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Some of my travels over the past week have taken me past wetlands and small lakes, the kinds of places where you would expect to see ducks. They're an object of growing interest, now that we're past Labor Day and beginning to see the thermal ups and downs that tell us that fall - and the hunting seasons - is not so far away.

I saw squadrons of bluewing teal, flying in their erratic, dipping and diving formations; the Navy Blue Angels precision fliers of the duck world, you might say. Bluewings are among the earliest of duck migrants, and can provide some of the most challenging shooting. To eyes that are more attuned to the size of mallards, teal - which are much smaller - may seem more distant than they really are, an optical illusion that can result in lots of duck hunter misses. In many years, bluewings are a big part of the opening weekend and early season harvest.[[In-content Ad]]

"Not so far away" is overstating the case, because waterfowl hunting has actually already begun, for those who take part in the early Canada goose season, which opened on September 3rd and Youth Waterfowl Day, on September 10th.

This event has been an annual source of controversy. It was created to allow adults to introduce youngsters to duck hunting in a less competitive, more controlled environment than a typical opening day. Critics, on the other hand, make the point that the hype and enthusiasm - the "theater," if you will - of opening day is a big part of what duck hunting is all about. And, they contend, duck shooting a week or two before the general season opens can pressure early migrating ducks - like teal and wood ducks - to leave Minnesota waters prematurely.

This year the objections have been even more vocal, because Youth Waterfowl Day is earlier than it has ever been. Many are convinced that September 10th is too early for a quality duck hunting experience. Duck identification is difficult until birds are more fully fledged, and even a week or two can make a difference. Another objection is that ducks from late hatches by re-nesting hens, may be barely capable of flight this early in September.

Promoting this event is the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, which is doing all it can to stop the loss of the state's duck hunters, whose numbers have dropped by about one-third over the last decade. Besides the earliest ever Youth Waterfowl Day, the general season opener is September 24th, a departure from the Saturday nearest October 1st, and earlier than I can ever remember. The DNR lobbied the Legislature this year to change Minnesota law to allow the early start. Their hope is that even the earliest migrating ducks will still be within our borders when the season opens.

Also, shooting will begin a half hour before sunrise, not at 9 a.m. - as has long been the case. Before the 9 a.m. opening hour, for many years the first day's shooting began at noon. The objective was to give the ducks a chance to get acclimated to a much more risk-filled world, and acquire some wariness. The hours of dawn and dusk are their times of greatest vulnerability. The later start, and full daylight, also allowed hunters to refresh their identification skills after many months of not having to make an identification before pulling the trigger.

Also changed this year, the bag limit for hen mallards and for wood ducks has been liberalized. In short, just about everything possible is being done to help Minnesota hunters harvest more ducks. This is in marked contrast to a very conservative harvest philosophy over most of my duck hunting years.

Maybe liberalizing duck hunting rules and encouraging maximum harvest is acceptable, now that the state has one-third fewer hunters. Maybe this will encourage ex-duck hunters to return to the sport, or new hunters to "take the plunge" and give it a try. Fewer duck hunters means fewer dollars with which the DNR can try to improve the generally mediocre hunting of recent years. It's a "catch 22" situation that few would have predicted not very long ago.

Rule changes that make it possible to harvest more of the available ducks won't create even one more acre of good waterfowl habitat, one of the root causes of the current lean times. But, these are desperate times for the Minnesota DNR, and "desperate times demand desperate measures," so the saying goes. Time will tell whether this "hail Mary" strategy is good for the state's ducks, and for its duck hunters.

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