Hunt Lake Manitoba Narrows

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“Apparently drunk as a lord on the wine of the north wind and the mysterious call of the season, bluebills may come in from all sides, at all levels, now skimming over the surface of the water, now swooping down from above. Stand up suddenly in your blind and you’re likely to get your cap knocked off — if not your head.” — Jimmy Robinson
Arkansas has its mallards, with their florid feathering and graceful aerobatics — poetry on wings. But the north country, particularly that part of the north that is blessed with large lakes, is the province of bluebills, or scaup. These birds arrow southward from the subarctic at autumn’s last call, an eyelash ahead of winter and freeze-up. No waterfowlers appreciate these black darts — these “rockets of the north,” as the late Jimmy Robinson described them — more than Minnesotans. Charlie Hays of Princeton is one. “Bluebills are just a wonder to watch and to hunt,” Hays said. “Anyone who loves ducks can’t help but love bluebills. To see a flock of 25 or 30 turn for your decoys with their wings set can scare the hell out of you.”

Hays’ duck camp — bluebill camp — is on Lake of the Woods, near the Northwest Angle. It’s there that, on the first Saturday of October, he will hunker in a plain wooden blind on a nondescript island and … shoot one bird.

“That’s the rule we hunt by at our camp,” Hays said. “Opening day, you get one bird. The thrill is in seeing them, watching them.”

These days, bluebills — scaup (they come in greater and lesser varieties) — are in the news. And not in an encouraging way.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has imposed a one-bluebill limit on Mississippi Flyway hunters for 40 days of the coming 60-day season, with two ‘bills allowed the remaining 20 days.

The reason: Bluebill numbers have declined significantly the past two decades

Minnesota waterfowlers hollered “foul” louder and more often following the service’s action than anyone else, and the state’s Department of Natural Resources has appealed the reduced limit.

Forty-five days of two birds daily, with one bluebill allowed the remaining 15 days, would be fairer to hunters, the agency believes, and no less protective of the bird.

What’s more, argues DNR waterfowl specialist Steve Cordts, a two-bluebill daily limit would keep most Minnesota duck hunters from running afoul of the law by mistaking bluebills for similar-looking ring-necked ducks — whose limit this fall will be six daily.

• • •

However the impasse is resolved, the fracas that has followed the USFWS bluebill-limit reduction has underscored anew how much Minnesota waterfowlers love this bird.

Such affection might be beyond the understanding of waterfowlers in Tennessee, Iowa, Missouri or even Arkansas.

How, they wonder, can a small black and white bird with a reputation (in the South) for tasting “fishy” entice so many duck hunters?

The answer blows in the cold winds that jump-start the bluebill’s late migration and the wintry weather that washes these birds southward.

In mid- to late October, lakes and rivers near The Pas, Manitoba, about 400 miles north of Winnipeg, will freeze, driving vast rafts of bluebills into the air, where they will circle in great waves, gaining altitude.

Lake Manitoba awaits to the south, a vast inland ocean, and just beyond, Delta Marsh.

It is on Delta Marsh that bluebills will seek food and refuge. It is there also so often over so many years that Robinson and guests at his Sports Afield duck camp hunkered in phragmites on frigid mornings, awaiting these rockets of the north.

Nourishing themselves a final time, the ‘bills will soon take to the air once more, vectoring now for Lake of the Woods — where Hays and scores of other Minnesota waterfowlers have awaited them for generations.

Days — perhaps weeks — later, the birds will continue southward to Lake Winnibigoshish, Leech Lake, a smattering of lakes near Ashby, some waters near Willmar, then, too, farther south onto and over the Mississippi River.

