Covered in Raffia grass, the Vantage-Scavenger is designed for hunting swamps and shallow water.

It’s obvious aluminum boats are the toughest and offer the best utility for building the ideal blind, judging by the sheer number of aluminum crafts entered in the 2011 “Boats & Blinds” contest. Ben Morgan of Kent, Ohio, found his ideal duck boat in a 14-foot Osagian Vantage hull, a flat-bottom with rounded bow and stern. He decided to power the boat with an 8-horsepower Scavenger Backwater mud motor. In engineering and art, form always follows function, and in both of these respects, Morgan’s boat blind is a beauty. Its clean lines, perfect camouflage and efficiency of operation were so outstanding his Vantage-Scavenger took third place in the “Boats & Blinds” contest.

“This boat was selected because it is mainly designed for inland swamps and other shallow water locations where we usually hunt,” Morgan said. “Our goals in hunting the swamps are to be as mobile as possible, present a low profile for concealment and have an ample amount of well-organized equipment storage space.”

Morgan’s Vantage-Scavenger does all that, while still allowing up to three hunters and a retriever to hunt in comfort all day. A big reason Morgan selected the Vantage Osagian hull was for its shallow, 3-inch draft and generous 700-pound capacity.

The deck and lower hull sides of the boat blind were camouflaged by adding a double-layered border of Raffia grass. One-foot wide strips were glued to a border of some wooden strips, sawed to size from treated 2×4 lumber, and screwed to the hull with self-tapping screws. A second layer of strips were glued and clamped over the bottom layer of grass, using screws to join and tighten both wooden strips. The grass is placed in 1-foot wide bundles and draped down to cover the sides of the boat. The top and bottom layer of grass bundles are alternated to provide maximum coverage and concealment.

Nuts & Bolts
The blind frame is made of ¾-inch EMT (electrical conduit) welded together. The blind’s side skin is made of 1/16-inch black PVC sheeting. Truck bed cargo netting is attached to the interior to hold decoys and other gear in place, and ¾-inch mesh plastic netting covers the exterior over the PVC skin. Piano hinges allow the blind frames to fold up and down.

The blind frame consists of two sections, one on each side, with both extending the length of the cockpit, and from the centerline outward to each gunwale. Each section has a rounded exterior where it joins the gunwale and has three longitudinal cross pieces at the gunwale and bend. Another longitudinal section at the outer or interior edge is cut into three sections to allow access. There are four ribs on each side frame that create three separate shooting positions. When folded down for hunting, the frames extend vertically from each gunwale of the boat up to the head height of a seated hunter. The curved outer edge on the interior of each of the blind frames provides lots of storage space. Each side of the frame has three shooting compartments. The dog sits on the bow deck.

“Having the three compartments on either side allows hunters to hunt from either side of the boat without having to turn it around,” Morgan said.

Six piano hinges are attached to the boat and gunwale, with one hinge at the center of each of the six compartments. On the interior, or top end of the two frames, notched tees made from 1½-inch conduit allow the horizontal EMT sections to be removed. The notches are cut larger than the ¾-inch EMT cross sections so they can slip freely out of the tees. This allows each compartment to be opened by lifting out the outer EMT section and folding the PVC skin up or down. Because of the flexibility of the PVC, the netting and everything else covering the blind exterior folds along with the skin. The cutouts in the ends of the tees were made with a power saw. Each of the EMT sections is held in place inside the tees with equipment pins and quick clips. When all the compartments are secure and the top frame ends are pinned together, the two curved blind frames can be swung completely open in one piece, just like opening a fishing tackle box with double-roof doors.

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Storage Space
The piano hinges are attached to the EMT lower frames with self-tapping screws. To provide rigidity, as well as create a secure connection point for the screws, the interior of the EMT was filled with a two-part epoxy in the attachment area. The piano hinges were attached to the boat by screwing them to the wooden strips that surround the cockpit.

