Ducks Unlimited On Struggling California Waterfowl Hunting: “November Doldrums”

Ducks Unlimited reports that as California’s waterfowl seasons have started, there aren’t great numbers of birds and hunters harvesting them. DU refers to it as the “November doldrums.” Here’s a sample of what’s gone on:

What is abundantly clear, though, are the plummeting bird-per-hunter averages up and down the Central Valley. With a “beaver moon” lighting up the night sky, it appears the ducks are moving onto seasonal wetlands to feed by night and returning to safe zones to loaf and snooze by day.

Field scout Yancey Forest-Knowles reports that the Suisun Marsh is a classic example that attracts and holds birds but is currently providing terribly slow shooting. “When we hunted in a very strong north wind on Nov. 6, wigeon and mallards flew, and we enjoyed an epic shoot,” he says. “Since then, the closed zone at Joice Island, part of the Grizzly Island Wildlife Area, is loaded with birds, but they do not move into the marsh. Occasionally, they lift up in numbers that blacken the sky and then settle back down.”

Effects of the big north wind produced three-bird or better averages at public areas such as Delevan, Sacramento, San Luis, and Kesterson National Wildlife Refuges. Mallards, universally, were the number one bird in the bag, an indicator of a good local hatch. However, following days yielded much less success, with some areas reporting as low as one-third of a duck per hunter.

Sean Allen at the Los Banos Wildlife Area Complex in the Grasslands of western Merced County—the top duck harvesting county in the entire nation—says that the average harvest on public areas was about one bird per gun, sometimes, even less.

The report also cited some more positive news, such as hunting warterfowl hunt opportunties at two Bay Area wetlands locations that look promising. But it might be.a slow start to the state’s duck and goose hunting chances.