With the Vikings into training camp, regardless of who plays quarterback for the Purple this fall, most experts agree it should be a good season. The same goes for North Dakota’s primary gamebird species this fall.

That said, there’s no guarantee and we really won’t know until hunters or football players take the field. But my response when asked about hunting prospects is “so far so good.” Here’s a look at some biological data that helps support my early assessment.

Pheasants
North Dakota’s spring pheasant crowing count survey revealed a 6 percent decrease statewide compared to last year, according to Stan Kohn, upland game management supervisor for the state Game and Fish Department.

The number of crows heard in the northwest was down 16 percent from 2009, while counts in the southwest and southeast were relatively unchanged from last year. In the northeast where there are fewer birds, the counts decreased 10 percent.

“This past winter did not appear to have a role in the lower crowing counts,” Kohn said. “It is probably the result of a lower number of adult birds surviving the winter of 2008-09, coupled with poor production in spring 2009 because of cool, wet weather at the time of the hatch, resulting in chick mortality and fewer young entering the population last fall.”

Kohn said the good news from this spring is the quality of cover will benefit birds and broods of all upland species. “Pheasants are finding nesting and brooding cover in fair quantity and great quality,” he added. “Native, warm season plants are doing extremely well and one would anticipate a good number of insects and eventually grasshoppers to become available with this type of habitat component.”

While the crowing count survey provides good trend data on roosters, Kohn said it does not assess adult hen population. “Hens are the segment of the population that determines the fall population,” he said. “In spring 2009, field personnel noted the low number of hens with roosters (1-2 hens per rooster) indicating the hen population might be smaller than usual. This spring there were no such observations reported.”

The spring crowing count does not measure population density, but is an indicator of the spring rooster population based on a trend of number of crows heard. Biologists won’t complete brood surveys until early September, and those will provide an indicator of the summer’s pheasant production

Ducks
Waterfowl in North Dakota appear in very good shape as the spring breeding duck survey index of more than 4.5 million birds was up 12 percent from last year and 107 percent above the long-term average (1948-2009). For historical comparison, the 2010 index is the third highest on record.

All species, except for wigeon increased from last year. Pintails were up 10 percent and were at the highest level since 1970. Mallards were up 12 percent and were the fourth highest on record.

Spring waterfowl surveyors also count breeding resident giant Canada geese, and that index came in at the second highest on record.

In addition to good water conditions in North Dakota, reports indicate that much of the duck factory in South Dakota and Montana was in good shape, but Saskatchewan and Manitoba were on the dry side at the time of spring migration.

One final note as Conservation Reserve Program acreage in North Dakota continues to decline. Since the beginning of 2007, North Dakota has lost more than 700,000 CRP acres, and projections for the next two years indicate up to another 1.7 million acres could be converted to cropland.

So while the here and now would probably fit into an “OK” category, concern about the future continues to mount as the grassland habitat base shrinks.

Leier is a biologist with the Game and Fish Department. He can be reached by email: dleier@nd.gov

By Doug Leier

The next time you find yourself kicking cans in the shop, killing time at the gas station or coffee shop with the crew, I ask you to raise a question about favorite ducks.

No doubt the wood duck would garner a share of votes, and the pintail has subtle grace and definition–that pointed tail distinguising it from the other ducks. Maybe a vote or two will crop up for the blue-winged teal, accompanied by the rationale of, “those buggers are fast and hard to hit” … and they are!

The mallard, particularly drake mallards, would likely land at the top of the list for many hunters. The greenhead truly is second to none in North Dakota when you consider about 40-50 percent of all ducks taken are mallards, and about two thirds of those are drakes.

It’s a testament to the mallard’s plentiful population, solid reputation as a good eatin’ duck, and coloration that allows easy differentiation between drakes and hens. Let’s face it, there’s plenty of shovelers and late in the season the drakes are fairly easy to distinguish from hens, but most hunters will take a mallard over a spoonbill, given the opportunity.

A recent study involving thousands of ducks banded in North Dakota and other Central Flyway states and Canadian provinces produced information for biologists and hunters alike to dispel some of the myths of mallard production. One such discussion regards the production of mallards in North Dakota and Canada, as many hunters assume brown ducks that lack full color in late September and early October were raised locally, while field-feeding November mallards with all colors in place are transient late-coming migrants.

The study indicatec a solid majority of banded mallards shot in North Dakota early in the duck season were also banded in North Dakota. After Oct. 28, the proportion of birds recovered in North Dakota that were banded in Canada increased, but local birds were still well represented.

What that means is a lot of North Dakota-raised mallards are still in North Dakota in late October, despite the increased likelihood of shooting a mallard that’s on its way down from Canada.

Hunters in search of picturesque plumaged drakes might assume that the ones with a full set of full-curled tail feathers and not a pinfeather are “big northern mallards, down from Canada.”

That might have been the case a few decades ago when a much greater proportion of the Central Flyway’s mallards nested in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, instead of North Dakota. In the last 20 years or so, due to overall loss of duck breeding habitat in Canada, and a temporary gain in North Dakota with a wet cycle coupled with the peak of the Conservation Reserve Program acreage, North Dakota has attracted a much greater proportion of mallards.

While old hunting stories don’t change much over time, hunting dynamics do. These days, a plump grain-fed greenhead that decoys just before deer season could just as well have been born and raised over in the CRP across the slough, instead of hundreds of miles north on the Canadian prairie.

When you stop and think about it for a second, you’ll realize a drake mallard looks pretty much the same, whether it was raised in Canada or North Dakota. In fact to shoot another hole in the myth, the young-of-the-year North Dakota birds just might even have a slight edge in size and coloration because the nesting mallards stop earlier here than farther north migrating mallards setting the stage for earlier production and longer growth period before the hunting season.

