Treasure Valley Times

A changing climate hits ducks, and duck hunters, too

Warmer northern temperatures allow the migratory birds to stay closer to home

Dyersburg, Tennessee – It’s a half hour to sunrise and go-time for the half-dozen duck hunters anxious to lure mallards to their floating blind sitting low in an oxbow of the Forked Deer River.  

Four hours later, they’re still waiting. 

There were, to be sure, a couple of times in between when the men jumped to their feet, pointed skyward, grabbed duck calls, and fingered shotguns in anticipation of downward spiraling mallards, gadwalls, wigeons and pintails. To no avail. 

Blame it on the too-dry December weather -- or climate change                . A slew of factors, including the farming of different crops, are causing duck harvest numbers to plummet along the southern reaches of the Mississippi Flyway. But the telltale signs of an increasingly angry Mother Nature -- warmer temperatures, droughts, wacky precipitation patterns – abound. 

Ducks aren’t the only hunted critters experiencing the impacts of a warming world. Less snow means elk stay longer, and higher, in the mountains browsing on plants and grasses while delaying migration to prime hunting grounds. More heat, droughts, and floods harm trout and salmon habitat while opening the door to more adaptable invasive fish that squeeze out the native species. Deer and moose succumb to blood-sucking ticks that don’t die when the temperatures don’t stay cold enough long enough. 

Duck hunting is a near-religion in the South. The bayous of Louisiana, the wetlands of North Carolina, the rice fields of Arkansas, the flooded timberlands of Tennessee – all entice hunters to get out of bed at 3 a.m., drive two hours to a cold, wet blind, and pray that the pinkening sky will fill with waterfowl. Stuttgart, Arkansas, after all, is known as the “duck capital of the world.” Two of the nation’s four migratory flyways funnel dabblers and divers into the deepest South, from Louisiana to Florida. 

The southern skies, though, are less crowded these days. 

“I am surprised by the lack of wood ducks this morning,” said Heath Hagy, a waterfowl ecologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as the first two hours of hunting pass without a shot at the Tigrett Wildlife Management Area. “Usually, they come early. It’s disappointing.” 

Original source can be found here.