MORGAN COUNTY — Duck. And cover. Here come the ducks.
Roughly three months after Colorado duck hunters with anticipation of a record migration making its way south through the Central Flyway along the state’s eastern edge, expectations are finally being fulfilled. Although it may not formally qualify as a “record” flight, the substantial number of mallards currently loitering around Colorado’s so-called Golden Triangle for waterfowl certainly has the attention of hunters.
“Is this the most ducks you guys have ever seen?” 20-year Colorado waterfowler Terry Tolbert of Monument asked as flock upon flock of mallards made their way across the sky north of the South Platte River and west of Fort Morgan on Saturday.
“It’s definitely the most I’ve ever seen while I’ve been hunting,” said Tim Brass of Centennial.
Tolbert paused in silent contemplation. Meanwhile, the mallards kept coming.
“It might be the most I’ve ever seen, too,” he added eventually.
It should come as little surprise, considering the buildup of hopes following U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for multiple species of ducks in 2014. Total duck population estimates have hit record highs in three of the past four years, and the 2014 estimate in the traditional survey area was 49.2 million birds, an 8 percent increase from last year’s total and the largest estimate since standardized surveys began in 1955.
This season’s mallard breeding population of 10.9 million birds was just shy of the record estimate of 11.2 million birds set in 1958. That robust population and several other species measuring at or near record highs have been attributed to an abundance of water across most of the Prairie Pothole Region to our north. But it comes with a catch for mid-migration states such as Colorado.
With ample water and a mild start to the winter season in the northern plains, the vast majority of migratory ducks have taken their time moving south. Even as lesser en masse, of state lines along with the hardier, greater Canada geese until only recently. Now, with less than two weeks until the Jan. 25 duck season deadline, local hunters are finally getting their shot at the birds.
“They’re here,” said Jim Arnold, owner of . “The geese showed up by the thousands from opening day on, but the ducks didn’t come in until after Christmas. These last couple of cold fronts that slid down from the Dakotas and through Nebraska finally gave them that push into Colorado, and now there’s a million of them.”
Reports from South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks indicated mallard and Canada goose numbers plunged from more than 400,000 birds along the Missouri River in mid-December to roughly 90,000 waterfowl at the most recent aerial survey. Big winds, snow and frigid temperatures pushed the birds south quickly through Nebraska, with many taking refuge around the Jackson-Empire-Riverside reservoir triangle that has earned a reputation as Colorado’s premier waterfowl roost.
“There are some side sloughs and channels along the Platte that don’t have much ice on them, and that’s where the ducks are holding,” Arnold said. “Guys who have access to those warm-water sloughs and ponds are doing well hunting over water. But it’s tough to get access. Almost impossible.”
For the rest of us, that means field hunting, whether in pits or layout blinds.
While dark geese remain in season through Feb. 15, hunters have only two more weekends to figure out the duck equation. But with a seemingly never-ending supply of birds currently flying above Morgan County cornfields, the hunting is finally living up to the hype.
“It’s kind of slow and steady,” Brass said as the morning goose flight was accompanied by a stream, and eventual limit, of mallards. “I take that back. It’s just kind of steady. It’s pretty amazing. They just keep coming.”
Scott Willoughby: swilloughby@denverpost.com or twitter.com/swilloughby
