Ducks Unlimited: Recent Rainfall Offers Hope For Improved Central Valley Waterfowl Habitat

Ducks Unlimited released its migration report for its regions throughout North America. Some good news for California waterfowl hunters came when analyzing some of California’s most critical waterfowl migration areas in Northern California, helped tremendously by a recent and continuing surge of rain (and snow). Here’s more from the DU report:

Hallelujah! Rain fell twice in California’s Central Valley over the past nine days, creating optimism that winter storms will soon return at normal frequency. The rice country in the Sacramento Valley is still dry on the west side due to the extended three-year drought, while the east side offers half-flooded ponds and sporadic duck hunting.

White-fronted geese are piling into the region between Lambertville and Princeton, with hunters setting up in fallowed fields and pass-shooting. On private clubs in Butte Basin the better blinds are giving up wigeon, pintails, gadwalls and shovelers, but few mallards. If you’ve got water, you’ve got birds, no doubt.

Sacramento, Colusa, and Delevan National Wildlife Refuges (NWR) will open November 19, at last, with federal lands finally reaching the 50-percent flooded threshold required to allow some hunting. Sutter NWR will not open in the foreseeable future, if at all. Nearby state wildlife areas did open on October 22, with Gray Lodge offering amazing shoots.