The exterior PVC sheeting is screwed in place on the conduit frame, using self-tapping screws and the sheeting acts as a windbreak. The PVC sheeting is spray painted in camouflage colors for concealment. The elastic cargo netting is attached to the interior of the blind frames to create a storage area for decoys and other gear, whether or not the frames are folded up or down during hunting, transport and travel.

The cargo netting is installed by securing the elastic strap along the bottom of the net, clamping it between the piano hinge and the conduit. The top of the net also has an elastic strap, which is fastened to eyebolts located in each of the rib sections of the conduit frame. Zip ties were used to attach the cargo netting to the frame and the eyebolts, keeping it taut. The cargo netting stores about 30 decoys, plus flotation cushions, personal flotation devices and the motor cover.

Sections of ¾-inch square plastic netting are attached over the top of the PVC sheeting and fastened to the conduit frames with zip ties. Raffia grass is then attached to the netting with more zip ties (Morgan used more than 1,000 of them to assure the Raffia stayed in place). Ninety-degree elbows are welded to the bottom tips of each frame end, fore and aft with short pieces of conduit, extending from them toward the blind interior. These extensions come to rest on wooden strips screwed along the outside of the gunwales to prevent the blind from opening beyond perpendicular. When the frames are closed, they also rest on these extensions on top of the wood strips attached to the tops of the gunwales.

Spacial Brilliance
Two automotive fog lights were installed on the bow deck and one headlight was installed on the stern deck. To protect the front lights from being kicked or stepped on by hunters entering or exiting the boat, a piece of ¾-inch PVC sheeting was cut and bent to form a rigid hood, then screwed in place to cover each light.

The forward deck between the front lights was covered with camouflage neoprene, cannibalized from an old set of chest waders. The neoprene covering quieted the boat considerably and created a very comfortable, non-slip platform for the retriever to sit during hunts.

A camouflage cover was made for the mud motor by sewing together nylon fabric. Elastic was sewn around the border of the nylon and Raffia grass was attached to it by melting small holes in the nylon, so the grass could be fastened in place with zip ties. The cover is simply placed over the motor while a hunt is in progress.

Brackets for holding two telescoping push poles were installed on each side of the cockpit interior. The four brackets, two on each side, are made of sheet metal and grip the poles securely.

When the boat is under navigation, both side frames of the blind are swung open to provide access along the entire interior of the cockpit. Once the blind is situated at the hunting location, the hunters sit in the cockpit, oriented broadside to the shooting zone.

“The Vantage is so wide, there’s no concern for boat stability,” Morgan said. “Once the hunters are seated, the section of blind behind each hunter is folded down. If only one or two hunters are in the blind, the unused compartment or compartments’ top conduit sections can remain in place to provide more concealment of the unused area. As for the blind section in front of each hunter, it can also be folded down to provide concealment to the top of each hunter’s head.”

Whether an increase actually comes to fruition this year remains to be seen. Collins says there’s some opposition in Congress, mostly from Republican lawmakers who don’t like the idea of raising fees of any type. As of mid-April, it was simply too early to tell if the budget had a chance of passing. The good news, however, is if the proposal does go through, the bill includes a stipulation that future increases will be left up to the Department of the Interior instead of Congress.

“It won’t have to go through the drawn-out legislative process like it has in the past,” says Collins.

It’s not just Republican budget hawks who cringe at the idea of bumping up taxes and user fees. At least a few hunters are troubled by the proposed increase, as well. In February, Wildfowl posted a similar story on the duck stamp price hike to its website, generating some debate amongst waterfowlers.

“Hunting is rapidly becoming a rich man’s sport,” wrote one protestor. “Fees are going up like crazy and new ones added…Screw you who want higher fees.”

Others are somewhat less candid in their opposition, offering reasonable objections based on current economic conditions. “It costs enough as it is. If the economy improves (and it won’t at this rate) then a small increase, otherwise leave it alone,” said another poster on Wildfowl’s Facebook page.