I’ll also acknowledge that local mallard migration does take place and most waterfowlers have experienced many a cold front that pushes some local birds out, with migrating ducks filling in the void several days. It’s little nuances like this that give duck hunters something to kick around over a cup of coffee as they anticipate their next outing in the Prairie Pothole Region of the Midwest.

Leier is a biologist with the Game and Fish Department. He can be reached by email: dleier@nd.gov

HIP information has provided wildlife managers more accurate data to better manage species such as doves

For almost a decade, migratory bird hunters have had to get HIP. No, not the “hip,” that loosely means “aware” or “fashionable” according the Webster’s Dictionary, but HIP, as in registered with the Harvest Information Program.

What is HIP?

HIP is a survey method developed by states and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) as a means to collect more reliable estimates of migratory bird harvests throughout the country. The program provides agencies the information necessary to manage hunting seasons.

It got its start in the early 1990s when the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies worked with the USFWS to develop a program to collect data from all migratory bird hunters, which includes those who hunt ducks, geese, swans, sandhill cranes, doves and others.

The requirement for HIP registration began in 1998. As with any new survey HIP was initially the target of unsubstantiated paranoia: “They’ll use it take our guns . The list will go to the anti-hunters,” bird hunters bemoaned. Others thought the program would become a new way of charging a fee for the mandatory certification. After a decade of existence, none of these problems have occurred.

“In the past we used names and addresses of duck stamp buyers as the sample frame for questionnaires to measure waterfowl harvest,: says Mike Johnson, North Dakota Game and Fish Department game management section leader. “This is no longer possible because of the way duck stamps are distributed. In addition, we had no way to get harvest survey questionnaires into the hands of other migratory game bird hunters, such as dove, snipe or woodcock hunters. Thus, we had no harvest information for most non-waterfowl species.”

Better data

For the HIP survey, state game and fish agencies register all migratory bird hunters to get their names and addresses. The name/address database is then sent to the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The USFWS randomly selects a sample of hunters from the list and asks them to provide information on the kind and number of migratory birds they harvest during the hunting season. Those reports are then used to produce harvest estimates of all migratory birds throughout the country. Responding to the mail questionnaire surveys is voluntary, however most hunters interested in helping to conserved our migratory bird resources and perpetuate our hunting heritage are willing and eager to provide information on their hunting activity and success.

HIP information has provided wildlife managers more accurate data to better manage species such as doves

The information gathered from hunters is kept confidential, and once the HIP survey is complete, the USFWS destroys all names and address records.

Johnson says that many hunters mistakenly think that the simple questions they answer when they register for HIP are the harvest survey. “This is not the case,” he emphasized. “The HIP registration questions provide the statistical foundation for sampling the hunter data base. Survey accuracy and efficiency is greatly improved if we know who is most likely to be a dove or duck hunter, for example, and their relative activity and success.”

The actual HIP survey is mailed to a small sample of migratory game bird hunters.

How to get HIP

Hunters need to get HIP before hunting ducks, geese, swans, mergansers, coots, cranes, snipe, mourning doves or woodcock. Those who purchase a license through the North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s website (gf.nd.gov), or instant licensing telephone number (800-406-6409) are automatically HIP certified. Otherwise, hunters must call 888-634-4798, answer a few simple questions, and record the HIP number on their fishing, hunting and furbearer certificate.HIP registration is like any other hunting or fishing license requirement, Johnson says, except it’s free.

“Hunters play a very important role in the management and conservation of migratory game birds,” Johnson stated. “One of their easiest and most important responsibilities is to provide timely and accurate responses to harvest survey questionnaires.

“The Harvest Information Program,” Johns added, “is the most significant improvement in harvest survey methodology in the past 60 years.”

I have often been asked what I enjoy the pursuit of most: ducks or geese. It is a difficult question for a person who would prefer to spend his time scanning the skyline above decoys for waterfowl. For me, I cut my teeth hunting ducks at my family’s lake cabin with my dad and relatives. On my first hunting trip with ‘the guys’, they harvested the first Canada goose ever on our lake. From that moment on I was hooked on honkers. As the recent years have brought an abundance of geese, dark and light, I tend to tip the scales towards the long-necked waterfowl.

When talking about ducks and duck hunting the conversations often focus on low population counts and the poor state of their breeding grounds. The Mississippi and Central flyways were handed the “liberal” season package for the 2006 season, but these liberal seasons may soon be a thing of the past. Droughts and predators on the prairies have had a negative impact on the duck population.

I will continue to duck hunt regardless of the state of the population and lowered limits. I will just have to hunt smarter, doing little things like making the effort to shoot only drakes. With all the negativity surrounding the population of the ducks, I feel that some hunters are even ridiculed for shooting legal limits of ducks when hunting is not the cause of lower populations.

At twenty-five years of age I have come to the conclusion that Mother Nature plays the biggest role when it comes to duck production. Wet springs and dry summers can help duck populations sustain. Ducks Unlimited does a good job setting aside land for waterfowl, and Delta Waterfowl has done an excellent job raising the need the for predator control. Still at the end of the day I feel that the greatest benefit these organizations provide is an awareness of healthy waterfowl environment and waterfowl hunting practices.

If people are not familiar with the sport, they will never have any interest or concern for it. As hunters we need to encourage others to try hunting, or go at least to gain an understanding of why others pursue it. DU and Delta keep waterfowl hunters out in the public’s awareness through many types of media.

