers of young ducks from 2002. Overall, breeding duck numbers increased from 31.2 million last year to 36.2 million.
Among the best news to come out of this year's waterfowl surveys is a substantial increase in pintail numbers. Last year, breeding pintails numbered only 1.8 million, down from a historic high of more than 10 million in the 1950s. This year's number was 2,558,000. That 43 percent increase raises hopes for a long-awaited pintail recovery. But with the species still 39 percent below long-term population numbers, it still has a long way to go.
Mallards, always the mainstay of Missouri duck hunters, were similar to last year, keeping them slightly above the long-term population average.
Other duck species whose breeding numbers increased this year include: Northern shoveler, 56 percent and blue-winged teal, 31 percent. Green-winged teal stood at 2.7 million the second-largest number on record.
The increase in breeding pairs of ducks and geese and the resulting increase in broods of waterfowl counted later in the summer prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to extend liberal hunting regulations for another season. That's welcome news to duck hunters.
Also welcome will be the presence of a larger proportion of young birds among this fall's migrants. Young birds that have never been shot at are less wary of hunters.
Graber said this spring's abundant rain alone wouldn't have been enough to spur a waterfowl recovery. Habitat preservation and restoration efforts of government agencies, the USDA Farm Bill, the North American Wetland Conservation Act and citizen organizations, such as Ducks Unlimited, laid the groundwork for the recovery.
If you don't hunt waterfowl, you probably will be surprised to learn that a bumper crop of ducks doesn't guarantee a good hunting season. Missouri hunters get a shot at ducks only when they are passing through the Show-Me State on their way south. In years when large numbers of ducks linger here, hunters have ample opportunity to hunt them.
Last year's duck season was a good one. Missouri's 31,000 active waterfowl hunters bagged approximately 393,000 ducks. That's fewer than the 461,000 taken during the 2001-2002 season. However, it's important to keep those numbers in perspective. Last year was the sixth in a row in which Missouri hunters topped the previous record of 311,600 set in 1975. To say that Missouri duck hunters have been spoiled by their recent good luck is an understatement.
In some years, ducks stay in Missouri only a few days then leapfrog south, leaving hunters empty-handed. The difference between good and bad years often hinges on habitat. If ducks find lots of food and water in Missouri, they hang around. If not, they move on.
Graber said food supplies are adequate to keep ducks in Missouri when they arrive. Native plants, such as smartweed and millet, produced average to above-average seed crops. Agricultural crops such as corn, soybeans, sorghum and wheat have done moderately well along rivers and around wetland areas, even in drought-stricken northwestern Missouri.
Recent rains have helped set the stage for a good waterfowl season, too. Ducks need standing water to rest and take advantage of available foods. Graber said the water levels at most managed wetland areas are good. One exception is Nodaway Valley Conservation Area. Low water in the Nodaway River has hampered efforts to flood wetland pools there.
With normal rainfall between now and the opening of duck season, Missouri hunters could be in duck heaven. On the other hand, with below-average rainfall ducks could be in Arkansas before you know it.
So if Missouri gets normal precipitation for the next two months, hunters will have a field day, right? Not necessarily. All the food and standing water in the world won't help hunters if ducks don't arrive early in the season or an early cold spell locks up shallow-water habitat. A few birds may linger on big rivers and reservoirs, but the rest will head for warmer regions.
"Ducks are creatures of wind and water, so duck hunting will always be a weather-driven game," said Graber. "Successful hunters are inveterate weather watchers. They know when a cold front is pushing down from the upper Midwest, and they do whatever it takes to be in the marsh when the front reaches Missouri. A day can make the difference between a once-in-a-lifetime hunt and empty skies."
Missouri's 2003-2004 duck season will run for 60 days in each of the five management zones. In the North and Swan Lake zones the season will open Oct. 25 and run through Dec. 23. In the Middle and Southeast zones, opening and closing dates will be Nov. 1 and Dec. 30, and in the South Zone the season will run from Nov. 22 through Jan. 20.
