By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Lower duck populations and more habitat to choose from means the birds are spread out more than usual. With water at Cheyenne Bottoms for the first time in three years, expectations were high for the duck season that wrapped up on Jan. 4. Bottoms Wildlife Manager Jason Wagner said the season failed to live up to those expectations.
"It wasn't quite what anyone really expected," he said. "I was disappointed, to a lot of extent, with the duck use in our hunting pools. We saw good numbers of ducks early on, in early November. They stayed in one of our refuge pools. I think what happened was that refuge pool had been dry for a couple years, and there was a lot of residual seed in there. I think the ducks found something in there they really liked."
There were days of high duck activity, but Wagner said that is just part of the hunting cycle: little hunting success means fewer hunters. Low hunting pressure means the ducks move around more. Some waited on the next big wave of ducks to move through the area, but Wagner said this year's behavior was not atypical in that regard as the ducks largely disappeared by mid to late November.
"There's not an endless supply of ducks that keep pushing, especially when you're talking about the early-season migrants we get: pintails, shovelers, green-winged teal, blue-winged teal, gadwall, wigeon, and a lot of the divers, they're an early-season migrant. That's what we get. We don't get the mallards like we used to."
Even with excellent marsh conditions and good food supplies, other locations around the state reported similarly disappointing seasons. Wagner said there could be many causes, including the mild temperatures in November and December, a decrease in duck populations nationwide, and the abundance of water around the region this season.