If one looked at numbers, they would conclude that our own government, through Federal Duck Stamp dollars, has done the most for the waterfowl population. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not only set aside land, they have also trapped predators on that land as well. I know that in the past Delta Waterfowl has encouraged hunters to buy additional Federal Duck Stamps, and I would suggest the same. Funding through the Federal Duck Stamps dollars can produce more birds for your buck.

Personally, I volunteer with a local Delta chapter and help out when I can with the Minnesota Duck and Goose Callers Association. I have helped build wood duck boxes with kids for the Minnesota Waterfowl Association and volunteer at the MWA Woodie Camp. I do my arguing for the ducks behind the scenes in low tones but with firm conviction.

One thing that I have never felt remorse for is bringing a Canada goose to the ground with a load of steel shot. With populations of Canada geese as high as they have ever been, there is no shortage. I encourage others to think of the possibility of more special hunting seasons to help keep their populations in check.

With September seasons for harvesting resident Canada geese and a Conservation Order in place for Snow geese, there has never been more opportunity for hunting. I believe that it is these opportunities that have allowed the younger generations of waterfowl hunters to embrace goose hunting. I myself have fallen into this category where mild weather and liberal bag limits have made hunting geese very enjoyable.

Snow and Canada geese are both vocal and social birds. Their responsiveness to calling and decoys makes hunting them a treat. Goose calling has become a pastime where I live Minnesota, and I embrace it. Calling contests for ducks and geese have created excitement among the younger hunters across the Midwest. It should come as no surprise that Minnesota competitive goose callers have excelled in competitions across the country.

This fall whether I am hunting in Minnesota or North Dakota, I will be setting up for geese. Does this mean that I enjoy goose hunting more? A little, I guess. However I will shoot plenty of ducks along the way. Every waterfowl hunter worth his steel shot knows that ducks decoy better to goose decoys than duck decoys. As much as I enjoy hunting ducks, I will continue to target geese. As waterfowl hunters we could all become conversationalists by targeting the high populations of geese. My suggestion would be to start consulting others for good goose recipes.

Every duck stamp purchase funds more conservation

Even if you’re not a duck hunter, I think you’ll appreciate what thousands of duck hunters across the prairie are doing this fall. It’s about as simple a task as you can make it, and much of the time they don’t get enough credit for how they’ve contributed to the good of the cause.

Here’s what happened to make me stop and think. A few weeks ago I went to the post office and bought my duck stamp. I’ve done this for just about 20 years running, which seems like a long time, but I know there are readers who can tell me they’ve purchased duck stamps for decades upon decades. Some day I hope to reach that level also.

Buying a duck stamp provides a hunter age 16 or older the federal authorization to go afield hunting ducks, geese and swans. But it provides more than just a legal right to hunt. Consider that 98 cents out of every dollar generated by the sale of federal duck stamps goes directly to purchase or lease wetland habitat for protection in the National Wildlife Refuge System.

Understandably, the federal duck stamp program has been called one of the most successful conservation programs ever initiated, and is a highly effective way to conserve America’s natural resources.

As I signed my duck stamp I took a moment to appreciate the Ross’s goose which adorns this year’s stamp. I pondered the artist who won the right to have their work grace this magnificent stamp. Further research shows the designer was Sherri Russel Martin of California.

Duck stamps are responsible for over 5 million acres of habitat

Duck stamp sales began in 1934 and have generated just under $700 million and directly resulted in leasing and purchase of more than 5 million acres of waterfowl habitat.

What’s not often mentioned in translation, and this is where benefits to people who don’t hunt waterfowl come into play, are the multitude of fish, reptile, amphibians, shorebirds and other species that benefit from habitat preserved or enhanced because of duck stamp sales. Consider that an estimated one-third of all endangered and threatened species find protection behind duck-stamp-purchased property.

People from all walks of life, from hikers to birdwatchers, benefit from duck stamps. And last but not least, protected wetlands purify water supplies, reduce soil erosion and sedimentation.

This year a notation on the stamp is made about the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, celebrating its 20 years of existence. Like the duck stamp, the NAWMP in its own right has been a monumental effort to preserve, maintain and enhance waterfowl populations and their habitat, which trickles down to benefit more than just ducks as well.

I  flipped the duck stamp over and learned more about the NAWMP and its two decades of success. Basically, it’s a continent-wide response to habitat loss, low population levels and a need to reverse the trend.

As quoted on the back side of the stamp, the plan created a conservation model of public and private partnerships – called joint ventures – to conserve waterfowl habitat in areas of major concern.

What’s transpired is nothing short of a marked success, including 13.1 million acres of wetland habitat conserved, preserved and maintained across North America.

So hunters, take a moment to give yourself a pat on the back. And if you don’t hunt or haven’t bought a duck stamp, for $15 you too can maintain and enhance this conservation legacy.

This day was not a dream, but an opening day reality in 2004

It was an unbelievable day. The snow was coming down sideways and the birds were committing suicide. I filled my Swan tag with a black neck collared bird that was sporting a tarsus band to boot. I picked the bird out of a decoying flock that came in at first light.

Matt and I also shot about twenty snow geese, one of which was a yellow neck-collared blue! Since I had shot the swan earlier I let Matt claim the collar and leg band. On top of a limit of drake mallards I also recovered a Spoonbill for my bonus bird. The catch, the spoonbill was also banded! The leg iron on the spoonbill meant more to me than the collared Swan. The band on the spoonbill was so old I could only make out the “AV” of Avise.

I felt like I was on top of the world as I drove my brand new pick-up across the snowy cornfield. It was cold, but my body was nice and toasty with the feeling of accomplishment. As I stepped out of the truck into the decoy spread Matt showed me his bonus bird. It was a banded Greenwing Teal he bagged while I was walking back to the pickup.

