Interesting Duck Diary

[Scott M]

In duck diary, it's then vs. now

by Bill Klein, Star Tribune

The final reports on the 2010 Minnesota duck season are in from the river bottoms in the southeast, from the shallow sloughs out west and from the big water up north. The consensus seems to be "not bad, not bad at all." But when people ask me about the season just ended, I have to qualify my answer with a "compared to what?" Was the duck hunting better than the past two or three years? Yes, it was. Was it comparable to the 1960s and '70s? Not a chance.

As a duck hunter longer in the tooth than your typical waterfowler, my perspective spans 45 years and maybe a thousand hopeful sunrises in the swamp. So as the natural resource moguls convene next week in roundtable discussion with the DNR, my message is: Put the plight of ducks in Minnesota on the front burner and turn up the heat. We need more hope.

Memories of my early duck hunts would have long ago faded irretrievably into the recycle bin were it not for my hunting diary. Since 1966 I have kept a written record of trips taken, shooting success, weather details and hunting partners. My prologue page promises that events are recorded as they actually happened. And I have been faithful to the truth. Lying in a diary is like cheating at solitaire.

With the thought that it may be helpful for younger natural resource advocates and interesting for younger duck hunters to hear about the good ol' days, I offer the following snippets from my diary. For comparison, I have juxtaposed entries from the '60s and '70s against recent year recordings.

1966 vs. 2003

Third weekend of the 1966 season. Self, Richard Anderson and his pastor. Leo Murphy slough near Beardsley. Friday evening weather is clear, cool with a slight NW breeze. We awaken Saturday morning to find an inch of ice covering the entire slough. Richard and his pastor hunt the abandoned road down the middle of the slough. I kick open a room-sized patch of water in the NE corner and put out eight Herter's mallard decoys. There are thousands of ducks using the area and we have a rare commodity in Big Stone county -- open water. We are full by 10:00 am. Over breakfast I try to talk Richard's pastor into calling for a sub preacher for Sunday morning. But he's hearing none of it so we quit and drive home.

Third weekend of the 2003 season. I head out alone to my duck camp near Hoffman. It strikes me that everyone wants to open the duck season at my camp but nobody wants to go thereafter.

Saturday is warm (55) and windless. Smokey and I watch in vain as the few local mallards left and even a bluewing teal give our set-up a wide berth. About 9:30 I call to a single Canada goose but he lands short. We engage in a 20 minute conversation and he finally lifts off for a closer look. I whack him and Smoke makes the retrieve for our one goose limit. But there are almost zero ducks flying and we bunch it at 10:00 am.

1968 vs. 1998

Sunday, October 27, 1968. Self, Tom Sletta. Cool (45 degrees) with low clouds and a gusty NW wind to 30 knots. Ducks everywhere! Bluebills, ringbills, pintails, widgeon and mallards. All ducks are decoying. We fill by 8:30, unload the guns and watch a real show from the blind for another 30 minutes. Seven or eight flocks of additional ducks work into the decoys.

October 31, 1998. Hunting alone with just Bo as my partner. Kensington area. Low 30s with a light and variable wind and a low sky. I spot what I think is a single redhead drake. He's on the water in the decoys before I can stand. I confirm the rusty head, stand up, he flies and I kill it. When Bo retrieves my "redhead" it turns out to be a merganser! In the ensuing two hours I see four tundra swans, a small flock of goldeneyes, many Canada geese and one migrating golden eagle. By mid-morning nothing more is flying except the geese and their season closed the 27th so I bunch it.

1971 vs. 2005

Opening Weekend, 1971. Spohnholtz slough near Morris. Rick Schrom, self, Fred Robbins, Ron Evon. Temp Saturday rising under a clear sky from 55 to 65. Wind SW at 15. Wild first hour with slower late shooting. Sunday breaks very ducky. Hefty west wind and low clouds. A good opener bag of 9 mallards, 5 redheads, 1 gadwall, 5 widgeon, 14 bluewing teal, 1 pintail, 2 greenwing teal, 2 shoveler.

