Last summer duck hunters from coast to coast received the news they had been praying for: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported a big flight would be on the way. The prairie breeding grounds were bursting with broods. North Dakota had a record number of breeding pairs, South Dakota was in good shape as well and prairie Canada had broken its drought. Another “liberal” hunting season framework was assured which meant the maximum number of days for the season and the highest daily bag limits as provided for by the service.

Some 60 days after the news that a big year was at hand the first reports of hunters came in from the field. The most northern duck seasons in prairie Canada had opened but there was nothing grand at hand. Reports from Peace River, the Saskatchewan Delta, the Quill Lakes and moving south through the pothole country on over to the Inter Lake and Delta Marsh were mixed to disappointing. Then the North Dakota and Minnesota season took their turns and the results again were not up to expectations. In fact, when the first flight should have been heavy with mallards on an early hard freeze over the Columbus Day weekend, it was not. The first big push of the year was notable for the paucity of mallards across the prime northern tier marshes.

In Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Missouri, Colorado, California, Oregon, Ontario, Ohio and on south the same story unfolded as each season opened and matured. The hype of a fall flight equal to the best of any in the past three decades brought disappointment instead of ducks. By Thanksgiving, after the high duck-harvest states of North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa had closed their seasons, the word was widespread that the mallard flight was far below average. Yet, there were places, most notably northeastern South Dakota, where duck hunters and biologists reported huge concentrations of ducks. Millions of mallards were being reported in just a few counties in South Dakota as tens of thousands of acres of corn remained flooded and unharvested. It was described as the biggest staging area on the North American continent. A freak of nature had sucked all the mid-continents mallards to one place, or so it seemed.

Yet, when the hammer of winter hit in early December with blizzards and below zero temperatures, and then made an encore performance the first week of January, with the coldest temperatures across much of duck country in 25 years, hunters saw nothing exceptional over their decoys. There was no “short-stopping” this duck season. The ducks had to come south.

Mother Nature also threw a curve at the wintering grounds of California, and the Deep South. Record amounts of rain pummeled these regions sending rivers out of their banks providing untold acreage of flooded habitat that surely scattered the flight. From Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico there was no question flood waters and flooded fields dispersed ducks over a wide area. The same can be said for the fabled gunning grounds of the Pacific flyway. Remember the mudslides of Southern California?

However, flooding and duck dispersal is not a novelty, only this year it was more severe. And when the thermometer dropped to 20 degrees as it did as far south as New Orleans, much of that flood water turns hard which should concentrate the ducks in the remaining open areas. But flooding alone cannot explain the lack of ducks, especially mallards on a continental basis. It cannot explain the aerial surveys taken each week of the fall along the migration routes by state agencies that consistently showed far below average numbers of mallards. Flooding in the South in December and January cannot explain a lack of staging ducks in North Dakota in October or low duck counts along the Mississippi River in November. It cannot explain the despair of Wisconsin duck hunters.

So, what happened to the great flight? Duck hunters want to know and likely the USFWS does not have the answer. The breeding-ground surveys the USFWS relies on to count ducks and establish seasons when entered into computers spilled out a projection that proved mythical. This was evident in mid-September in northern and prairie Canada, and it was evident in January thousands of miles away in Arkansas, Louisiana and California. Maybe they flew to Mexico.

It would be my guess that when the USFWS releases its “harvest” summary for the 2009-10 season it will show the fewest number of ducks killed since the liberal season framework was established in 1995. This would be understandable if the expectation had been for a below average flight. It was not, and when expectations are elevated and not met in the duck world there is much grumbling and finger pointing. Yes, there are always places that did well and if you are one of them you might wonder what I am talking about, but most hunters were not so fortunate.

There is, though, a silver lining to the past year. It is this: can we stop talking about northern states shortstopping the ducks? It did not happen! Every duck with a pulse or at least worth having over your decoys winged south this winter. The mythical millions that “stay up North” only did so if they were in a plastic bag in a freezer, and there were not as many of them either.