There’s no question hunting, waterfowl hunting in particular, is becoming more expensive each year. Considering the cost of decoys, non-toxic shells, boats and gas, along with mandatory licenses and voluntary trespass or lease fees, it’s no wonder some hunters balk at the notion of a price hike. But there is far more support within the waterfowl community than protest. Ducks Unlimited and Delta Waterfowl support the $10 increase, as does TRCP, Pheasants Forever and a variety of other pro-hunting conservation organizations.

“What’s an extra 10 bucks?” asks Minnesota insurance salesman and waterfowl hunter Ben Cade. “Waterfowlers like to invest their money in items that will produce more birds in the bag for them.

“What better investment than $10 towards sanctuaries for waterfowl, which, in turn, will provide more hunting opportunities? Ten bucks is half the cost of a box of shells. I think duck hunters should buy two as a way of helping ducks even more.”

Federal duck stamp money doesn’t just go to sanctuaries in the form of national wildlife refuges. The money raised goes to the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund first, which then distributes it to entities such as the National Wildlife Refuge System and Wetlands Production Areas, both of which are overseen by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (a near-equal amount of funding for the MBCF comes from import duties on firearms and ammunition).

Many of those refuges are open for waterfowl hunting, and almost all WPAs are open to public hunting.

“Some of the money goes to the various fees tied to land acquisition, like surveys and transaction fees, but those are a necessary part of any land purchase,” said Collins.

Overall, an estimated 98 percent of duck stamp dollars go directly to land purchases and improvements. It’s one of the most efficient government-run programs. A $10 increase would translate to an additional $18 to $24 million in revenue, leading to an estimated 7,000 additional acres purchased annually and 10,000 more acres placed in permanent conservation easements each year. Although those easements are typically on private land, they often protect the most critical and the most threatened habitat.

“We are losing a lot of high-quality habitat at a pretty high rate right now,” says Collins, “so the sooner we can start acquiring additional acreage, the better off we will be in the future.”

Land certainly isn’t getting cheaper. Eric Alvarez, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s chief of the division of realty, says it’s difficult to put a specific rate of increase on land values because there are so many variables. However, he pointed to a couple of regions to illustrate how much a stamp price hike could have helped if it was passed sooner.

“Land adjoining Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge (on Maryland’s waterfowl-rich eastern shore) was valued at about $1,250 an acre in 1992. Now, it’s selling for $2,500 an acre,” he says.

“Land around the Cache River refuge in Arkansas was selling for $1,000 an acre in 1992. It’s $2,500 an acre now. It’s even worse in the northern prairie region, thanks to high commodity prices.”

Even conservation easements have increased. Alvarez adds easements in California’s northern Sacramento Valley have increased 15 percent in recent years. But instead of looking backwards, Collins says we should look forward. Passing this increase will not only result in more waterfowl habitat and more birds, it will create more places to hunt. Isn’t 10 more dollars worth it?

BANDED is set to launch its 2012 waterfowl lineup

If you watch Sportsman Channel at all, you’ve probably seen the BANDED commercials. You know, the ones with Chad Belding sauntering around the warehouse as two guys creep around trying to figure out just what the heck is going on here.

Well, we’re all about to find out. As we sleep through tonight, I can only assume the BANDED guys and gals will be hard at it—their website launches when the clock strikes midnight.

The company has been drawing interest from waterfowlers with its new line of tactical gear for 2012, offering 600 different items, including outerwear, waders, boots, blinds, etc…

“The amount of work that has been done by our team in the last nine months is unbelievable. With our diverse product offerings, there’s definitely something for everyone,” said company CEO and President, Jim Hawk III in a news release.

We’ve seen some of the new products, and feature the knee boot in the June/July issue of the magazine. There are great people at BANDED, and we think this very well could be one of the best lines of gear for our kind this season.

Check them out at www.banded.com.

BANDED knee boot featured in the June/July issue.