Later, we were sitting in a small diner in the middle of Nodak, decked out, wearing our lanyards in the joint, showing off the new bling. I was flirting with the cute waitress when I was awoken by my sounding alarm clock. Damn.

It was one of those dreams that are so real you have to check your surroundings when you wake. Needless to say, I was glad to find myself in my room, but discouraged that I had to be at work in a half an hour.

Since I was a young boy I have been having dreams about hunting. My most terrifying nightmares are also about waterfowling. Usually the nightmares are occurring on opening day of the duck season, and I am unable to hunt for various reasons. In these nightmares, ducks are swarming me like mosquitoes and all I can do is sit there and point my finger at them.

I have a reoccurring dream about shooting a double-banded snow goose. The location of the hunt, the time of year and the hunting partners change, but it’s always the same bird. More specifically, it’s a Ross goose with a twenty-five dollar “reward” band and the standard “Call” band.

I  retrieve the bird and as I am walking back to my hunting partners I have a Kool-Aid smile on my face. I’m a nice guy, so I tell the boys, “I am keeping the reward band for myself and the rest of you guys can draw straws for the other leg iron.” Just like that, two hunting buddies become brothers in arms, connected through a bird, each of them having a band from the same bird on their respective lanyards.

From what I have read about dreaming, the dreamer has little control of the events in the dream. Dreams typically deal with events that are occurring in the same time period in which the dream takes place. I dream about hunting more often before and during the waterfowl season. Dreams often include feelings and events that the dreamer has experienced in his or her life. I wonder what people who do not hunt dream about?

Scientists say we have many dreams throughout the night, but only remember very few of them. REM (Rapid Eye Movement) is the stage of sleep in which dreams occur. If the dreamer awakes during REM sleep they have the greatest chance of remembering their dreams. So if you are awoken you have a greater chance of remembering your dreams. I rarely wake up at five in the morning, unless to go duck hunting.

Native Americans believed that dreams were “visions” of what is to come. I hope I do not forget my gun next year on duck opener, as there are banded birds in my future.

Delta Waterfowl President Rob Olson says one reason hunters across the country have been disappointed by recent duck seasons is that the Canadian portion of the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) isn’t attracting and producing as many ducks it once did.

“Duck hunters believe we still have lots of ducks,” Olson says. “They’ve been told the fall flights have been shortstopped by mild winters or by refuges or changing farming practices-or all of the above. But the biggest culprit is that we don’t have as many ducks as we used to, and lack of production on the Canadian side of the breeding grounds is a big part of the problem.”

Olson says duck populations always rise and fall in response to water conditions on the prairie breeding grounds, and the 1990s were no exception. “Most hunters were satisfied with the number of ducks they saw in the ’90s, but prairie Canada didn’t participate in the bounty-at least not at its former levels.”

A look at the breeding population of mallards during the last three wet cycles paints a grim picture of Canada’s waning productivity.

“Between 1955 and 1958, prairie Canada attracted an average of 6.9 million nesting mallards each spring,” Olson says. “During the wet cycle between 1970 and 1976, an average of 4.8 million mallards nested in prairie Canada. But during the wet cycle that lasted from 1994 to 1999, only 3.5 million mallards settled there each spring, barely half the number it attracted in the 1950s.

“Not only are fewer mallards settling in prairie Canada, but nest success is half what it was in the ’50s,” Olson says. “With half the breeding mallards experiencing half the nest success-well, you do the math.”

Olson says the average number of mallards that settled in prairie Canada during the wet cycle of the ’90s was comparable to the 1960s, a decade remembered for drought conditions, low duck numbers and very restrictive seasons.

“Prairie Canada is no longer the pristine wilderness many duck hunters envision,” says Olson. “Canada doesn’t have large-scale government-backed conservation programs like the US, and that means Canadian farmers are forced to put as much land as possible into production.

“With no provincial crop subsidies or conservation programs, it’s a simple matter of economics-farmers have to get bigger and more efficient if they’re to survive. Waterfowl managers have to become more efficient, too, if we hope to reverse the declines in duck production.”

Olson says the US portion of the PPR picked up the slack for Canada during the wet cycle of the 1990s. “Research conducted by the Fish and Wildlife Service shows that the US portion of the region now attracts three times the density of nesting ducks that Canada does, and hens nesting in the US bring off broods at a higher rate than Canadian-nesting ducks.

“One reason the US is more productive than Canada is the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which idled millions of acres of nesting cover in the Dakotas, Montana and Minnesota,” says Olson. “And let’s not forget about the Fish and Wildlife Service’s federal duck stamp program, which secured over 90 percent of the permanently protected waterfowl habitat on the US side of the PPR.

“More than 90 percent of the continent’s ducks are produced on private land,” Olson says. “That means conservationists must work toward farm-friendly programs that provide the habitat nesting ducks require to be successful.”

Olson says Delta has been working with Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) and is close to announcing the first pilot projects for Alternate Land Use Services (ALUS), a CRP-type program for Canada. “ALUS is currently our best chance to have a large, landscape-level impact on Canadian breeding ducks, and it has the full support of most ag groups across Canada.

“Prairie Canada is critical to healthy duck populations,” says Olson. “Some of the conservation programs in place there have been successful, but others have not. The prairie portion of Canada occupies 120 million acres, and there simply aren’t enough conservation dollars to secure adequate habitat to impact duck production across all of it.

“In most areas of the Canadian prairie, we’ll never have sufficient habitat to increase duck production in our lifetimes, so we must put other management tools to work.”

