With duck season fast approaching, now is the time to be preparing boats and blinds. Duck hunters, ever the optimists, go into every season thinking this will finally be the year... Morning after morning of whistling wings over the blind and greenheads cupped over the decoy spread.
The tantalizing tease is that duck numbers are off the charts. Estimates by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) are that overall duck numbers are up 7 percent from last year—and last year was a record! Mallards are up 15 percent from last year and 40 percent above the long-term average. For the first time since 1999, mallard populations have exceeded 10 million. Gadwall are up 10 percent from last year and 96 percent above the long-term average. Think about that, half-again as many mallards and twice as many easy-to-decoy gadwall headed south this winter.
Every year, the Alabama Hunting and Fishing Regulations Digest warns waterfowl hunters the published seasons and bag limits for waterfowl are subject to change pending federal guidelines. This year...
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) 2011 Waterfowl Population Status report shows potential for good duck and goose seasons this year. Also, local biologists are seeing good things from...
Veteran waterfowlers might scoff at the idea of hunting pen-raised birds, but for a group of 22 kids between the ages of 7 and 15 who had never sat in a duck blind before, the Conecuh River Ranch in...
There looks to be a good crop of local ducks, and the dry, warm weather to the north of us should make for a late push of migrating birds — all of which should help to shape this season into a...