Back in the dark ages, when my dad was helping me unstick my 5-year-old’s rubber boots from too-deep marsh mud, hunters mostly hunted local, and let their dreams of hunting travel languish. How things have changed. These days, it seems like most fowling folk have been to Canada and are going back, while others cross borders to clobber neighbor state’s birds, or hop a flyway to witness their first goose tornado. Why? Because we can. Passion drives the thing. Traveling to hunt is no longer elitist. One of my favorite hunts last year was a Maine eider expedition, and the guys in camp were regular Joes with guns from DU banquets, and it was their second trip…during a recession! So I talked to Ramsey Russell, a biologist and international man of duck-hunting mystery, who brokers hunts all over the planet. We came up with a list of reasonably priced must-do hunts in the Americas.

Some of the best are close to home and should be: two of my other favorite hunts of the year took place in Arkansas, within driving distance of WILDFOWL‘s Illinois HQ. I’ll never forget snows sucking into our vast spread like foam packing peanuts whirling into a ceiling fan. Or shooting limits of specklebellies—over water! And just over the border in Alberta, we shot a half-dozen different subspecies of geese in one morning. This list is not a ranking and is by no means comprehensive—none of the spots I just mentioned are even on it. Chesapeake Bay isn’t, either. Though every waterfowler should make a pilgrimage to Mecca, the hunting on the Bay these days often falls short of epic. This list is merely a good start. Print out these pages, paste them on the fridge, circle a dream hunt or two and go tell your wife what you want for Christmas. You won’t have to twist her arm to go to Mexico. Whether it’s 37 species you seek or just great experiences, the only thing that happens if you wait, is you get older.

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Venice, Louisiana

An hour or so south of New Orleans is one of the coolest trophy duck games in town. “People think of canvasbacks, they think of Lake Sinclair and Pool 9, but let me tell you, there is not a better place on God’s green earth to shoot cans and pintails; it is the most amazing thing. You run south from Venice down the river an hour or two and branch off into the marsh, and from there you are in a pirot in one of the most imperiled duck habitats on the planet due to saltwater intrusion. It is guaranteed if they haven’t had a hurricane (which kills duck food with saltwater from flooding) and if it’s stable, you will kill a can and a pintail, then fill out on gaddies and teal. It’s unbelievable,” Russell says. Shoot your limit early and go chase redfish and speckled seatrout. Or in January, you can go offshore and hook tuna after hunting, and January is the best month for a plumed out drake can or pintail.

Ducks, Bucks & Dates
-- Pintails and canvasbacks
-- Starting at $200-$300 a day
-- Peak: January

Most hunters love their camo-clad duck sleds as much as the 4×4 trucks that pull them. The modern crop of duck assault boats are unstoppable, tough, stable and so durable, if you choose wisely you won’t need another for a very long time. You probably love them like a newborn—maybe more.

Here are some of the best boats money can buy.

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Bankes Freedom

Hunting open water can be frustrating if you don’t have access to the proper boat. Stop twiddling your thumbs in the blind and get out there with the 17-foot Bankes Freedom. There’s nothing but space inside this craft. Dual shelving runs the length of the cockpit on both sides. You can store more than four-dozen decoys on the lower shelves and still have plenty of space. For a little bit more, you can purchase a custom cover and two different blind packages, which will help in putting you on the birds. Run up to a 75-hp motor to chase after the ducks.

Price: $14,495

O’Brien, who hosts the eponymous show “Conan” on TBS, brought on the stars of A&E’s “Duck Dynasty,” Phil and Willie Robertson, and the duo gave O’Brien a crash course in duck calling.

If you haven’t already heard, the Duck Commanders stormed onto cable TV last month with their kick-ass beards and Beverly Hillbilly-like appeal to widespread acclaim. And this late night appearance should only help their popularity.

OK, maybe O’Brien’s first duck calls weren’t the greatest we’ve ever heard — though not bad for a first-timer — but we certainly appreciate the attempts by he and other celebrities – and also to the Robertson family — to bring hunting to the mainstream. We couldn’t be more grateful.

