Best waterfowl hunting is likely still to come
A small number of Ohioans awoke Saturday morning closer to last call than to daybreak, motored in the dark to marshy destinations where they donned wading boots and set out decoys under stars in the predawn chill. Then in the silent night at their chosen space, possibly a boat, they waited for the peeking sun to rouse birdlife in the wetlands.
Waterfowl hunters in a small section of northwest Ohio around Lake Erie began hunting ducks, geese and some of their kin on Oct. 15. The season opened in the remainder of the state, including central Ohio, at one-half hour before sunrise Saturday.
Weather thus far has been nearer to summer-like than to wind-whipped and wintry, meaning ducks and geese have yet to get the real push often required to send them in flocks toward the callings of Buckeye State hunters.
Nonetheless, waterfowl hunters have time, weather fronts and oncoming cold on their side.
The goose season in the North Zone, which covers northern counties roughly from Van Wert to Columbiana except for the Lake Erie Zone, runs through Nov. 5, reruns Nov. 18-Dec. 31 and winds up Jan. 6-Feb. 10, 2018. Ducks, coots and mergansers can be hunted in the North Zone through Nov. 5 and again from Nov. 18 through Dec. 31.
In the South Zone, which comprises central Ohio including points east, south and west, geese can be hunted through Nov. 5 and again from Nov. 23 through Feb. 10, 2018. Ducks, coots and mergansers are fair game through Nov. 5 and again from Dec. 16 through Jan. 28.
The waterfowl hunting day, the start and end of which changes with date and location, begins at one-half hour before sunrise and ends at sunset.
Whether hunting North or South zones, the daily limit is six ducks further regulated by type, five mergansers and 15 coots. The daily goose limit in both zones is three in any combination of Canada, white-fronted or brant, and 10 in any combination of snow, blue or Ross’s.
While duck hunters generally take to water, goose hunters generally set up in fields.
Ubiquitous Canada geese, many of which live in Ohio year-round augmented by autumn migrants, provide the bulk of the honker hunting in the state. Whereas mallards and wood ducks typically are bagged more than others, duck hunters have a number of species from which to pick.
Surveys completed during the summer by U.S. and Canadian game biologists suggest most duck species are doing about as well as they have since North American population counts became an annual event during the 1950s.
The 2017 population of breeding ducks totaled 47.3 million, only slightly fewer than last year’s count of 48.4 million and 34 percent above the 1955-2016 long-term average.
Mallards, the most recognized and mostoften seen duck in Ohio, continue to be the most numerous species in North America with a population of about 10.5 million. That’s a decrease of about 11 percent from a year ago but remains a healthy 34 percent above the long-term average.
Blue-winged teal numbers totaled about 7.9 million, 18 percent more than a year ago and 57 percent above the long-term average. Also above average in numbers were: northern shovelers (4.4 million) at 69 percent; gadwall (4.2 million) at 111 percent; green-winged teal (3.6 million) at 70 percent; American wigeon (2.8 million) at 6 percent; redheads (1.1 million) at 55 percent; and canvasbacks (700,000) at 25 percent.
A few species showed declines from the longterm average, including: scaup (4.4 million) at 13 percent; northern pintails (2.9 million) at 27 percent; and the eastern survey of black ducks (500,000) at 12 percent.
Woodies, whose nesting habits are local, less social and more stealthy than most other ducks, aren’t counted in the national surveys.
Given the numbers, depending on which way the wind blows in the coming weeks and months, waterfowl hunters stand a chance at encountering some of the best shooting they’ve ever seen and possibly ever will. That said, the future, both in the short and long terms, is difficult to peg.