By DAVID RAINER

It is indeed a tale of two situations when it comes to the duck season forecast. It is the best of times in terms of duck production. It is the worst of times in terms of duck habitat conditions in the Southeast, which has been wilted by a multi-year drought.

“Duck numbers are up again this year,” said David Hayden, waterfowl specialist with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division. “The total numbers are up about 14 percent above last year, which is up 24 percent from the long-term average.

“Production was up in the North, Midwest and Canada. They started the year off with good breeding and nesting conditions and most areas had rain through the spring, so conditions were very good in most of the areas. Overall things went very good this year.”

The abundance of water led to impressive breeding numbers with a survey estimate of 41.2 million birds for the 10 most common duck species, a 14-percent increase. Numbers for redheads, canvasbacks and shovelers reached record highs, while the benchmark for duck counts – the mallards – increased 14 percent to 8.3 million, which is 11 percent above the long-term average.

Gadwalls, blue-winged teal and green-winged teal also had impressive gains, while wigeon numbers soared 29 percent. The only two species that didn’t show a significant jump were scaup and pintail, which had numbers similar to last year.

Despite those impressive duck numbers, Alabama may not see any benefit because of the drought that has severely limited the waterfowl habitat. Recent rains will have a minimal impact on the overall drought situation.

“Most of the state is extremely dry,” Hayden said. “Most of the people with managed water should be in decent shape. Most of the ones (who manage water) I’m familiar with either pump water from ground wells or reservoirs and others catch water from runoff. Of course, those who catch runoff will have to hope it rains. Those who pump, because of the dry conditions, will have to pump a lot more than usual. And if it’s coming out of a reservoir instead of groundwater, there are restrictions in place.

“It appears there is plenty of waterfowl, but they’re going to be on your big water and deep water. Until we get some rain to fill up the backwaters and sloughs it’s going to be hard on hunters. It’s tough to do anything with birds that are out on the big water.”

The Tennessee River Valley is one of the areas that has suffered through the severe drought and it has already affected the habitat at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, according to Refuge Manager Dwight Cooley.

“We’ve already had a significant reduction in crop production,” Cooley said. “We normally produce 125 bushels of corn per acre. This year we’ll be lucky to average 50 bushels per acre. Local farmers farm refuge land and for rent they leave a portion of the crop for the waterfowl.

“Unless we get some significant rain, it’s going to be a moot point about the corn. If we don’t have water, we can’t attract the waterfowl. We normally flood that corn with early winter rainfall, but water levels are so low it’s going to take significant rainfall to flood any of the corn.”

Cooley said birds may show up during their migration south, but if the drought continues they won’t hang around long.

“With very little food, they may hit here and stay a couple of days and move on. The thing is we need some cold and ice up north for the birds to get this far down, which means we haven’t had many birds the last few years.”

On the south end of the state, the Mobile-Tensaw Delta complex will have water to hunt, but the birds might not make it that far south without cold weather.

“And most of the reservoirs in the middle of the state and north are at or near record low levels,” Hayden said. “I’ve had people tell me that they’ve got beaver ponds they’ve never seen dry and they’re dry this year.

“Until we get some rain, it’s going to be a tough year. Hunters are going to have to do a lot more looking to find some places with some ducks. They can hunt them some, but if the birds get much pressure, they’re going to move to bigger water and go farther south. Of course, mallards are just as likely to go north, but Tennessee is as dry as or drier than we are. Unless we get some water, cold weather, snow cover and ice north of us, I’m afraid it’s going to be a tough year for waterfowl hunters.”

Alabama will again have split seasons for ducks, coots and mergansers. The first split is Nov. 23-24 and the second will be Dec. 1 through Jan. 27.

Because of the high duck numbers, the bag limits remain at liberal levels of six ducks per day and may include no more than four mallards (no more than two of which may be female), two wood ducks, three mottled ducks, one black duck, two redheads, one pintail, two canvasbacks (an increase of one from last year) and two scaup. The possession limit is twice the daily bag limit.

For mergansers, the daily limit is five, only two of which may be hooded mergansers. The coot limit is 15 per day, 30 in possession.

The goose bag limit of five shall not include more than two Canada geese or two white-fronted geese (speckle bellies). The possession limit of five shall include no more than four Canada geese and white-fronted geese in aggregate. No Canada geese may be harvested in the Southern James Bay Population (SJBP) Zone prior to December 9.

The goose season for Canada geese in that portion of Limestone County south of U.S. Hwy. 72; that portion of Morgan County east of U.S. 31, north of State Hwy. 36, and west of U.S. 231; and that portion of Madison County south of Swancott Road and west of Triana Road is Dec. 9 through Jan. 27.

For other geese in the SJBP Zone and remainder of the state the season is Dec. 1 through Jan. 27.

Legal shooting hours for waterfowl is one-half hour before sunrise to sunset for most of the state. The Mobile-Tensaw Delta has special shooting hours as follows: In the area north of Battleship Parkway, west of Alabama Highway 225, south of CSX Railroad tracks, and east of the west bank of the Mobile River – Monday through Thursday shooting hours will be one-half hour before sunrise until 12:00 noon; and Friday through Sunday shooting hours will be one-half hour before sunrise until sunset.

PHOTO: Although mallard numbers are up 14 percent over last year, a multi-year drought in the Southeast will likely limit the number of waterfowl harvested.