Olson says Delta is expanding the use of Hen Houses (nesting structures) in Canada this year, and is hoping to launch a predator management program to Canada in the near future.

The spring issue of Delta Waterfowl Magazine contains the first in a three-part special report on the status of prairie Canada. To learn more about Canada’s waning productivity, visit www.deltawaterfowl.org.

Source – Delta Waterfowl

The Nodak crew shot the greenheads big time again in this year’s duck opener. They celebrated the tenth anniversary of the breaking of the drought of the 1980s and early 90s. Ironically, we may be heading back into another drought cycle. But, there are still birds around and then can provide some great hunting such as we experienced in 1994.

The anticipation for the Nodak crew for the Greenskins Classic tournament on September 27 and 28 must have been similar to what I and my hunting partners experienced before the opener in 1994. And, we covered some of the same terrain.

We did not know exactly how good the hunting would be that fall in 1994, but there were signs that the lean years of the 80s and early 90s were about over. The CRP lands were just waiting for rain to produce ducks. Some lands received the waterfowlers blessing the year before. The area east of Devils Lake, North Dakota around Brocket had been virtually flooded by late summer rains in 1993. The ducks responded enthusiastically to the summer rain and produced a very successful late hatch of ducklings. For the first time in many years, the ponds and sloughs were again full of water and ducks.

My brother-in-law, Ken Carlson and I had rarely hunted the opener in North Dakota. We “fooled around” on the marshes of central Minnesota, along with hundreds of other nimrods. Our annual North Dakota prairie pilgrimage did not occur until the Columbus Day weekend. However, after too many years of fighting the crowds in Minnesota, Ken and I yearned for a good opener such as we had in 1986 when Ken went hunting for geese with me in North Dakota for the first time. I remembered the duck speckled wetlands from the fall of 1993 and just had to be in North Dakota on that first Saturday in October. We just could not let the ‘94 opener pass by hunting in Minnesota.

We were joined by Glen Foltz, a young Navy pilot, who had decided to give up his aircraft carrier flying duty in favor of a family in the Twin Cities. He was new to town and we got hooked up through our wives. Now, wives do not understand about hunting partners and compatibility in a duck blind, but Glen turned out to be a great hunting partner. He cut his hunting teeth on Iowa pheasants not far from Sioux Falls, South Dakota and after performing hundreds of landings on the deck of an aircraft carrier, he understood instantly how to set out goose and duck decoys with their heads into the wind. That’s a basic that some guys I’ve hunted with do not quite grasp until they have to turn 250 decoys around because the wind is blowing up the back side of a phony goose.

Our weekend hunt began in earnest when I suggested that we turn north off of U.S. 2 and begin some serious scouting. We were enticed by what we had seen along the highway between Michigan and Petersburg.

We no more than bumped over the railroad tracks and peeked over the first hill when the first slough full of ducks nearly caused us to drive into the ditch. The panorama was unbelievable. I had hunted North Dakota every year since 1975 but had never seen what lay before the three of us. The ducks sat on the road, in the ditches, on muskrat houses, sandbars, shoreline, and of course in the open water. No, they weren’t coots! These were honest to goodness mallards, pintails, redheads, and canvasbacks.

They were everywhere. The season had not opened yet. So, needless to say, the mallards were in no real hurry to even get off the road as we approached.

My heart began to pound with anticipation. “My god, what is it going to be like tomorrow?” I asked my hunting partners. We drove on for another ten miles. It had rained a lot that season and there was water that I had not seen in 20 years. Every, stretch of water had as many ducks as that first slough.

Glen said, “Where do we hunt?” That brought me out of my duck stupor. I then had to tell Glen that these birds were already 50 miles south of where we would likely be hunting the next morning. We would try to hunt geese and take any ducks that took a look at our decoys. Since the geese were up on the Canadian border, that’s where we were going.

Later that afternoon, we found a field with some feeding snow geese on the west side of the refuge and got permission to hunt about a half mile south of the farmer’s house.

Saturday morning was rich with anticipation. We were out in the field about two hours before sunrise. The wind was light from the east-southeast. This meant our backs would be toward the lake, the direction from which the birds would come. This setup almost never happens in North Dakota. It seems like the wind always blows from the northwest so that the hunter has to look directly into the rising sun. It not only burns your eyeballs, but it makes distinguishing drakes from hens very difficult.

The decoys were set out and our shallow trenches dug. We pulled on our white suits to blend in with the goose decoys. Finally, we took care of our last unfinished business, hunkered down and began the wait.

It wasn’t long! The first geese of the morning were already there even though the sun had not yet peeked over the clouds on the pink eastern horizon. We heard them before we saw them. It didn’t sound like a large flock. Then a group of three swung in from the south. The first birds of the morning made way directly for our decoys. About 250 yards out, they began to make their upwind approach. Glen imagined that the 65 yards of wheat stubble between our two strings of white goose decoys was the flight deck of a “flat top” and the geese were going to land right on the deck.

At about 100 yards out, the birds began to lose significant altitude by flipping over on their backs in mid-air. First to the right, then to the left. Glen whispered, “How do you hit something like that when they are bobbing and weaving all over the place?” I responded, “You mean you never had any live shots like that from your F-14. What kind of pilots does our Navy train? Welcome to North Dakota goose hunting! Just hope they flare as you raise your gun to shoot.” In another two seconds they were within range. Glen, Ken, and I raised, fired and welcomed the beginning of the 1994 hunting season with two dead snows.

We shot five more that morning and two mallards.

