Michigan hunters who put in a little extra effort can find good shooting for wood ducks. Photo by www.gnatoutdoors.com.

There's a silver lining in every cloud. While Michigan waterfowlers and biologists have been lamenting the low water conditions across the Great Lakes the last decade, there were some positives about having less water.

Lower water levels allowed vegetation to grow and habitat conditions to improve drastically. Cattails and other native plants have flourished with the lower water levels, and as a result have created habitat where there once was none or there hasn't been any for years. Marshes rejuvenated, recharged and expanded, and now that water levels are on the increase, duck numbers have responded -- especially mallards. Michigan waterfowlers enjoyed a good season in 2006, and early indications are that this year should be even better.

"Early indications from the spring waterfowl survey are encouraging," said Rose Lake Wildlife Research Station research biologist Dave Luukkonen. "Mallards showed an increase this spring to 293,000 birds, up from 208,000 in 2006. The last time we had similar numbers was back in 2003. Typically, spring mallard populations track water levels and lag behind by a year. Mallard numbers are now at the level we would expect, given the current water conditions. The last time we had good water conditions was in 1998, and we saw a large increase in mallard numbers then, too."

Most of the increase in mallard numbers was observed in southern Michigan where the majority of our state's mallards nest. During a typical year, more than 50 percent of the mallards killed by our state's hunters are ducks from the Great Lakes Region -- Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and southern Ontario.

However, Luukkonen cautioned that the increase in mallard numbers may not be as substantial as one may think.

"Last year's survey was very late," he said. "The leaves were already out in the Upper Peninsula, so that might have accounted somewhat for the lower numbers."

Figures would indicate that there were more mallards around in 2006 than the spring count suggested. Federal harvest estimates indicate that Michigan hunters killed more than 135,000 mallards of the 284,000 ducks harvested in Michigan. Wood ducks were the second-most common in the bag at 32,000, and green-winged teal were third.

In this year's spring survey, wood ducks were up slightly in the southern Lower Peninsula, down in the northern Lower Peninsula and up in the U.P. Luukkonen cautioned that trends or estimates are very hard to predict with wood ducks. Wood ducks often inhabit small out-of-the-way ponds, so they can be difficult to spot and count. Because of this, biologists use what is called a "visibility correction factor" to account for birds they can't see and to provide more accurate counts of waterfowl abundance.

One oddity in the spring survey this year was a large population estimate for ring-necked ducks, which numbered more than 107,000 for the entire state. Researchers try to conduct the surveys just before leaf-out when the visibility is best, and after migratory birds have moved through. Apparently, there were quite a few ringnecks that hadn't made their way north yet. This year, the survey took place in mid- to late April in the southern Lower Peninsula and in early May in the U.P.

Overall, Michigan waterfowlers enjoyed better hunting in 2006 than in previous years. "I heard it was a very good season in 2006, particularly on the managed areas," Luukkonen said.

The marshes and managed areas around Saginaw Bay are popular with waterfowlers from Bay City, Saginaw, Midland, Flint and venues across the state. After several sub-par years in a row, waterfowlers on Saginaw Bay enjoyed good hunting in 2006. More than 25 percent of the waterfowl harvest and hunting effort takes place at the managed waterfowl areas.

"All of the managed areas reported duck harvests higher than the last two years and above the five-year average," stated wildlife biologist Barb Avers, who works out of the St. Charles field office. "Mallards again dominated the harvest. At Nayanquing Point, mallard harvest was back up over 2,000 for the first time since 2002. Both Shiawassee and Fish Point reported higher refuge counts throughout the season as compared to the last few years."

Low water levels continue to hamper operations at the managed areas, according to Avers. "The very low Lake Huron water levels again hindered pumping activities on Saginaw Bay," Avers said. "Fish Point and Nayanquing Point didn't have some fields flooded until the third week of the season due to pumping problems."

The 2,477-acre Fish Point Wildlife Area is located three miles northwest of Unionville and is very popular with hunters. The habitat there consists of marshlands and flooded croplands that attract thousands of waterfowl in the fall. In recent years, weather extremes have limited crop production and cover at the managed areas.