Fri Oct 10, 2014 8:45 am
Timely spring and summer rains throughout North Dakota's Prairie Pothole Region aided breeding efforts for mallards, northern pintails, blue-winged teal, and other ducks. Since then, cool temperatures have sent some of those local birds packing for warmer climes, but new birds from the north have helped keep the action hot for hunters during the first weeks of the season.
Duck season opened for resident hunters in late September, and Joe Fladeland has since spent several days in the Devils Lake area enjoying successful field hunting. "We received some late rains this summer that have delayed the harvest, but those fields that are out are providing some great action for both ducks and geese," he says. "The pea fields have been especially good, and you can't keep the ducks out of them. The lack of cover in those fields makes it difficult to hide, but if you take a little extra time it can be done. And it's worth it."
Fladeland, a pro-staffer for Avery Outdoors, says that leading up to opening day the wetlands in the Devils Lake area were holding a wide variety of ducks, but chilly overnight temperatures ushered out many of the birds, primarily bluewings and pintails.
"But there's no doubt that we've already picked up new birds from Canada," Fladeland adds. "Last week in particular we watched some sizeable flocks of migrating mallards move into the area."
Fladeland says that having ducks from the Canadian breeding grounds arrive in North Dakota by the first week of October has been the exception rather than the rule in recent seasons. He notes that there have been other peculiarities in the first weeks of the 2014 hunting season as well. "The biggest surprise has been the number of sandhill cranes and swans that have already moved into the state, which is just very unusual," he says. "I've seen snow geese and some lesser Canadas too. And I shot a drake mallard on opening day that was fully colored and had two curls. That's a first for me in all my years of hunting."
Eric Lindstrom, government affairs representative at Ducks Unlimited's Great Plains office in Bismarck, has noticed the same patterns in the central part of the state. "I was surprised to shoot a greenhead on opening day that was all dressed out and looking like a bird you'd see later in October, but I also shot a banded drake mallard this fall that was obviously a duck hatched this summer," he says. "We had good water in places early in the spring, then North Dakota received those rains throughout the summer, and I think we're seeing the results of such an extended nesting season."