About eleven o’clock, I crawled over to Kenny’s blind and said, “Where did all the ducks go?” Kenny said, “I guess we drove by ‘em all yesterday.” “Ya,” I said, “that was pretty disappointing for ducks. They gotta be around here someplace.”

By the time we got to town for lunch, it was sunny and warm for an October day in North Dakota. The buzz in the cafe at lunch time was about the lack of ducks. No one had much luck. Maybe they had all gone 50 miles south. Maybe we should just forget the goose hunting and head down south for the ducks we had seen the day before. Waterfowl hunting can sure be perplexing at times.

After lunch, we decided to stay in our hunting area rather than drive the 20 miles back home and then turn around and drive back for evening scouting. We jumped a few sloughs and shot a couple more ducks. That’s something that I normally don’t do, but in this case there were some very large flocks of birds on the potholes. They were rather irresistible, especially since we didn’t do much in the morning. Eventually, we found an old, white corner schoolhouse where we cleaned our morning shoot and took a nap on the grass under the warm autumn sun.

By 3:30 p.m., we were on the road again. Now, the dust from the dirt roads made great clouds as we traversed goose country to see if we could find the big concentration of feeding geese. Wherever there were clouds of dust on the road, it was likely to be other goose hunters out scouting. By early evening, we found ourselves on the east side of the refuge. We had followed several strings of geese as they lifted off their afternoon loafing spots and headed east for supper. About five miles out from the lake, we found an area where several flocks had landed and were feeding.

We stopped the car for a half hour on a hilltop and watched the flocks arrive from the lake. There did not appear to be any water around, but small flocks of ducks were buzzing fields on all sides of us. They flew by themselves and with the large flocks of geese.

We were far enough off the lake so that there were almost no hunters in our area. The whole time we were there, no one came by. We picked our primary field and our second and third choices in case the fields were occupied by hunters in the morning. Unfortunately, there were no farm places around. So we had no idea who owned the land. It wasn’t posted so we would have to take our chances with other hunters in the morning.

It was getting late, about a half hour before sunset. We left hoping that in the next half hour, “our” spot would not be discovered by other hunters. We were thinking mostly about the geese we saw and did not think much about the ducks that were swooping the wheat stubble. Little did we know that they would be tomorrow’s feature attraction.

We rose early on Sunday morning to make the 35 mile trip to our field. Not much was said in the dark car. Kirby, my young Golden Retriever, was in the back seat. Unfortunately for him, he was only along for the ride. I did not trust him enough to have him out in a stubble field. If he didn’t behave himself, he could really ruin a good hunt. (The next year he had his chance and performed like a real champ.)

We found our field in the darkness. Nobody was there.

It was cloudy with no moon. We jumped into the damp early morning air and began the drudgery of putting out 300 decoys. About a half hour into our work, two vehicles approached on the dirt road from the south. Sure enough, they pulled right into “our” field. Usually, this doesn’t happen, but the intruders drove right up to us. We already had half our decoys out so weren’t about to move. They said they had permission to hunt in the field and asked if they could set up about 300 yards to the southwest. I don’t know if they had permission or if they were just bluffing, but we said it was okay and just told them not to get too much down wind where they would intercept the birds that would be coming in about an hour.

On the way back from parking our car up on the road, I walked through their decoy spread and observed a helter-skelter deployment of rather crummy looking decoys. There were about six guys in a pretty small spread. Could these guys decoy any geese with this spread? You wouldn’t catch me in a spread like that!

All the time that we had been putting out the decoys, a flock of a hundred or more geese had been squawking about a half mile away. They had found some water in the field and stayed there all night. It could have been perfect. If small groups of birds broke off of the flock and came to us just as it was getting light, we could have some easy shooting. But, alas, we had no luck. At about 15 minutes before shooting time, the whole flock took to the wing and headed north. Not one straggler even peaked at our double line spread of decoys.

Then the prairie was suddenly quiet. Just the slightest breeze blew. Our windsocks hardly waggled. We were ready. In a few minutes the whistle of wings was heard above. No quacks, just the wing beat of mallards overhead. It wasn’t time yet. More mallards whistled in the half-light of dawn. A half dozen worked the slot between the two 100 yard strings of white decoys. At the open, upwind end of the geese were set four dozen duck decoys. Glen was sitting in the left string of goose decoys about 50 yards downwind from the duck decoys. Ken and I were sitting 60 yards across from Glen in the right string.

The mallards that had worked the slot so nicely disappeared. Kenny whispered, “They landed in our dekes.” Soon, it was time. A flock of 20 mallards circled and then came in on Glen’s side. He dropped one and the rest of the flock flared to Ken and me. We got another one after about five shots. “Reload Kenny, here comes another flock,” I said in a loud whisper. We both fumbled for shells as a big flock of 75 birds headed for us. At about 100 yards out, they flared and headed for the group of hunters in “our” field. The birds made one circle and then dropped a little altitude.

“Boom, boom, boom-boom-boom.” Shots rained from the other group as three birds dropped from the flock. In the mean time, a dozen birds from somewhere else headed for us. They came up Glen’s side again. Two fell to Glen-the-gunner. Ken and I got some more clean-up shots and dropped one. The birds seemed to like Glen’s side that morning.

Multiple flocks now came from the lake five miles to the west. We were only 10 minutes into the shooting day and I had burned up almost a half a box of shells and did not have much to show for it. The next flock came up our right side. Kenny and I had perfect shots. We emptied our guns. Nothing dropped. I guess I should have practiced before the opener, I thought. After about another dozen birds were missed, I shouted a not-so-mild curse. Who had to whisper? The ducks were coming so fast, we could almost stand up and wait for them. The sky was full of ducks. They were everywhere. We shot and shot. One box was emptied, then two. About one bird for every six shots fell from the sky. “Nice shooting, boys,” I yelled. Boy, we were bad!

