With waterfowl season now under way, Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) Officials and several area waterfowl hunting experts share their thoughts on the season outlook.

Joel Dunbar, a lifelong waterfowl hunter and current Missouri State Champion Duck Caller has been practicing every moment possible with his custom made Rich-N-Tone Call in preparation for the World Calling Competitions in November, but he’s ready to take some time off to head afield to test his calling abilities against the real thing.

Dunbar is optimistic about the upcoming season. “As we all know, the counts are up this year and we have plenty of water including a lot of sheet water in the fields. Moist soil on managed areas also seems to be good.”

Dunbar is watching closely as farmers scramble to bring in the harvest while wet conditions continue to put a damper on their progress. “This could be the only negative this season.” We should be able to hold good numbers of ducks this year provided we don’t have an early freeze with snow accumulation.” he said.

Rusty Burnam, another veteran Missouri waterfowler and Avery Outdoors Pro-Staffer just returned from a duck hunting trip in North Dakota with fellow Pro-Staff members and also has high expectations for the upcoming season.

“With duck numbers up across the board and plentiful food sources available throughout the area, it should be a fantastic season for area hunters!” Burnam said.

Spring rains required several areas of crops to be re-planted and with very mild temperatures throughout the growing season, moisture content has remained very high which will force a later harvest in some areas.

Like Dunbar, Burnam is concerned with this complication, especially in the early season, but feels the abundance of food in the area will still be a major factor in holding ducks and geese. Burnam felt the extra food sources will give area hunters more opportunity to get the most out their seasons.

“Also, as the season progresses and the traditional shallow-water hunting areas begin to freeze, I believe hunters that are willing to put in their time on the road scouting will be highly rewarded for their efforts.” Burnam said.

“All in all, good habitat and an abundance of food should make for a bountiful season and could quite possibly provide a few new stories to be swapped around “Duck Camp” for seasons to come.”

MDC officials seem to concur with Dunbar and Burnam. According to The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) estimates, North America’s total breeding duck population is up 13 percent from last year to around 42 million.

As mallards are the species most sought after by hunters. This year’s estimate of mallard breeding numbers is 8.5 million, 10 percent more than last year and 13 percent above the long-term average (LTA).

Also seeing significant increase were pintails, green-winged teal, shovelers, scaups, and canvasbacks. No single species of duck showed any signs of decreases in breeding populations.

Resource Scientist Dave Graber, a waterfowl biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation, said geese that nest in Canada did not have as good a year for nesting as ducks did. However, he noted that Missouri’s resident population remains strong, offering good prospects for hunting this year.

The abundance of ducks and nesting habitat mean lots of ducks will be heading south through Missouri. MDC officials noted that many of these ducks will be young birds that have not learned to be cautious when approaching decoys.

Even with plenty of ducks and habitat, a third variable – weather – can cut short an otherwise promising season and make for challenging hunting conditions.

Graber said the ideal hunting season would start with the arrival of a cold front just before the season opened. “A cold front at this time of year will bring peak numbers of early-season migrants, such as green-winged teal, gadwall, wigeon and the first mallards,” he said.

“We already have more ducks in Missouri than our previous five-year average due to the unusually cool October.” Then you would want that weather to stay cool with periodic cool fronts and rain moving through to keep pushing new ducks into Missouri and keep them moving around.

“Late in the season, I personally like to see the temperature drop into the 20s in December, so wetland areas freeze up during the night and then thaw out during the day. This keeps the birds off-balance, moving around. Once the cold weather arrives, shallow-water areas freeze up, and the river and reservoir hunters have a better crack at them.”

Worst-case scenarios, he said, are when lots of calm, warm, overcast days make hunting difficult. Similarly, severe cold weather early in the season can cause ducks to move on south before hunters have much opportunity to pursue them.

For more information on Missouri’s waterfowl hunting opportunities including season dates and limits and a wide array of other information including a mallard migration status map which is updated every 10 days, log onto www.mdc.mo.gov/hunt and click on the tab marked waterfowl.

Sports correspondent Jeff Leonard can be reached npsports@npgco.com