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Take opening morning of the early special Canada goose season last week, down on the upper Maumee River. Vaughn Hoblet and Tom Rumpf, both of rural Perrysburg, had situated themselves exactly in the right blinds hard by the riverbank. They had their limits of geese before 9 a.m. The rest of us – Ron Stieben, the property owner and host, Ron Gniewkowski, of Genoa, Jeff Palicki, of Toledo, and me – chose to take up posts slightly inland nearer a soybean field that the geese have been grazing to death. We took one bird – that is, Palicki did – by 10 a.m. Growing heat put an end to flying flocks and put an early end to a hunt in which 100 yards made all the difference. On balance, the lemon-colored dawn, dew-coated spiderwebs backlit in the rising rays and the ringside seat to the show – scores of geese and ducks trading upriver and down – made it worth getting up early. The goose-getting efforts of a rural Sandusky County neighbor evenings last week followed a similar pattern. One evening all he could do was watch as the flocks passed a mile south of his wheat stubble. The Sunday evening just before sunset, the birds dumped into his decoys and he was ready. His shotgun said so, three times.Scott Butterworth, wildlife management supervisor for Ohio Wildlife District 2, said action for geese and doves during the first week was spotty, especially for geese. “It was so darn hot,” he noted, applying the remarks to both hunters and the birds.

With doves, Butterworth said, usually such places as the state’s managed fields at various wildlife areas produce very well on opening day. Results this year were very uneven. Don Schooner, of Weston, who annually grooms two parcels for doves, estimates hunting success for his crew – led by Bruno Hankins, of Pemberville – is down so far this season by 30 to 40 percent. He said plenty of doves were about last week, but they seemed to be much more scattered than prior years, possibly because of the presence of more wheatfields. Many of those fields were tilled post-harvest much earlier than usual and the early tillage, Schooner added, could keep birds less concentrated. From here on out, the usual march of cold fronts are likely to move out local doves, but the same fronts may bring down more northern birds, Schooner said. Saturday’s early special teal season opener was somewhat slow at the state’s Magee Marsh in Ottawa County and Killdeer Plains in Wyandot County, Butterworth said. But the state’s Pickerel Creek area and adjacent Sandusky Bay seemed to have a lot of teal around, the supervisor added. The early goose season ends Monday, but teal season continues until Sept. 21. Dove season continues until Oct. 22, with a late split from Dec. 9 through 26. The other main season in play is squirrel and Butterworth said lots of them are to be found but not so with squirrel hunters. So the odds on bushytails are good. • Discounted antlerless deer licenses of just $3 for residents and $30 for nonresidents are being offered by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for Kent County in hopes of encouraging an increased bag there during the statewide Sept. 18-22 private land antlerless season. Kent County is the site of the first known case of chronic wasting disease among deer in Michigan, CWD having been confirmed recently in a game farm doe. The MDNR has quarantined game farms statewide as a result, among other measures, and has instituted a CWD surveillance zone in nine northern Kent County townships. Hunters in the townships will be required to have their deer sampled at a check station for CWD testing. For any deer that may test positive, the hunter will be given a replacement permit and the MDNR will keep the carcass. For other details on the early hunt visit online at michigan.gov/dnr. • The inaugural “Cars for Critters” benefit car show is set for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 21 at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, 14000 West State Rt. 2, Oak Harbor. Friday is the deadline for advance registration. Proceeds from the show will benefit Back to the Wild, a nonprofit private wildlife rehabilitation center at Castalia. Mona Rutger, head of the center, will have live eagles, hawks, owls and other native wildlife on display, and some of the car classes in the show will be set up for cars with animal names. For example, a 1969 Ford Mustang may compete against a 1962 Chevrolet Impala in the “best mammal” class. Classes for all types of cars are planned, with trophy plaques awarded accordingly. For details and registration, call Eddy Pausch, assistant refuge manager, at 419-89…, extension 31. • The deadlines for ordering fish fingerlings of several species for stocking ponds is coming up within the week in Ottawa and Lucas counties. The Ottawa Soil and Water District deadline is Friday for bluegill, channel catfish, largemouth bass, redear sunfish and white amur, or grass carp. Call the district office for order details, 419-89…. The fish will be delivered Sept. 18 at the district office on Lake Street in Oak Harbor.

The Lucas Soil and Water Conservation District sale’s order deadline is Monday. The district offers the same species as Ottawa, plus yellow perch and fathead minnows. Pickup will be Sept. 21 at the district office at 130-A West Dudley St., Maumee. Call the office for order details 419-893-1966 or visit online at co.lucas.oh.us/LSWCD.

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