Wildfowl for this fall are flourishing during this dry summer

It matters not whether you plant acres of potatoes in Aroostook County or a patch of tomatoes and cucumbers in your back yard. There’s one thing you know for sure: Right now the ground is dryer than a dog biscuit. But while farm crops are thirsting for nurturing rain, nature’s crops of wildfowl are flourishing.

Perhaps you’ve had the privilege of seeing the results of this year’s practically ideal nesting season produced by mild weather and lack of precipitation. Judging from what I’ve seen and heard – reports of brood sightings, particularly partridge, woodcock and waterfowl, have been constant – I’d say the wildfowl factory is running at peak production.

Needless to say, that’s a double-barrel charge of good news for sportsmen who prefer hunting with smoothbore guns. The way things are shaping up, hunters who follow pointing dogs through alder and thornapple thickets may find less ground between birds this fall. Likewise, waterfowl hunters who shiver in blinds shared with retrievers will be pleased to know that Ducks Unlimited is predicting another banner year of waterfowl production.

In a report that has all the resonant appeal of a greeting call, Dr. Alan Wentz, DU’s group manager of conservation programs, said, “We estimate this year’s fall flight will grow from 71 million to somewhere between 80-90 million waterfowl. This is the second consecutive year of strong growth in waterfowl population.”

You may recall that because of last year’s increased production – not to mention some political poaching involving President Clinton’s Crime Bill – the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offered waterfowl hunters the option of extending hunting seasons by 10 days or increasing the daily limit of ducks from three to four. Maine duck hunters drew a bead on the 10-day extension.

Population growth is, of course, the objective of DU’s North American Waterfowl Management Plan. Signed by the United States, Canada and Mexico, the plan is aimed at restoring North America’s waterfowl population to 1970s levels – specifically, a breeding population of 62 million and a fall flight of 100 million.

Jeff Nelson, chief biologist for DU, attributed this year’s magnum production to three factors:

“First, very good water and nesting cover conditions in key points of the prairie pothole region. Second, years of habitat conservation work by public-private sector partnerships are paying off. Third, it’s the product of some 36 million acres of erodible farmland that reverted to use by wildlife under terms of the Conservation Reserve Program enacted in 1985.”

For those unfamiliar with the workings of the CRP, it compensates farmers who create nesting cover on marginal croplands for 10 years. The worth of the program can be measured by the fact that, each year, it prevents about 700 million tons of topsoil from eroding and improves water quality by reducing sedimentation and crop runoff. According to USFWS and DU studies, waterfowl nesting success tripled last year on CRP lands.

“This year,” said Nelson, “we’re going to see substantially greater numbers of mallards, blue-winged teal, green-winged teal, gadwall, canvasback and redheads. In the past two years, many of these birds were produced in the Dakotas thanks to record wet conditions in conjunction with huge tracts of CRP land.”

Here again the message is clear: Wildlife will proliferate if proper habitat and management are available.

It’s no secret that Maine’s myriad bogs, swamps, flowages and marshlands provide a motherlode of waterfowl nesting cover. And how encouraging it was this spring to hear escalated reports of black ducks, mallards, ringnecks, whistlers and wood ducks sharing those sheltered habitats with healthy broods.

Now, I don’t know about you, Sport, but come autumn I often have difficulty deciding which shotgun to shoulder, a 20-gauge double for birds or a 12-gauge pump for ducks. It’s somewhat like pondering Yogi Berra’s sage advice: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

But after reading the comment by DU’s Executive Vice President Matthew B. Connolly Jr. that “This fall’s flight will be the largest ever witnessed by many of today’s waterfowlers,” I’ll say that if it were now autumn I’d probably opt for the duck gun. For the moment, though, I’ll settle for ordering a dozen more decoys. With the Fourth of July behind us, fall isn’t that far away.

Without question, farm crops in this neck of the woods sorely need an “ol’ soaker” rain. Meanwhile, nature’s crop of wildfowl is flourishing.

Backcast: In last Thursday’s column I reported that the posted land on the western shore of Tunk Lake was owned by the Bryan family of Holden. Subsequent to the report, a family member, Carol Bryan of Perry, informed me the majority of the land – including Little Sand Cove, which was posted off limits to the public – was owned by her uncle, Jim Bryan of Syosset, Long Island, N.Y. Carol Bryan is the daughter of Bill Bryan of Holden.