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Commentary: Waterfowlers can anticipate liberal season

July 11, 2009, 9:50PM

HENRY A. KOSHOLLEK AP

Spring surveys of northern nesting areas indicate a jump in mid-continent duck numbers. Mallards, such as this one, saw a 10 percent population increase from 2008.

Texas waterfowlers this autumn will almost certainly see a continuation of the liberal duck seasons they've enjoyed for more than a decade, thanks to a moderate increase in mid-continent duck population and a considerable jump in wetland numbers on the birds' major nesting areas.

“Just looking at the numbers, I'd say we'll be in the liberal (regulations) package,” said Vernon Bevill, director of small game and habitat programs for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and a longtime participant in the annual process of determining hunting regulations for migratory birds.

Official federal guidelines for the 2009-10 duck and goose hunting seasons will come later this month, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's regulations committee meets July 28-29.

Based on results of May and June surveys in the major duck nesting areas of the north-central United States and prairie Canada, waterfowl managers expect federal officials to offer states liberal hunting regulations.

That would mean a 74-day duck season for most of Texas and the rest of the Central Flyway, and a bag limit of up to six ducks per day.

Populations booming

Results from the recently released aerial survey of northern nesting grounds, conducted each May and June since 1955, peg the breeding population index of the 10 most common ducks at 42 million birds. That's up 13 percent from the 2008 index and 25 percent above the long-term (1955-2008) average.

Estimated populations of eight of the 10 major duck species are up, considerably in some cases, from a year ago.

Estimated populations of seven of the 10 duck species are at or above North American Waterfowl Management Plan targets. Only three species — wigeon, pintail and scaup — were below population goals.

The 2008 gadwall population index is 73 percent above the 1955-2008 average.

This spring population index of green-winged teal, one of the most commonly taken ducks among Texas waterfowlers, is 3.44 million birds. That's 79 percent above the long-term average and the highest population index in the survey's history.

Bluewing teal, estimated at 7.4 million, are 60 percent above the long-term average.

The number of shovelers is nearly twice the long-term average, while “spoonies” are 92 percent higher than the 1955-2008 average.

Redheads, whose estimated population of 1 million this spring is almost exactly what it was a year ago, are more than 60 percent above the long-term.

Even duck species that have been struggling for decades saw increases this spring. Pintail are up a surprising 23 percent, but the ducks, which have suffered as increasing portions of their narrow breeding and nesting habitat have been lost to expanding agriculture, remain 20 percent below the long-term average.

Habitat concerns

Continuing loss of crucial grassland nesting cover on the northern prairies remains a concern, particularly with accelerating removal of millions of acres of land from the federal Conservation Reserve Program — which paid landowners to leave marginal farmland in native cover — but a wet winter and spring in much of the nesting region was a positive.

The spring “pond count” survey of the north-central U.S. and prairie and parkland Canada indicated the number of wetlands is up a whopping 45 percent from 2008 — about 6.4 million “ponds” this spring compared with 4.4 million a year ago.

Most encouraging for Texas waterfowlers, wetland numbers in regions hatching large numbers of ducks that migrate to Texas are way up. Pond counts in the eastern Dakotas are up 117 percent over this past year. Wetlands in southern Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba are up 12 and 37 percent, respectively.

While the overall duck population and habitat conditions point toward a liberal season length, questions remain about what bag limit Texas duck hunters will see for the 2009-10 season.

It's almost certain, Bevill said, that the five-per-day Hunter's Choice bag limit, which had been experimentally used in Texas and a handful of other Central Flyway states for the past three seasons, will not be offered this season.

Instead, the entire flyway probably will be under the standard six-per-day limit, but species restrictions or other limitations are uncertain.

It's a cinch the six-duck limit will allow Texas hunters to take as many as three wood ducks per day, up from the two-woodie maximum that has been in effect in the state for decades.

At issue is whether federal restrictions will be imposed on harvest of pintails, canvasbacks, mottled ducks and scaup. It's possible that frameworks could impose season-within-a-season rules on all or any of those species, allowing hunters to take those birds during only 39 days of the 74-day season.

Mottled ducks in question

Federal waterfowl managers have increasingly pushed to lower harvest of mottled ducks, a species endemic only to the Gulf Coast and facing increasing shrinkage of habitat.

“Mottled ducks are very hard to survey,” Bevill said.

Current estimates of mottled duck populations in the species' main range — coastal Louisiana and Texas — vary widely.

Researchers are working to develop a reliable, coastwide survey to gauge mottled duck populations. Meanwhile, federal managers, concerned that the long-term surveys of mottled ducks on wildlife refuges show a steadily declining population, are pushing for further harvest reductions.

For years, Texas has allowed no more than one mottled duck in the bag, often with season-within-a-season restrictions or as part of a one-bird aggregate bag with other duck species managers wanting to protect with reduced harvest.

Louisiana has long allowed as many as three mottled ducks in the daily bag.

Expect managers to press, or mandate in the upcoming federal guidelines, further mottled duck restrictions for both Texas and Louisiana.

shannon.tompkins@chron.com