Habitat conditions bode well for waterfowl Click here to return to Waterfowl Outfitters Unlimited

By SHANNON TOMPKINS
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Nov. 1, 2007

Water makes or breaks things for Texas waterfowl hunters.

Not enough of it — not enough of the wetland habitat it helps create — and the millions of ducks and hundreds of thousands of geese that settle for the winter at this terminus of the Central Flyway are crowded into relatively small patches of available habitat.

This is great for the folks who have access to those concentrations. But it's tough on those without it. Just ask duck hunters in East Texas who suffered through a hideous season this past year when a drought left the region bone dry and nearly duckless.

Too much water, and all those birds have so many places to settle that it can be hard for hunters to pin down a consistently productive spot. Pressure the birds too hard — hunt a good spot one too many times — and they simply relocate to a less hassled wetland.

But the abundance of wetlands in a wet year is great for the birds, and spreads the wealth around for Texas waterfowlers.

This second scenario appears to be the one facing Texas waterfowlers here on the cusp of Saturday's opening of duck and goose seasons in most of the state.

An extremely wet year has left most of Texas awash in good waterfowl habitat.

"East Texas looks as good as I've seen it in years," Kevin Kraai, assistant waterfowl program leader for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said of the timbered eastern third of the state. "The reservoirs are full, or almost full after being down several feet last year. We caught a lot of water in the river bottoms.

"There has been some really good (aquatic vegetation) production out there — smartweed, millet barnyard grass," he said "So I'm expecting a lot better season this year."

The same applies along the Texas coast where coastal marshes and prairies are the heart of the state's waterfowl wintering habitat and waterfowl hunting activity.

Consistent rains through much of the year have kept saltwater out of the marshes and triggered good growth of wigeongrass, najas and other aquatic and moist-soil vegetation that provide crucial duck forage.

Wet conditions also have helped provide lots of shallow-water wetlands on the coastal prairies. The result has been an abundance of habitat for ducks arriving over the past few weeks.

Coastal marshes between Galveston Bay and Corpus Christi also are in excellent condition and beginning to see building populations of wintering waterfowl.

Good numbers of teal (bluewing and greenwing) and shovelers along with scattered numbers of wigeon and gadwall are holding in the marsh at the Justin Hurst Wildlife Management Area near Freeport, reported area staffer David Hailey.

Bays on the middle coast already are seeing redheads and pintails. And those numbers should build with each new cold front.

Duck population surveys on northern nesting grounds estimate this year's breeding population was up about 14 percent from this past year and is 24 percent above the 1955-2006 average.

Goose populations are also strong. Snow goose numbers were near record highs this past winter. And despite what most observers are saying was a poor hatch this year, expect perhaps a half-million snows and Ross geese to make it to the Texas coast.

Only a handful of the white geese had made it to the coastal prairie by earlier this week. And the main migration probably won't hit for another week or two — maybe longer if warm weather continues holding up the flyway.

But good numbers of white-fronted geese — specklebellies — have arrived on the coast and should help make Saturday's opener worthwhile for goose hunters.

Overall, things look very good for the approaching waterfowl seasons. But there is a caveat, particularly for duck hunters.

Unlike a year ago, when the coast held almost all the waterfowl habitat (and all the waterfowl) in the state, a duck crossing the Red River into Texas can just about pick any spot to settle.

Stock tanks and ponds from the Rolling Plains to South Texas are full of water and duck groceries, Kraai said. Expect a lot of ducks that would have gravitated to traditional wintering areas to spread out over the state.

"You're probably going to see a lot of ducks wintering in areas that were dry this past year," Kraai said. And a lot of those places are in parts of the state that don't see much hunting pressure.

Texas is certain to see a lot of ducks wintering in the state. But they could be spread over a much larger area than they were a year ago, thanks to the bounty of habitat.

"It's a blessing and a curse," Dave Morrison, waterfowl program leader for TPWD, said of the much expanded habitat base. "Everybody will get a piece of the pie. But it'll just be cut into smaller pieces."