The Wet Dog Days of Summer

After suffering through a significant drought over the past couple months, August has been suprisingly wet for Missouri. The rains have resuscitated brown lawns back to their spring lushness and have begun to swell the area creeks and rivers that were previously mired in stagnation. As I write this a huge storm front is moving across Missouri's mid-section that will hopefully send a few showers this way as well. So much rain has fallen in August that many people who were falling just shy of performing rain dances on their crisp pastures are now beginning to wonder if we're ever going to get a day or two to dry out. This is not the perspective of the Missouri waterfowler. It really can't get too wet or rain too much for our taste. For us and the ducks & geese, rain = habitat. By the grace of God we always have the ducks, there are well over 30 million ducks on the North American continent in most years, and 50% of those migrate through the Mississippi River flyway. However, it takes abundant habitat to attract and keep those 15+ million ducks contented enough to put the brakes on their southern migration and stay a spell. When the water stays between the banks, Missouri still has good to great waterfowling; it's when we get enough fall precipitation to send the water up over the banks & levees and out into the fields and forests that Missouri becomes more than just a fly-over state but rather a major staging area for all waterfowl.

Despite our recent good fortune, most of Missouri is still reeling from the mid-summer drought. The USDA has just announced today that all but 2 of Missouri's 114 counties are agriculture disaster areas. In addition, the majority of the state's reservoirs and wetland areas are either merely at a tolerable and manageable level or significantly dry. With underproducing crops, low water levels, and the fast approaching waterfowl season (teal season is 2 weeks away), the anticipation for a lackluster season is in the backs of every Missouri waterfowler's mind. We were spoiled last year with rainwater that backed up and flooded green timber and crop fields all over the state, and the thought of having to hunt while desperately trying to find adequate cover along sun-cracked banks is less than appealing.

However, we waterfowl hunters are a hopeful bunch, even when it flies in the face of common sense. With a great deal of luck, perhaps the sweet summer rains we have enjoyed over the last few weeks aren't just flukes and are actually a harbinger for an extremely wet fall.

Until next time.