spectr17
11-05-2003, 01:38 AM
November 02, 2003
Duck hunters flock to frigid forecast
By Charlie Meyers, Denver Post Outdoor Editor
So just how fast can a duck fly with a wind in its tail feathers?
The question may be of particular significance to hunters crouched in frosty blinds for this opening weekend of eastern Colorado's second duck season.
An answer, if there truly can be one, involves all sorts of nuances in duck behavior as well as how the current cold front plays through a broad expanse of prairie country to the north.
This much is known: Genuine thermometer-rattling cold hit the northern tier of the central United States last week, freezing casual water favored by dabbling ducks and presumably filling the air with wing beats headed south.
"Our season essentially is over," said Jim Ringelman, senior director of planning and conservation for the Ducks Unlimited office in Bismarck, N.D. "I got frozen out of my mallard spot. The birds should be coming your way."
The temperature stood at 20 degrees in Bismarck at mid-afternoon Thursday. Ringelman said the forecast called for a weekend low of 10 and that the freeze line extended well down through South Dakota.
A similar Thursday report from the Three Rivers area of southwest Montana listed 18 degrees and snow with a strong wind - just the sort of widespread cold designed to send large numbers of ducks speeding toward Colorado's primary hunting zones along the South Platte and Arkansas rivers.
The only variables appear to be how many and how soon. Based on this reconnaissance, hunters hunkered in riverside blinds may find yellowleg mallards literally pouring into the decoys directly from the north country.
Following several years of uncommonly warm weather with delayed migrations, Colorado waterfowlers have ample reason to be skeptical of such a delightful development. After all, there's many a slip between the places where ducks stage along the Canadian border and the wetlands of eastern Colorado.
Jim Gammonley, the Division of Wildlife biologist who watches over waterfowl matters, has seen too many recent short-circuits to dive deeply into the pool of optimism.
"I expect a lot of movement, but I don't know if the ducks will come all the way down," Gammonley hedged.
If northern birds don't make the long haul, the biologist said, the storm at least should prod the considerable numbers of local birds hanging out in Montana
and Wyoming.
Most waterfowl that migrate through eastern Colorado come from those states, along with the Canadian provinces of Alberta and western Saskatchewan. Gammonley knows from banding results that some also drift southwestward from the Dakotas and northern Nebraska, but the quantity generally depends upon the direction of storms.
Eastern Colorado hunters also can count on a fair number of ducks vacating high mountain valleys such as North Park for a short hop over the mountains.
"North Park birds got a lot of pressure from hunters during the first split. Coupled with the weather, this gives them a lot of incentive to move," Gammonley said.
That first segment of the Central Flyway season that ended last weekend generally got passing grades from participants who found more ducks than usual in the usual haunts around the South Platte. The bag included a high percentage of such early migrating species as teal, which hung around the state to bask in the uncommonly warm October weather.
Hopes for this second split that runs through Nov. 30 got an added boost from Ringelman, a veteran of many seasons both in Colorado and the Dakotas.
"This is looking a lot more like a normal winter," he said, noting that his local forecast predicts a couple more minor snowstorms moving in over the next few days.
That's music to Gammonley's ears.
"If we get a few cold fronts coming through, we can test our theory that this will be a good season," he said. "We know a lot of ducks were produced to the north of us this year."
Surveys by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service indicate an increase in nesting success for virtually every duck species, including mallards so highly prized by hunters. Colorado enthusiasts just hope this bumper new crop of birds developed a rapid wing beat.
Duck hunters flock to frigid forecast
By Charlie Meyers, Denver Post Outdoor Editor
So just how fast can a duck fly with a wind in its tail feathers?
The question may be of particular significance to hunters crouched in frosty blinds for this opening weekend of eastern Colorado's second duck season.
An answer, if there truly can be one, involves all sorts of nuances in duck behavior as well as how the current cold front plays through a broad expanse of prairie country to the north.
This much is known: Genuine thermometer-rattling cold hit the northern tier of the central United States last week, freezing casual water favored by dabbling ducks and presumably filling the air with wing beats headed south.
"Our season essentially is over," said Jim Ringelman, senior director of planning and conservation for the Ducks Unlimited office in Bismarck, N.D. "I got frozen out of my mallard spot. The birds should be coming your way."
The temperature stood at 20 degrees in Bismarck at mid-afternoon Thursday. Ringelman said the forecast called for a weekend low of 10 and that the freeze line extended well down through South Dakota.
A similar Thursday report from the Three Rivers area of southwest Montana listed 18 degrees and snow with a strong wind - just the sort of widespread cold designed to send large numbers of ducks speeding toward Colorado's primary hunting zones along the South Platte and Arkansas rivers.
The only variables appear to be how many and how soon. Based on this reconnaissance, hunters hunkered in riverside blinds may find yellowleg mallards literally pouring into the decoys directly from the north country.
Following several years of uncommonly warm weather with delayed migrations, Colorado waterfowlers have ample reason to be skeptical of such a delightful development. After all, there's many a slip between the places where ducks stage along the Canadian border and the wetlands of eastern Colorado.
Jim Gammonley, the Division of Wildlife biologist who watches over waterfowl matters, has seen too many recent short-circuits to dive deeply into the pool of optimism.
"I expect a lot of movement, but I don't know if the ducks will come all the way down," Gammonley hedged.
If northern birds don't make the long haul, the biologist said, the storm at least should prod the considerable numbers of local birds hanging out in Montana
and Wyoming.
Most waterfowl that migrate through eastern Colorado come from those states, along with the Canadian provinces of Alberta and western Saskatchewan. Gammonley knows from banding results that some also drift southwestward from the Dakotas and northern Nebraska, but the quantity generally depends upon the direction of storms.
Eastern Colorado hunters also can count on a fair number of ducks vacating high mountain valleys such as North Park for a short hop over the mountains.
"North Park birds got a lot of pressure from hunters during the first split. Coupled with the weather, this gives them a lot of incentive to move," Gammonley said.
That first segment of the Central Flyway season that ended last weekend generally got passing grades from participants who found more ducks than usual in the usual haunts around the South Platte. The bag included a high percentage of such early migrating species as teal, which hung around the state to bask in the uncommonly warm October weather.
Hopes for this second split that runs through Nov. 30 got an added boost from Ringelman, a veteran of many seasons both in Colorado and the Dakotas.
"This is looking a lot more like a normal winter," he said, noting that his local forecast predicts a couple more minor snowstorms moving in over the next few days.
That's music to Gammonley's ears.
"If we get a few cold fronts coming through, we can test our theory that this will be a good season," he said. "We know a lot of ducks were produced to the north of us this year."
Surveys by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service indicate an increase in nesting success for virtually every duck species, including mallards so highly prized by hunters. Colorado enthusiasts just hope this bumper new crop of birds developed a rapid wing beat.