The mallards -- 40 or 50 of them, about half shimmering greenheads -- lifted off with a whoosh from the small ankle-deep pond surrounded by standing corn.

The ducks flushed only about 30 yards away, startling both me and my Lab.

The scene last week was in northeastern South Dakota. I had no waterfowl hunting license, and was wading through flooded corn and bean fields in search of pheasants. But during the five-day hunting trip, my companions and I quickly found the answer to the question being muttered in Minnesota duck blinds this fall: Where are all the ducks?

They were in South Dakota.

Everywhere we went we saw hundreds or thousands of them. The region was overflowing with water, and virtually every field was flooded and loaded with ducks. It was remarkable. The ducks were stuffing themselves with corn and soybeans. The irony: This was the first year in the past several that we didn't apply for waterfowl licenses.

Adding to the wildlife spectacle: Seemingly endless skeins of snow geese and sandhill cranes noisily migrated overhead.

Finding pheasants

Despite the standing crops, rainy weather and a decline in South Dakota pheasant numbers, we found ringnecks. They were in Conservation Reserve Program fields, as well as in scrubby draws and tree-lines. We did well on both public and private land. But the water in ditches and fields was unprecedented; we've hunted pheasants for 30 years and never encountered anything like it. I wore 18-inch rubber boots, and two friends wore hip boots. It wasn't unusual to hike through 6 to 8 inches of water. Cover that normally would hold birds, including nearly every cattail slough, was inundated with water.

The delayed crop harvest continues to hamper Minnesota pheasant hunters. "I'm still hearing frustration,'' said Kurt Haroldson, DNR pheasant biologist in Madelia. But he said recent good weather should boost crop harvest, which will help hunters. "I still believe we have a lot of pheasants around,'' he said. "We have potential for some good hunting -- we just have to be patient.'' Meanwhile, pheasant stamp sales are down about 10,000 -- or 10 percent -- from last year.

Duck hunting was fair to good last week, according to the DNR's weekly waterfowl report. Hunting pressure was low, though, and while some ducks moved into the state, most areas noted a significant drop in ducks. See the report at www.dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/waterfowl/index.html.

The recent slaughter and disposal of 560 captive elk at a farm near Pine Island, Minn., following the discovery in January of one elk infected with CWD, has drawn many comments from readers wondering why that elk meat couldn't have been utilized. The herd was wiped out by federal sharpshooters and tested recently, and officials found three more animals with CWD. The carcasses were disposed of. Paul Anderson, assistant director of the Minnesota Board of Animal Health, explained why the elk meat couldn't have been used for food.

"CWD has a very long incubation period, probably 11/2 years or more,'' he said. That means even some of the elk that weren't found to have CWD could well have been infected. "Chances are good others were infected,'' he said. "We don't think it [CWD] affects people, but we just wouldn't take any risks.''

Because of that infected elk herd, officials will collect samples and test for CWD up to 3,000 wild deer killed by hunters this fall in that area, beginning this weekend. About 200 college students will help DNR employees collect the lymph nodes at 26 southeast registration stations. Hunters who agree to donate a tissue sample will be eligible to win a muzzleloader donated by the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association.

• Archers killed 305 deer last weekend during the second two-day special hunt at Camp Ripley. That's a record for the second hunt. Combined with the 172 deer killed Oct 19-20, hunters bagged 477 deer, one of the top harvests ever, said Beau Liddell, DNR wildlife manager. Just over 60 percent of the deer killed were antlerless.

• Elk haven't been seen in southwestern Minnesota since probably the 1880s, but two -- both escaped farm animals -- were spotted there recently. One was seen in Blue Mounds State Park near Luverne in Rock County, the other in southern Nobles County. The concern is that farmed deer and elk that escape farms could spread disease to wild deer.

• Duck hunting has been good on the Mississippi River in southeastern Minnesota recently. Officers checked hunters who had shot limits near LaCrescent and Winona.

Doug Smith • dsmith@startribune.com