Here are the numbers duck and goose hunters can’t live without.
Know what to expect when seasons open this month.
By Bill Buckley, Field Editor
We
waterfowlers, it’s safe to say, spend more time preparing
for an upcoming season than any other group of hunters. Before
all you hardcore whitetail hunters get your hackles up, here’s
why: We have more stuff—dozens upon dozens of stacked
decoys, lanyards choked with calls, decoy bags, blinds, shotshells,
guns ... . And it all needs upkeep, organizing or tuning from
one year to the next.
Waterfowling is a numbers game, and one set of numbers we
absolutely can’t live without is the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service’s (USFWS) annual spring waterfowl count and fall-flight
estimates for all our favorite species. It’s always good to
go into a season with your eyes wide open.
We also like to see how we did last season, which states harvested
more mallards and where we might go for this year’s vacation.
When it comes to statistical analysis, duck hunters give even
baseball fans a run for their money.
So here’s the good and bad news about the upcoming season.
If after reading the following you still want further numbers
and details, log on to flyways.us. This USFWS website is a
wealth of information on duck reports, banding and hunting
regulations.