Any way you cook it, six-tenths of a duck makes thin soup.
This sad synopsis of hunter success along Colorado’s South Platte River where it flows northeast of Denver also projects poorly for continued interest among a dwindling waterfowl population, as well as lagging recruitment of young hunters.
Think about it. A success ratio of six-tenths of one duck per hunter per trip. As in point six. As in, even after you’ve made three trips, with all the expense of gasoline, decoys, dogs and maybe even big money for an expensive lease, you still don’t have two ducks to cover the bottom of a pan.
“That’s not enough to keep hunters coming out or to bring their sons and daughters,” said Brad Coors, a member of the Colorado Wildlife Commission.
Coors broached the matter Thursday at a meeting of the commission in Gunnison with an eye toward devising a plan to attract more ducks to the river.
“I’d like to explore the idea of hunting alternate days to avoid driving birds off the river,” said Coors, who isn’t a duck hunter. “My interest is in supporting those who do hunt and the habitat for wildlife.”
The matter of alternate-day hunting comes sharply into focus as ducks grow increasingly scarce along the immediate river corridor. Trouble is, this suggestion might offer little or no relief from the problem.
That’s the opinion of Todd Sanders, the Division of Wildlife waterfowl biologist who for the past two years has conducted history’s most extensive survey of the lower Platte.
Flying the river from Greeley to the Nebraska border roughly every two weeks from late September into January, Sanders and his associates have developed extensive data on where and when ducks congregate.
The crux of the finding is they rest for a great majority of the season on the dozen or so large reservoirs along the corridor, where they are rarely accessible to hunters. The exception is during periods of severe wind and cold when reservoirs freeze solid, a rare event during recent balmy winters.
Sanders’ scrutiny contains a second revelation that flutters in the face of commonly held notions about hunting pressure.
“There are only four places on the river a mile or more in length that receive no pressure. We found no more ducks than any other place and these are closed year round.
“My experience is that places where there are refuges or a minimal amount of hunting make very little difference in duck numbers.”
From this, the biologist draws an inevitable conclusion – “This leads me to believe that a day or even a week of closure would be ineffective.”
The only true test, Sanders believes, would be to close large segments, say 5 miles or more, for extended periods.
“I’d love to do the experiment, but it would be a difficult sell (to hunters) and my expectation is that it wouldn’t make a difference,” he said.
“We know when birds use the river, which is when everything gets cold. When that happens, they go all over the river, not just the closed areas. We have state wildlife areas that get lots of pressure and these get tremendous numbers of birds when it gets cold.”
Sanders rejects another popular notion, that hunting pressure is pushing birds to Nebraska.
“We’re on different flight paths,” he said.
As a follow-up to the aerial survey, DOW has commissioned a ground survey that involves placing radio collars on 120 mallards for each of the next two years to determine how birds react to disturbance.
Researchers will gauge the response to blank shotgun discharges against non-shooting disturbances and control groups that aren’t bothered at all. The notion is to determine when rousted birds return, if at all.
Sanders makes plain he welcomes Wildlife Commission discussions on how to better manage resources and serve waterfowl hunters. But he doesn’t expect a solution to come easy.
It certainly won’t be duck soup.
Charlie Meyers can be reached at 303-954-1609 or cmeyers@denverpost.com.
