Migration Alert: Strong Early Duck and Goose Numbers Have California Hunters Optimistic for Opener

For the first autumn in many years, habitat conditions are good in most of California’s important waterfowl wintering and migration areas. This is excellent news for the highly anticipated migration of ducks, geese, swans, and associated species that are dependent on the state’s wetland habitats.

Water is plentiful and food production is high in the Grassland Ecological Area of western Merced County. The 240,000-acre complex is the largest contiguous wetland in the western United States, and ducks began to arrive there in early August, specifically northern pintails, green-winged teal, and shovelers.

“I’d anticipate a good opener on Oct. 26, with hunters seeing a real mix of ducks,” habitat consultant Bob Nardi reports. “Water is the key element that has allowed for summer irrigation of seasonal wetlands to promote moist-soil plants. Ponds began to fill in early September to await the fall migration. Bird numbers are solid and building.”

As a bonus, local mallard production is better than in 2023. Sean Allen, manager of the Los Banos Wildlife Area, says that locally reared birds, mostly mallards, cinnamon teal, and gadwalls, are up. His public areas are fully flooded, offering excellent habitat due to the availability of well-timed water.

“The migration comes early to locations such as Volta Wildlife Area and continues to build,” Allen says. “Bellwether species such as lesser sandhill cranes are already showing up in large groups, a good sign that birds are coming from the northern prairies.”

Among the ducks, Allen and Nardi agree that northern shovelers have arrived en masse. Shovelers are the second most numerous duck harvested in the Grasslands, next to green-winged teal. Northern pintails, which have a daily limit of one, will be very evident in hunters’ bags, especially in the early going.

Allen says the best prospects on public lands include Volta Wildlife Area and Salt Slough in the riparian areas, with ample northern pintails and green-winged teal. “The full allotment of water improved the wetlands habitat,” he says.

The Grasslands area of California comprises approximately 67 percent private land and 33 percent state and federal land in the heart of the Central Valley. With the abundance and quality of the wetlands here, it is not surprising that Merced County annually puts more ducks on hunters’ straps than any other county in the entire US.

In the rice country north of Sacramento, more than 400,000 acres (about half the area of Yosemite National Park), give or take, is under agricultural production, and the harvest is currently well underway. In fact, many of the harvested fields have already been flooded to decompose the rice straw and offer excellent habitat for ducks and geese. Given that 5 to 6 million ducks are expected to migrate into the Central Valley, and that 90 percent of the historic wetlands have vanished, the habitat provided by winter-flooded rice fields is an absolute linch pin for waterfowl survival.

At the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex, 90 minutes north of Sacramento, habitat conditions were excellent going into the spring and fall because of a full water allocation. “At this point we are well into our flood-up, which we will stagger up through mid-November,” says Michael D’Errico, supervisory biologist at the complex.

D’Errico adds that there are more white-fronted geese on the west side of the valley this year. “Of course, northern pintails are a phenomenal show,” he says. “One thing that stands out is a big push of wigeon, more than we normally see this early in fall. Overall, our bird numbers are right where we should be, based on historical data. In fact, we are a bit higher than average.”

The Suisun Marsh complex, just east of San Francisco Bay, is the largest estuary in the state. It is currently fully flooded and attracting a larger than normal number of birds, reports field scout Yancey Forest-Knowles. “Things look very positive for the opener, no doubt,” he says. “Especially for wigeon, northern pintails, shovelers, and green-winged teal.”

The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta has limited early habitat because of late corn and rice harvest, but islands that have managed wetlands and riparian areas are loaded with ducks, primarily local birds such as mallards and wood ducks.

In the Klamath Basin, part of the Southern Oregon/Northeast California region known as SONEC, conditions are dry due to chronic water shortages. At Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), where the season was supposed to open on October 5 to coincide with the Oregon waterfowl opener, there is no public hunting due to low water and a severe outbreak of avian botulism that has killed more than 100,000 birds. To put that death count into perspective, it represents about nine percent of all the ducks taken by hunters in California.

Hunting is allowed in some portions of neighboring Tule Lake NWR, but low hunter success reflects the paucity of birds in the basin.

A bright spot is Modoc NWR, which is typically among the finest hunting areas in the state. Hunters at Modoc averaged 6.4 birds on opening day. Spokesman Mike Hinton reports that the typical bag was composed of mallards, wigeon, gadwalls, and green-winged teal.

Modoc is open Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, with no fees nor reservations required.

“We average about 60 hunters a day early on, dropping to about 40 hunters by mid-October and less than 20 by early November,” Hinton says. “By then the weather freezes and most birds move out, except for Canada geese.”