16 Nebraskaland • October 2023
IN THE FIELD
By Eric Fowler
CHOOSE YOUR DUCK LIMITS
Prior to 2021, Brandon Black had never hunted ducks.
Rusty Rautenberg had, but only occasionally with family.
Darin Hahne hadn't since he was in college.
An invitation from a seasoned hunter convinced the trio,
all of whom work at Elkhorn Valley Schools in Tilden, to
get into, or back into, waterfowl hunting. Their hunt also
coincided with the creation of a two-tier duck bag limit
system, which hunters can choose a bag limit that doesn't
require them to accurately identify ducks on the wing,
making it easy for them to strike out on their own.
"That helped a ton last year just because we didn't have
to worry about identifying everything at the beginning,"
Hahne said during a hunt last fall.
Participation in waterfowl hunting declined by 52 percent
in Nebraska and South Dakota from 1999 to 2019. In
Nebraska, that amounted to 464 fewer hunters per year. The
average age of a waterfowl hunter also continued to increase.
In an effort to stabilize or grow numbers, which in turn
supports migratory birds and habitat, research identified
three main barriers to waterfowl hunting: lack of places to go,
complex regulations and difficulty identifying duck species
in flight. The latter isn't easy, especially early in the season
in Nebraska, when many birds aren't yet sporting their bright
breeding plumage.
"If you're out there a lot, you can see the difference in
flight, shape and plumage patterns and color," said John
McKinney, waterfowl program manager with the Nebraska
Game and Parks Commission. "But to a novice hunter, that's
just a brown duck coming in."
Some people simply don't want to chance shooting a duck
they shouldn't, so they don't hunt at all. That led biologists
in Nebraska and South Dakota to work with the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service to develop the two-tier system in hopes of
encouraging young hunters to try waterfowling and older
ones to return. Prior to the season, when hunters register
for the Harvest Information Program, required for anyone
Darin Hahne, Rusty Rautenberg and Brandon Black of Tilden hunt ducks on a beaver pond at Red Wing Wildlife Management
Area in Antelope County. ERIC FOWLER, NEBRASKALAND