Hard to believe the scariest, hairiest bunch of hard hunting rednecks in our industry are now among the first to star on a mainstream TV network. We hope they’re here to stay.

Sitting at a duck camp in the mid-90s with the Berry brothers in Washington state, I was enthralled by the sight on TV: hirsute men straight out of “Deliverance,” sitting in a duck blind, blowing birds away from a floating blind in the timber.

They were raw men, and so was the video.

“At thar’s a hooded meganeezer,” I remember the senior Robertson man saying when a merganser lit in the dekes.

The guy was really getting his ducks in a row while appearing to be a really hairy, intimidating, Average Joe. Duck Men vids were a smash hit back then with the young guns, the most graphic unapologetic duck-killing footage ever seen, and the Cajuns splattering mallards with their old humpback A-5s were instant icons to the hardcore.

Part of the instant admiration was the ground-breaking, in-your-face and honest style of hunt video, and part of it was senior bad ass Phil Robertson’s personal commitment: He walked away from an amazing career to kill ducks.

The old man talked about his teammate Terry Bradshaw—he of the four Super Bowl rings—and how he started at quarterback over Terry at Louisiana Tech.

.“Terry chose the bucks, I chose the ducks,” Phil said.

Not anymore. He is proof positive that by sticking with what you love (he made his first calls in 1972) you’re liable to be more successful than a guy chasing dollars. Decades later, he has wealth and fame and a lot longer career than most athletes both behind and ahead of him. Building calls that kill ducks after noting, “That no duck would even place in a modern duck calling contest,” he has been successful beyond words.

Those iconic Browning humpbacks are gone, replaced by sponsored Benellis, and the Duck Men have long had their own line of calls, ammo and gun endorsements.

The new show is a lot less hardcore than his old vids, and crafted perfectly for the mainstream, focused very little on killing ducks and instead bringing viewers into the soap opera drama of the family-run business.

“They’re the Kardashians of hunting,” quips Tom Weaver, WILDFOWL publisher.

That’s not a criticism, but a dead-on description. The show is a riot. The intro shows them with helicopters and huge mansions and other silliness that veers from reality, but is a hell of a lot of fun, rolling out a line of duck pimp-dom footage.

Highlights:

• Take your dad to school day is a riot when senior Phil shows kids how to gut small game right in class, and uncle Si Robertson scares the hell out of youngsters with too many details of his army career.

• Disapproving CEO Willie (one of Phil’s boys) lays into the guys for sneaking out and poaching bullfrogs at his country club, inappropriate behavior for big-time businessmen. The frog hunting and cleaning is inspirational.

• Upstart and fun-loving brother Jase bombs as stand-in CEO for the day

• Senior bad ass Phil, the original Duck Commander; learns his family’s spoiled young’uns a lesson about the value of hard work by having them hand-cut a football field out in the boonies, after chucking their cell phones in the swamp.

• While arguing about business problems, the brothers engage in a brand of golf involving 12 gauges that would make the sport a hell of a lot more popular should it catch on.

Truly a freak of an athlete at one time in a state that’s full of them (he was Louisiana all-state in track, football and baseball), paterfamilias Phil has a quiet dignity about him, speaks softly but clearly with a light southern accent and a ramrod straight spine. He’s instantly likeable on TV, in other words, and the show is getting solid mainstream reviews from the New York Times and other prestigious venues, because of it’s honest dead pan humor and because the show has a real plot and doesn’t just rely solely on somebody having an unusual line of work to drive interest.

Here’s hoping the ride lasts, and opens the door for other mainstream hunting and outdoor programming that rides on the boom in interest of sustainable home-cooked hunter gathering.

Avian cholera is responsible for the deaths of an estimated 5,000-10,000 ducks and geese.

Editor’s note: This article was provided by the Western Outdoor News.

