Hunters will be searching the sky for ducks when the Colorado season begins Oct. 30. But Division of Wildlife managers may be taking an even harder look at the calendar.
A change in eastern Colorado rules that dramatically alters the time frame of the hunt brings hunter success under a microscope that ultimately will determine whether the agency continues the experiment.
If this test that splits the Central Flyway portion of the state into two distinct management units pans out, it will be hailed for helping to reverse a downward trend in hunter satisfaction.
But unless weather patterns change, the result may be much the same. Revolutionary new season format, same uncooperative flock of birds.
As every webfoot warrior is aware, success depends largely on bird location and storm patterns. If you’ve hunted waterfowl in Colorado lately, you know that neither is exactly a sure thing.
Wings and weather to the contrary, the big news this season will be dramatic changes in the duck hunt design, at least during the early going.
In an effort to match season with availability, Colorado’s wildlife managers opted to divide the Central Flyway into two zones, each segmented into two time periods. The traditional three-way split is history – or at least as long as the new system proves out.
The newly formed Mountain/Foothills area, generally east of the Continental Divide and west of Interstate 25, features a front-loaded Sept. 30-Nov. 26 split to allow maximum opportunity on birds that typically are locally grown. Particularly in the high mountain valleys such as North Park, South Park and the San Luis Valley, these birds tend to leave at the first sign of freeze-up.
This zone then will remain quiet for nearly a month, ending with a segment Dec. 22-Jan. 28.
The Eastern Plains zone, featuring the traditional areas along the South Platte and Arkansas rivers, will emphasize late-arriving flight ducks. A short first split, Sept. 30-Oct. 8, will allow two weekends to target local birds primarily on small lakes and ponds. Nearly three months of uninterrupted hunting, Nov. 3-Jan. 28, will allow maximum opportunity for migrating mallards.
The Division of Wildlife considers the arrangement an experiment. If things don’t work out, we always can try something else.
In the Pacific Flyway, a more conventional season will be Sept. 30-Oct. 15 and Nov. 1-Jan. 28. Both sides of the Divide again will offer a liberal bag limit almost identical to a year ago. Improved breeding conditions on the northern prairie yielded an overall increase in duck numbers, including an 8 percent gain in mallards.
The Sept. 30 opener allows hunters an element of surprise with the added advantage of natural vegetation for cover, a factor of mobility soon lost with the coming of hard frost.
It also features a greater chance at skittering teal. Blue-winged teal numbers are up 28 percent, green-winged 20 percent.
Eastern Colorado duck enthusiasts hope for a change in mild weather patterns that allow birds to find refuge on large reservoirs away from the rivers, sloughs and ponds where they become accessible.
Division of Wildlife biologists last season counted agreeable numbers of ducks along the South Platte River corridor, but few on the river itself. The result was an abysmal success rate of just six-tenths of a duck per hunter per day.
In marked contrast to the duck dilemma, goose hunters can expect another season of success enhanced by an increase in opportunity at the very beginning.
The early Sept. 30-Oct. 8 northern Front Range season to target an overpopulation of resident geese that often are a nuisance to golf courses and parks now features a greatly expanded area in which these birds may be pursued.
This territory now includes all of Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Douglas, Jefferson, Clear Creek and Denver counties. These same early dates also apply to North Park, South Park and the San Luis Valley.
