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Another duck hunting opener is "in the books," as the expression goes, and this one may have "stopped the bleeding," to use another. From a number of unscientific but reliable reports, this year's unconventional and controversial opener may have done just what its Minnesota DNR planners intended: make more ducks available to opening day hunters.

This year's big changes included opening the season a week earlier than normal, allowing first-day shooting one half hour before sunrise instead of at nine o'clock, and allowing a third wood duck and a second hen mallard in a hunter's daily bag.

Preliminary reports describe an abundance of blue wing teal, many of which can already be beyond Minnesota's borders in years when the season opens in early October. Lots of wood ducks were being reported, too, a duck that is also an early migrant. The abundant teal, and being able to shoot three wood ducks instead of two - which had been the limit for decades -gave hunters better odds of filling the daily bag limit of six birds.

The Minnesota DNR took a lot of heat for liberalizing the season regulations, departing from decades of more conservative harvest rules. The DNR had let it be known in no uncertain terms that this year's regulations were devised to make it possible for hunters to harvest more ducks on the opener.

Allowing shooting a half hour before sunrise, when ducks are most vulnerable to being attracted to a spread of decoys - and have not been shot at for many months, to boot - gave hunters a big advantage over a nine o'clock opening hour. Allowing the harvest of two hen mallards, a duck that for many years has been given protection to maintain breeding stocks, meant that some hunters could "shoot first and ask questions later," if they were so inclined.[[In-content Ad]]

The DNR has maintained from the very first that there is a sound biological basis for this year's more liberal rules. Part of that argument factored in the reduced number of Minnesota duck hunters. With one-third fewer duck hunters than just 10 years ago, it was reasoned that it shouldn't matter if each hunter harvests a few more - including those that had long been given special protection, like wood ducks and hen mallards.

While maintaining that sound biology was not thrown to the winds with this year's regulations, DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr was also quoted in the press as saying that - to confront declining duck hunter numbers, and an extended period of poor hunter success - "I knew we needed to do something, anything, to change this scenario."

Judging from early reports of full, and near-full, bag limits on opening weekend, the season changes this year appear to have put smiles on the faces of quite a few hunters. Whether those changes will have a negative effect on future years' duck production, or will lead to an increase in duck hunter numbers, remains to be seen.

ANOTHER CHAPTER IN DUCK STAMP STORY

One of the great traditions of duck and goose hunting, both in the nation and in Minnesota, is waterfowl stamp art. On both state and national levels, duck stamp sales provide a big part of the funding for maintaining and improving waterfowl hunting. And on every waterfowl stamp since the first federal stamp in 1934, is the image of a duck or goose.

Hunters are required to buy these stamps for the privilege of hunting ducks and geese. Besides being a passport to being able to hunt, they are often exceptional pieces of art. Although an artist whose entry is chosen for the stamp is not paid for its use, the artist retains rights to sell prints of the artwork, which can be lucrative in itself, and a "game changer" in the career of an artist. When your artwork is chosen to grace a federal or state waterfowl hunting stamp, you've hit the big leagues.

This week the Minnesota winner for the 2012 season stamp was chosen, painted by Lakeville, Minnesota, artist Stephen P. Hamrick. All artists are required to paint the same species of duck or goose, which eliminates any prejudice that a judge might have for a favorite duck or goose. This year's species, for next year's stamp, is the ruddy duck, one of the least common waterfowl that a duck hunter is likely to see.

Much like some of the waterfowl in the grebe family, ruddy ducks often prefer to dive when alarmed, rather than fly. The ruddy is short and chunky in the body, with a thick neck, and a long and distinctive fan-shaped tail. When they do fly, ruddies skim rapidly over the water in small, compact flocks, which some have compared to bumblebees!

The 2012 ruddy duck stamp design is both unusual and handsome, to which I'm sure you'll agree when you buy yours for next season. But for now, there's another duck season to be enjoyed: this one!

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