Lack of water, and hence, lack of flooded marshland, has crowded an estimated 2 million ducks and geese into California’s Tulelake/Klamath Basin. The result is widespread avian cholera, killing an estimated 5,000-10,000 ducks and geese thus far. Roughly three-quarters of the die-off is snow and Ross’ geese, with an estimated 1,000 pintails.

“This is a real disaster,” said retired hunting guide Jay Welch, who lives near Tulelake. “The refuge ponds have, for the most part, dried up, and that puts the birds in tight quarters, and to make things worse, we are having a much higher than normal return of birds from the south.”

According to Ron Cole, manager of the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges Complex, limited water deliveries to the refuges, combined with a very large waterfowl migration heading back north, has resulted in a higher than usual cholera outbreak.

Klamath Basin officials have removed 3,500 dead birds since the outbreak.

It’s the worst outbreak of avian cholera in years, according to staff at the refuge. With the help of Cal-Ore Waterfowl and Wetlands Council (COWWC), they have picked up approximately 3,500 dead birds so far. Further losses can only be mitigated by picking up dead and diseased birds as soon as possible, or by increasing the amount of flooded land so the birds can disperse.mEven with the increased water being sent and the elevated efforts to pick up dead birds, total die-off could reach 15,000 birds.

Dad's BPS will be on the ducks once again.

Full disclosure: for the last few years, I’ve been sitting in cubicles at various insurance companies, talking about synergy with computer geeks and towing the corporate line. But as luck would have it, WILDFOWL editor Skip Knowles rescued me from the land of premiums and co-pays.

We had been planning a trip to the gun range for some time, and on this day, in the sweltering heat of late March (somehow it was almost 90 degrees), he cruised past my desk, “Want to go shooting?”

Thankfully, I had dad’s Browning BPS, left to my brother and I after he passed years ago, in the trunk of my car. We grabbed some shells, hopped in my trusty ‘93 Caddy and were off. The drive was nerve-wracking. My palms filled with sweat—pulse racing. Dad had scraped and scrounged every dollar for this pump-action beauty, and I can remember him standing over me, probably with much anxiety, as his 8-year-old son shot a man’s gun for the first time. Now, having barely touched the BPS in 20 years, I was feeling the same nervousness he’d felt.

The Skipper is big on teaching (he’s like a Greek Nostradomus), which is good for me as I still have plenty to learn. So, we worked on patterning basics, and fed a Winchester Super Steel 3-inch, No. 1 into the chamber. Firing my father’s favorite gun for the first time in two decades had me jittery. I wanted to make a solid shot. The bead continuously jumped outside the kill zone. Finally, I calmed myself and fired. As we walked downrange, it was clear—I’m a high shooter, likely saving the lives of dozens of birds over the years.

A second, more accurate shot, gave us the results we were looking for—14 BBs inside an 8-inch death circle at 25 yards. Next, I fired some old 3-inch, No. 4 load at the same distance. Thirty-two lovely pellets patterned the circle, perfect for massacring decoying mallards.

Here at WILDFOWL, we ride to the range in style.

Dad would’ve been proud. He also would’ve been proud of the hard-kicking, 3-inch, 1 7/8-ounce lead turkey loads from Remington we popped off, resulting in two very sore shoulders, only made better by post-gunning adult beverages…I mean FIJI waters.

My intention was to buy a new auto-loader this summer, but I’m scratching that idea. This fall, there will be a BPS by my side. Early Canada season can’t come soon enough.

Will icy scenes like this become less frequent in the future?

Anyone who was slapping mosquitoes in Stuttgart in late December, wondering what happened to duck season, was hardly alone.

