Pass Along RJ
October 09

nless you are at least as old as I am, you probably don’t remember Timbuk3, the band that, in 1986, had the one-hit wonder, “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades.” But the attitude reflects the feelings I had when I recently read the report on the habitat conditions for North America and the increased duck populations that should grace the skies this fall. Literally, and for the first time in a long time, there is no bad news.

Based upon a press release issued mid-summer from Ducks Unlimited, total duck numbers were estimated at 42 million birds, which is a 13-percent increase over last year’s numbers. This increase is 25-percent above the long-term average, which has been recorded since 1955. My wife has always classified me as a pessimist, and she says that I often see my glass as half empty, but I get positively giddy, and my glass runneth over when I look through the numbers listed for individual duck species.

What do you think about a 10-percent increase in mallards? Eight-and-a-half million mallards are estimated for 2009 – up nearly a million birds over last year (up 13% over long-term average, LTA). Not too shabby.

Or are you a Central Flyway hunter where not only mallards but teal and gadwalls are a usual part of your bag? Gadwalls are up 12 percent (+73% over LTA), and green-winged teal are up 16 percent (+79% over LTA). And speaking of puddle ducks, pintails are up a whopping 23 percent over last year.

And the ever-popular shoveler is enjoying a virtual population explosion; spoonbills are up 25 percent, and 92 percent over their LTA. Yes, I know, you probably aren’t that excited about the shovelers, but this is a dog magazine, and I can promise you that your dog does not know the difference between a good solid retrieve on a shoveler versus any other duck – and with 4.3 million shovelers in the fall flight, you are likely to see a lot of them.

Another interesting angle on this season’s duck numbers is how productive the Dakotas were in the mix of duck production, and if you hunt in a state that receives the bulk of the migration from the Dakotas, your hunting season could seem especially enhanced by the strong production effort in that region. In fact, it is so good that more than one authority on duck production feels that perhaps something is amiss in prairie Canada, since it appears that even with high pond counts in a province like Saskatchewan, more and more early nesting ducks are setting up house in the Dakotas.

John Devney, senior vice president of Delta Waterfowl, told me there are growing concerns that prairie Canada may not be as productive as it once was: “Early nesters are not going there in the numbers they once did, and with the abundance of CRP ground in the Dakotas, DU’s work on native grasslands, Delta’s work on predation and other projects, plus clean water protection for ponds, the Dakotas are perhaps more productive than ever.

The full article "Good News" by Doug Larsen appears in the upcoming October/November 2009 issue of The Retriever Journal. If you are a subscriber, stay tuned! That issue will soon mail!

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