The intruders in the other spread were blasting away at the same time we were. It was clear that the ducks preferred our spread, but didn’t shy away from them either. After we pounded a flock, they would go and visit the other guys. More flocks circled the field.

God, what time is it?, I thought. It seemed like we had been out there all morning. I looked at my watch. It was only 9:00 a.m. Finally, there was a little lull where we could count our birds. We were two short of our limit. We had just finished counting when it started to rain lightly. Maybe, it was good we got our shooting in early. The sky was dark and it looked real nasty.

Five minutes later we were being inspected by flocks of ducks and geese at the same time. Glen, who had been having trouble with geese that morning let the geese drift toward Ken and me. He took the ducks. Ken and I went for the geese just as Glen had finished the duck shooting for the day. Two geese pinwheeled and fell heavily into the stubble. “Now, that’s better,” I yelled.

The rain began to intensify. The other hunting group started to move around as if they were going to pick up. Suddenly, the skies were empty and the rain beat harder against the hoods of our rain parkas. We could have waited for more geese, but it really did not look like they wanted our field. Since we had our limit of ducks, we decided to pick up too.

The most incredible two hours of duck hunting I ever experienced had come to a quick, wet halt. I may never experience anything like our memorable 1994 opener again. Luck was with us. We picked the right field where the ducks wanted to be and had the right weather. We were also really lucky to get back home that day. With no gas stations open in the small town near our field, we drove 20 miles with the gas gauge on empty. Someone, not me, forgot to fill up the night before!

My brother-in-law, Kenny Carlson, loves to hunt and fish. As most hunters do, he got started hunting during his high school years. Kenny is a lean six-footer. I guess that’s a kind way of saying that he must have been a pretty skinny kid in high school. He was not a Friday night gridiron gladiator.

So, what else was there for an active teenager to do but go hunting? After high school graduation, there were other matters that got in the way of those weekend hunting trips – like a job, education, and women. But, in the early ‘70s, there were bluebills for eager high school kids to shoot at. I guess they even got a few.

Kenny has regaled me with many stories of shooting those “bills” on Lost Lake near Ely, Minnesota in the early ‘70s. Every Friday after school, the boys got their gear ready for the long trip to the northern frontier. Ken traveled to the lake from St. Cloud with his neighborhood chum, Tony
 
The cabin was a pretty peaceful place, most of the time. However, during hunting season, it got a little crowded. Many other hunters had found this little round, shallow bluebill lake and arrived early (almost in the middle of the night) to get the best spots on the lake. But, they never got the “best” spot on the lake.

Orren. Tony’s mother would drive for five and a half hours through a ribbon of dreary Iron Range towns on the way to duck camp. Often, they did not get there until almost midnight.

Lost Lake, their hunting destination, has only one access point. At the end of the access road is a little cabin with ancient, half log siding and a foundation of rounded stones. The setting is somewhat reminiscent of those in a Terry Redlin painting. But, the site is a little more open than those wooded, lakeshore sites in the Redlin paintings. It is the only cabin on the whole lake.

The entire lakeshore is ringed by bog and spindly, tag elder vegetation except for a ten-foot high spruce covered knob on the east shore of the lake. It was a pretty setting the one time I visited the lake on a cool June evening while fishing with Kenny and our sons.

That was reserved for Tony and Kenny. The boys had no officially reserved spot and there were no “No Hunting” signs. Kenny and Tony simply beat everyone else to the preferred spot (the one with the old couch on a shooting platform). They accomplished this by being the first boat out of the landing in the morning. You see, they had their boat all loaded and ready to go.

They also slept in their clothes! About 3:30 or 4:00 A.M. the dog lying next to Tony’s bed would begin to growl. That was the signal. The dog could sense approaching cars from about a mile away. If the boys missed that signal, the old dog would begin to bark.

When the dog’s signals finally pushed reality into what had been nocturnal hunting dreams, the boys bolted from their beds and hit the floor running. They grabbed their guns, threw on their jackets and leaped into the early morning chilly darkness. Normally, they would be just pushing off shore when the first hunter’s vehicle with boat-on-trailer broke through into the cabin’s opening in the woods. Kenny and Tony would almost be to their chosen spot by the time the intruders got their boat off the trailer.

Now, all they had to do was put their heads back on the couch that was in their blind and try to sleep for another two hours until it was time to shoot. Sometimes, the tranquility of the predawn was broken, by some disgruntled hunter lowly muttering to his companion, “Those god-damned kids got out here first again.” Their voices could be heard all the way across the quiet, foggy lake.

The young hunters were usually rewarded by squadrons of low flying bluebills that darted ten-feet above their decoys on the first pass. On the second pass, if the boys let them go, their black feet would be up preparing to skid to a stop in the cheap decoys.

And so, the legend of Lost Lake was born.

Those times must have made quite an impression on young Kenny, because those memories are often shared on our long rides to and from other hunting destinations. It is good that a middle-aged man can remember those days of old. If one doesn’t remember the past, how can he compare hunting today with what it was years ago? How can he know that the hunters no longer rush to Lost Lake at 4:00 A.M. or even 9:00 A.M? How would he know that the scaup population is not what it used to be? How would he know that he and his fellow hunters should try to stop the steady downward decline of waterfowl numbers?

Kenny has accompanied me for almost 20 years on my trips to the prairie to hunt ducks and geese. His first experience in North Dakota was in 1986. The two of us pulled goose decoys in a trailer behind a Plymouth Reliant station wagon. My, how times have changed!

