Migration Alert: Pacific Northwest Wrap Up

The weather generally hasn't been cooperative for waterfowl hunters in the Pacific Northwest this season. A warm, dry fall was followed by welcome rainfall in December, but cold weather didn't arrive until recently.

WASHINGTON

"It's been tepid for sure," agrees Kyle Spragens, waterfowl section manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. "Birds haven't been pushed around at all; there's plenty of water, it's not freezing, and they're happy just sitting it out."

It has been a slow season on both sides of the Cascades, with perhaps the best localized hunting occurring in January, when a late push of mallards and teal showed up in southwest Washington.

Thousands of birds hung out all season long in large rafts on Puget Sound's northern reaches, and hunters working tidal zones seemed better off than those waiting in inland blinds around agricultural fields.

In the east, even waterfowl guides "had to grind it out," reports Matt Wilson, waterfowl specialist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Wilson recalls hunters finding birds across the warmer-than-usual landscape, but like those in Puget Sound, "they didn't move much or hunters couldn't get on them."

OREGON

Brandon Reishus of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife uses hunter statistics from state wildlife areas as a barometer, and according to the data, he says "nobody has had a great season."

Sauvie Island near Portland, the state's most popular duck-hunting venue, recorded its lowest overall harvest in a couple of decades. Reishus says areas in eastern Oregon recorded numbers that were "close to average, but still not great."

He believes "a warm north played into some of it. It allowed more ducks to linger in British Columbia."

Kelly Warren, DU's biologist for western Oregon, believes wet weather in California may have pulled birds from the northwest. The upside, he says, is hunters who remained tethered to coastal blinds, where birds stuck around, did well.

IDAHO

Jeff Knetter, upland game and migratory bird coordinator for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, reports much the same for his state.

"It's been really slow," he observes. "There's been lots of open water until just recently. There hasn't been enough snow to cover food either, so it's been spotty."

Hunters haven't seen as many birds along the Snake River, likely because of the warm weather and lack of snow. On the upside, Knetter does observe "pretty good numbers of geese around," with especially large numbers of snow geese for this time of year.