Blame it on a string of unusual weather patterns, climate change or just bad luck, one thing’s for certain: This winter was warm, and record numbers of ducks in the north country didn’t always translate to a great hunting season as a result. The average temperature for December in Bismarck, N.D., for example, was 9 degrees above normal. On Jan. 4, it reached a record 60 degrees, 16 degrees above the previous record set in 2001. Minneapolis, Minn., was more than 8 degrees above average last December and Arkansas experienced its ninth warmest year on record in 2011. Overall, 2000 to 2009 was the warmest decade ever recorded, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

That spelled poor hunting throughout much of the country as ducks and geese took advantage of open water and abundant food in Canada and the northern U.S. A mid-season survey conducted in early January by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources found just 3,700 ducks on three lakes in the central zone, down from the five-year average of 56,000! Some birds did fly south eventually, but not until the last few weeks of the season. In some states, those seasons were already closed.

That’s got more than a few hunters wondering if wildlife managers should consider restructuring duck seasons, shifting the later splits to accommodate later migrations. Avery territory manager Mark Brendemuehl, who lives and hunts in Minnesota, says a delayed second season split would have been “a godsend” this year.

“We had a good number of local birds early, but once they got pushed out by hunting pressure, nothing moved in to replace them,” he said. “We did get some migrators, but not really enough to refresh the areas we were hunting.”

He’s not alone. According to IDNR’s waterfowl biologist Ray Marshalla, more and more hunters are asking for a later season. He hears about it mostly during warmer years, but overall, hunters are clearly concerned.

“We have shifted seasons later over the last 15 years or so and our data is showing that average freeze-up dates are taking place later,” he says. “However, it’s still a crap-shoot to some extent because we experience fairly wide extremes from year-to-year.”

That’s one reason Brendemuehl isn’t sure if shifting the season to later dates would be a good thing in the long run. Despite this year’s warm winter, the past few years have been about normal or even colder.

Everything froze up solid two or three years ago, effectively ending the season before it was over, he recalls. “Most people I talk to agree, it would probably be better to move the second season dates back a little bit, but you just never know.”

Marshalla and other state waterfowl biologists are in a difficult position when it comes to setting season dates. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sets season guidelines that cover a wide time frame, allowing state agencies to set dates within that window and within the allowable number of hunting days. For instance, in the Mississippi Flyway states are given 60 days that could fall anywhere between late September and the last Sunday in January. Northern states typically set their seasons early since birds are usually gone by mid- to late December. Southern states push their seasons toward the end of the allowable time frame to account for late-arriving birds. Biologists, however, can’t say if duck migrations are taking place later on average. In fact, Marshalla says most species do seem to be migrating about the same time as they always have.

“Mallards seem to be migrating south at later dates, but that may have to do with changes in farming practices as much or more than climate change,” he notes. “I’m not sure if it’s possible to measure.”

No studies have looked at migration dates and weather patterns, mostly because it’s difficult to gather enough data to make any sound conclusions. There have been attempts to look at harvest data in an effort to examine migration patterns, but they did not show any conclusive evidence that ducks were migrating south later, either.

If harvest figures from Louisiana are any indication, this warm winter was nothing more than an anomaly. Hunters in that state killed a record number of ducks last year, over 2.7 million, which was part of a steady upward trend since 2004, when the harvest was 822,000. Arkansas hunters have experienced equally good hunting as indicated by harvest figures over the last decade. If warming trends are a factor, harvest figures would likely go down, particularly in the South.

That’s not to say future migrations won’t be affected by a warming earth. A report by Ducks Unlimited paints a grim future for both nesting and wintering habitat. Scott Yaich, DU Director of Conservation Operations, says we are already seeing the effect of climate change, including significant marsh loss along the Louisiana coast due to sea level rise, changes to permafrost in the Arctic and loss of wetlands in the boreal forest.

“We are seeing and will likely see more weather extremes. Although it’s difficult to predict, most models suggest drier weather in the future,” he says. “If we lose nesting habitat as a result, it’s not good for the future of ducks and duck hunting.”

Yaich warns that pushing seasons later, particularly in the southern U.S. where seasons already run until the end of the federal framework, could have a detrimental effect on ducks as a whole. Wood ducks are already nesting in some states by late season, and many duck species have developed pair bonds in late January. Disrupting those pair bonds could mean fewer ducklings on the nesting grounds in the spring.