That first trip with Kenny yielded 17 snow geese (5 was the daily limit in those days) and a limit of ducks on the opener. The mallards were so thick that they were landing ten feet in front of Kenny’s field blind. The next year, 1987, was also an ammo-eater. Four of us removed forty geese and forty ducks from the prairie over a four-day weekend around the first of October.

Kenny was spoiled after those two back-to-back successful years of North Dakota hunting. He probably thought every year was going to be like that and that every year would bring the kind of shooting he and Tony experienced at Lost Lake. But, several lean years followed, except for 1991.

Kenny was steadfast in those lean years. He hopped in the car every year, except one or two, and made the seven-hour journey to North Dakota with Kenny Z, Ferb, and me. It was during the lean years that Kenny started to become a legend in his own right. There were many boring mornings when we watched nothing but the sunrise in the east. (You better have a good brim on your hat and sunglasses to cut the glare.) Kenny developed his own solution to the glare. He closed his eyes so long that he fell asleep.

In preparation for protecting his eyes, he got a very thick blue sponge rubber mattress to lie on in his trench. (This was in the days before low profile blinds.) He would cover it with a white sheet. He also dressed in white. He would pull on his white hood/face mask, put those powdered chemical footwarmers in his boots and get ready for the bright, chilly morning.

But, getting ready for Kenny, meant making that little trench and head rest as comfortable as can be. Apparently, he was successful. Because, it did not take Kenny long before he was sound asleep protecting his eyes from the blinding sun beginning to rise in the east. Kenny missed many opportunities completely because he did not see ducks or geese pass near him. And, when he did shoot, his eyes still weren’t focused from his naps. The results were predictable.

Kenny had a pretty bad run of shooting luck for a number of years. He and I went to the trap range during that time to see what the problem was. But, there was no problem, really. Kenny shot well enough on the trap range so that he should have had some success in the field.

But, Kenny was in a slump – about eight years long. The more he missed, the tougher it was to hit the next shot. Sometimes, we thought Kenny was napping as an excuse to avoid missing. The old skunk was in his hunting bag for a long time.

Finally, “the streak” was broken in the fall of 2003. How could it not be? There were so many snow geese that any hunter would eventually have taken enough shots so that the mental picture of what it takes to hit a snow goose would have been printed indelibly on his mind. And, so it was with Kenny.

He and I put down a pile of birds on our last day in Canada. The morning’s shoot was topped off when Kenny got the last three birds. I was about 300 yards from our blinds looking for two cripples that I had downed earlier in the morning. While scrounging for white feathers in a stubble field, I heard a small flock of snows coming in on Kenny. I knelt down and peaked back toward our blinds. The birds looked pretty high, but were right over Kenny. Just as I was thinking that it is about time for a shot, one of the birds dropped out of the sky, seemingly without a shot being fired. But, a second later, I heard the shot. Then another bird went pinwheeling to the earth followed by the delayed shot sound. Kenny had gotten his first double that I could recall. The streak had been broken! What a relief – for all of us!

Hopefully, Kenny will keep that mental picture of gun barrel passing the bill of the goose in his mind, and will have the confidence to smoke those geese again next year. I know that I will keep the picture of those two birds, high above Kenny, falling to the ground before the sound of his gunfire reached my ears. I am sure that, on future long drives to the prairie, Kenny will tell stories of that morning’s hunt in Saskatchewan right after he tells his stories about Lost Lake.

Waterfowlers in ND are very disappointed with 2004 duck numbers, especially with another liberal season

When flights of ducks returned to the prairies of North Dakota from the south, numbers looked good for the 2004 waterfowl season. The annual spring breeding duck index was the 3rd highest on record, and was up 9% from last year. These numbers were surprising considering that there was a 16% decrease in available waters at the time.

All species of ducks were up in the survey except, two of the most bagged ducks in Nodak; the Mallard and blue-winged teal.

In 2004 the survey was conducted in North Dakota for the 57th consecutive year. Game and Fish biologists drive 8 different routes across North Dakota and count the number of ducks and waters with in 220 yards of the road. These counts help predict how many ducks will be breeding across the state each year.

Although the water levels remained consistent across the state the expected bird numbers did not. In Mid-July the Game and Fish conducted the brood index survey and found the index to be down by 45%. This survey is similar to the breeding survey, only the number of ducklings per family is counted, not the number of ducks.

The 2004 migration is likely to be down about 40% from where it was last year. In 2003 the Game and Fish counted an average 6.8 ducklings per clutch. The average this past July was 6.4, which is still 77% above the 1955-2003 average. Waterfowl hunters should not worry much. There is still plenty of ducks out there and more water than earlier in the year.

“I’ve seen less ducks this season while scouting for geese than in the past. Usually they give us a good show in the field before the geese start flying.” Said Matt Jones (not the hockey player) a third year undeclared major.

The 2004 duck season begins Sept. 25 for North Dakotan residents and Oct. 2, for non-residents. The shooting hours are one half hour before sunrise to sunset. Check local sporting goods stores for daily and possession bag limits of specific species.

Minnesota is doing something new this year. The waterfowl season will begin at 9 am, rather then the traditional noon opener. This new law was passed by the legislature over the summer. Because of this hunters should have a little boost to the start of the 2004 season.

The noon opener started in Minnesota years ago so that hunters would go out and spend money in the small towns buying breakfast before the hunt. It stayed for many years because of tradition. I for one think it’s a great change for the state of Minnesota.

The Minnesota season begins on Sept. 25, for everyone. If you plan to hunt there, read up on their goose zones and motorized decoy restrictions. Everyone have a safe and enjoyable season.