The season on pintails and canvasbacks will be Oct. 25 through Nov. 23 in the North and Swan Lake Zones, Nov. 1 through Nov. 30 in the Middle and Southeast zones and Nov. 22 through Dec. 21 in the South Zone
The bag limit on ducks will continue at six daily and 12 in possession. As in recent years, hunters can take up to four mallards daily, including no more than two hens. The limit on pintails, canvasbacks, black ducks and hooded mergansers is one each. Bag limits for other ducks include three scaup, two wood ducks and two redheads. The possession limit is twice the daily limit.
Youths will have an opportunity to hunt ducks before adults hit the marshes, lakes and streams. The Youth Waterfowl Season will be Oct. 18 and 19 in the North and Swan Lake zones, Oct. 25 and 26 in the Middle and Southeast zones and Nov. 15 and 16 in the South Zone.
Participants in Youth Hunting Days must be age 15 or younger and must be accompanied by a licensed adult at least 18 years of age who will not be permitted to hunt ducks. Adults need not be licensed if the youth possesses a valid hunter education certificate card.
Full details of waterfowl hunting regulations are contained in the 2003-2004 Waterfowl Hunting Digest, available wherever hunting permits are sold. For information about food and water conditions at public wetland areas, visit http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/hunt/wtrfowl/ and click on "updated 2003status of Missouri wetland areas."
MDC
10/3/03
Water, food and a larger number of young birds could make the 2003-2004 waterfowl hunting season one to remember.
JEFFERSON CITY - Six months ago, Dave Graber was preparing duck hunters for bad news. Now he says the 2003-2004 waterfowl hunting season could be one of the best in recent memory. It's the kind of reversal that every wildlife manager likes to make.
Graber is a resource scientist at the Missouri Department of Conservation's resource science center in Columbia. His specialty is waterfowl. Each spring, he looks at the number of ducks and geese returning north to nest and the number of ponds, which are an indication of breeding habitat. Those statistics help him form a picture of the coming waterfowl hunting season.
This winter the outlook wasn't bright. Waterfowl nesting success was fair to poor last year, so there were fewer birds to carry on. Furthermore, below-normal precipitation in the northern prairie region -- the central United States and Canadian duck factory -- had reduced available nesting habitat. Based on these facts, it seemed possible that declining duck numbers would trigger shorter hunting seasons and smaller bag limits.
Then came April, and it came in wet. Above-average precipitation on the northern prairies nearly doubled the number of seasonal ponds, and by the time ducks arrived, they found an abundance of nesting habitat.
"It was the kind of spring you pray for but seldom get," said Graber. "No matter how many ducks you have, without suitable habitat, they don't nest. By the same token, you can have fewer birds, but if the habitat is favorable, you can get a bumper crop of young ducks. That's what happened this year."
Aerial surveys conducted in May showed a 160 percent increase in the total number of breeding ducks compared to last year and 25 percent above the long-term average. Brood surveys conducted in July showed a 21 percent increase in numbers of young ducks from 2002. Overall, breeding duck numbers increased from 31.2 million last year to 36.2 million.
Among the best news to come out of this year's waterfowl surveys is a substantial increase in pintail numbers. Last year, breeding pintails numbered only 1.8 million, down from a historic high of more than 10 million in the 1950s. This year's number was 2,558,000. That 43 percent increase raises hopes for a long-awaited pintail recovery. But with the species still 39 percent below long-term population numbers, it still has a long way to go.
Mallards, always the mainstay of Missouri duck hunters, were similar to last year, keeping them slightly above the long-term population average.
Other duck species whose breeding numbers increased this year include: Northern shoveler, 56 percent and blue-winged teal, 31 percent. Green-winged teal stood at 2.7 million the second-largest number on record.
The increase in breeding pairs of ducks and geese and the resulting increase in broods of waterfowl counted later in the summer prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to extend liberal hunting regulations for another season. That's welcome news to duck hunters.
Also welcome will be the presence of a larger proportion of young birds among this fall's migrants. Young birds that have never been shot at are less wary of hunters.
Graber said this spring's abundant rain alone wouldn't have been enough to spur a waterfowl recovery. Habitat preservation and restoration efforts of government agencies, the USDA Farm Bill, the North American Wetland Conservation Act and citizen organizations, such as Ducks Unlimited, laid the groundwork for the recovery.