Opening Weekend 2005. Gary Allen, son David, son-in-law Chuck, self. Unseasonably warm with clear skies and temps rising to near 80. My duck camp near Hoffman. Gary and son open in the small slough. I hunt with Chuck from the west blind. The four of us set a dubious record for openers in Minnesota. No shots! The Allen clan leaves for home. I stay for Sunday morning but to no avail.

...

At this stage of my hunting career I don't need to shoot a limit of ducks. But I do need to see ducks to fuel the anticipation highs. And since ducks are the canaries in the coal mine of clean water, this is important stuff, for hunters and nonhunters alike. The ducks need habitat help, and we duck hunters need hope for the future of our sport.

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Interesting read. I read somewhere an article about how the good old days of duck hunting South Dakota were now. They had more ducks of all species visiting in the last ten years than any time in the 40's, 50's, or 60's.

[creepworm]

That is what they say. The breeding population of ducks out here was higher than it ever has been due to a wet spring. Many ducks supposedly stayed here instead of heading north. That is supposedly why North Dakota was not what it usually is. Bad for them, good for me.

[Gordie]

Great read.

I love to see the differences but not the outcome of what its to be

[LandDr]

That is interesting.

I remember sitting in the duck blind with my Grandpa talking about the good'ol days where clouds of ducks would come down from the north. He referenced the huge rice fields in northern MN and how that would attract a lot of ducks which would make their way down thru central MN...almost all of those rice fields are gone now. Or I should say the rice is gone but the fields are still there (you can see the berms and water control structures and ditches still there). I remember as a kid where I seen these big waves of ducks on occassion...not as much as Grandpa did.

Although most of the water in MN is gone, there is still water left. I personally feel the "food" is gone from the majority of these areas. I have established wild rice in one of my ponds which has now turned out to be one of the best duck hunting spots I have ever had. My son and I had great shoots every time we went out and often limited out...we certainly had the chance to limit out every time! I also establishe Sago on another pond which is also very good. Neighbors that have ponds don't see near the number of ducks that we do...they have the water BUT don't have the food sources.

I travel all over the USA working with duck clubs and landowners on waterfowl projects. One of the techniques they use the most are "flooded crops"...but they often have very difficult soil types and contours to work with. I strongly feel MN has some of the greatest options for flooded crops...we have shallow depressional areas all over that can be easily blocked or plugged for a short period of time in the fall to create flooded crop situations. But I rarely see this technique being done anywhere in MN. Why? Are we sent on that ducks need to come to our ponds because that is what they did 30, 40 or 50 years ago? Why not create the water and food that ducks love just like they do down south, out east and out west?

We had more ducks in MN this year because we had a lot of rain which flooded fields...and flooded crops and weedy vegetation. Why wait for the chance occurance of this happening once in 5 or 10 years...why not make it happen every year with strategic water management, fooded crops and moist soils management? We have some of the best soils and contours to work with in MN...if this was a widespread practice in MN, I personally believe we could move the flyway back into MN.

That's my pipe dream.

Land Dr

[mozy]

I agree, Landdr. If you can find flooded crops, you can kill birds. The problem is finding that rare commodity. Most fields that suffer from flooding have been or will be tiled. It's unfortunate, but that's the way it is and likely will be into the future.

[UMC]

Not real scientific to say that since the 3rd weekend in 1966 was great and the 3rd weekend of 2003 was bad that hunting was all great in the 60s and is all bad now. I took my grandfather on the best mallard shoots he's ever had in MN in the early 2000s and he's been hunting since before WW2. Obviously times have changed in MN and duck numbers aren't what they once were. Never will be able to undo most of the damage that has been done to the habitat (and much of it is permanently destroyed - houses, malls, highways, huge ditches, etc.) but I guess it's worth a try. I doubt we will ever see much fruit from that labor however. Too much to undo with too little money.