Saturday's duck opener is expected to be "fairly good'' — depending where in the state a waterfowler opens the season.
Persistent rains this summer should have helped duck production, waterfowl managers say, and the cold snaps that in some early autumns have prompted wood ducks and particularly teal to begin their migrations southward before the opener have been largely absent.
Duck-banding crews have seen plenty of mallards in the extreme northwest part of the state, where rains have flooded some farm fields and in other cases created sheet water where in most years there is none. Mallards are frequenting both.
Poor weather conditions for aviation on Monday and Tuesday kept DNR waterfowl specialist Steve Cordts of Bemidji and his pilot grounded. They had hoped to assess wetland conditions and duck numbers just before the opener.
"We hope to get up [today]," Cordts said Tuesday. "Depending on the weather."
As is typical in September most years, migrant ring-necked ducks have not yet shown up in good numbers in northern Minnesota, Cordts said. Ringnecks that nested in that area of the state and their offspring will be primary targets for waterfowlers on Saturday, however.
Meanwhile, most, but not all, wildlife managers in the southern half of the state report that opening-day hunters should find smatterings, if not more, of teal and wood ducks over their decoys. Example: Ducks are reasonably abundant in the Lac qui Parle area, Cordts said, adding that he had no reports from Heron Lake.
The famed Lake Christina, near Ashby, appears to be another matter. A revitalization of the lake by the DNR, Ducks Unlimited and others in recent years has shown considerable promise, with aquatic vegetation and ducks — canvasbacks and redheads in particular — returning to the lake.