If you don't hunt waterfowl, you probably will be surprised to learn that a bumper crop of ducks doesn't guarantee a good hunting season. Missouri hunters get a shot at ducks only when they are passing through the Show-Me State on their way south. In years when large numbers of ducks linger here, hunters have ample opportunity to hunt them.
Last year's duck season was a good one. Missouri's 31,000 active waterfowl hunters bagged approximately 393,000 ducks. That's fewer than the 461,000 taken during the 2001-2002 season. However, it's important to keep those numbers in perspective. Last year was the sixth in a row in which Missouri hunters topped the previous record of 311,600 set in 1975. To say that Missouri duck hunters have been spoiled by their recent good luck is an understatement.
In some years, ducks stay in Missouri only a few days then leapfrog south, leaving hunters empty-handed. The difference between good and bad years often hinges on habitat. If ducks find lots of food and water in Missouri, they hang around. If not, they move on.
Graber said food supplies are adequate to keep ducks in Missouri when they arrive. Native plants, such as smartweed and millet, produced average to above-average seed crops. Agricultural crops such as corn, soybeans, sorghum and wheat have done moderately well along rivers and around wetland areas, even in drought-stricken northwestern Missouri.
Recent rains have helped set the stage for a good waterfowl season, too. Ducks need standing water to rest and take advantage of available foods. Graber said the water levels at most managed wetland areas are good. One exception is Nodaway Valley Conservation Area. Low water in the Nodaway River has hampered efforts to flood wetland pools there.
With normal rainfall between now and the opening of duck season, Missouri hunters could be in duck heaven. On the other hand, with below-average rainfall ducks could be in Arkansas before you know it.
So if Missouri gets normal precipitation for the next two months, hunters will have a field day, right? Not necessarily. All the food and standing water in the world won't help hunters if ducks don't arrive early in the season or an early cold spell locks up shallow-water habitat. A few birds may linger on big rivers and reservoirs, but the rest will head for warmer regions.
"Ducks are creatures of wind and water, so duck hunting will always be a weather-driven game," said Graber. "Successful hunters are inveterate weather watchers. They know when a cold front is pushing down from the upper Midwest, and they do whatever it takes to be in the marsh when the front reaches Missouri. A day can make the difference between a once-in-a-lifetime hunt and empty skies."
Missouri's 2003-2004 duck season will run for 60 days in each of the five management zones. In the North and Swan Lake zones the season will open Oct. 25 and run through Dec. 23. In the Middle and Southeast zones, opening and closing dates will be Nov. 1 and Dec. 30, and in the South Zone the season will run from Nov. 22 through Jan. 20.
The season on pintails and canvasbacks will be Oct. 25 through Nov. 23 in the North and Swan Lake Zones, Nov. 1 through Nov. 30 in the Middle and Southeast zones and Nov. 22 through Dec. 21 in the South Zone
The bag limit on ducks will continue at six daily and 12 in possession. As in recent years, hunters can take up to four mallards daily, including no more than two hens. The limit on pintails, canvasbacks, black ducks and hooded mergansers is one each. Bag limits for other ducks include three scaup, two wood ducks and two redheads. The possession limit is twice the daily limit.
Youths will have an opportunity to hunt ducks before adults hit the marshes, lakes and streams. The Youth Waterfowl Season will be Oct. 18 and 19 in the North and Swan Lake zones, Oct. 25 and 26 in the Middle and Southeast zones and Nov. 15 and 16 in the South Zone.
Participants in Youth Hunting Days must be age 15 or younger and must be accompanied by a licensed adult at least 18 years of age who will not be permitted to hunt ducks. Adults need not be licensed if the youth possesses a valid hunter education certificate card.
Full details of waterfowl hunting regulations are contained in the 2003-2004 Waterfowl Hunting Digest, available wherever hunting permits are sold. For information about food and water conditions at public wetland areas, visit http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/hunt/wtrfowl/ and click on "updated 2003status of Missouri wetland areas."
