Some Thoughts Regarding Birdwatching During Duck Hunting Season.

If you’re like me, an avid birder who truly enjoys nature photography and birding year-round, you most likely have ventured out to a public wildlife refuge somewhere across the United States, either intentionally or not, during waterfowl hunting season to do a little birdwatching.

I have, in fact, done just that numerous times over the past several decades, visiting both nearby state and federal sanctuaries here in northern Utah to find and photograph a bird or two on popular birding properties such as the famous Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge auto tour route which, surprising to some people, gets hunted a lot during October through freeze-up in December for ducks, geese, pheasants, and, yes, even tundra swans.

And from those countless birdwatching trips during this time of year, I’ve come away with a couple of observations I will share to help shed some light on the matter to those of you who are a little hesitant to go birding during hunting season.

This is in no way a jab against hunting; that’s not the intent here at all by any means.

There are, however, some effects that hunting has on birding, so I wanted to help shed some light from my own personal experience on the matter for anyone thinking about going birdwatching during the duck hunt.

Trust me, I fully understand someone’s hesitation to go birdwatching during an active hunting season as I actually have slowed down my own birding excursions to publicly hunted lands this time of year but, however, I don’t completely stop going because, honestly, at the end of the day, I love to watch and photograph birds so I make a few adjustments to my usual routine that I’ll share with you below.

The first thing I want to mention is about the notion of seeing birds actually being shot while on a birding trip, a very real expectation and a possibility while birdwatching during duck hunting season, I must admit.

Without question, this is the number one reason fellow birders mention to me about why they stay away from publicly hunted areas this time of year and I fully agree it is a real concern, seeing such a scene is quite disheartening for many people but, from my own experience that is, I personally have witnessed very, very few birds actually being shot over the course of many years birdwatching during the duck hunt.

Reason being, most duck hunters spend a lot of time and effort to distance themselves from both other hunters and high traffic areas like the Bear River Bird Refuge auto loop, for example, to find a secluded area for themselves.

That’s not to say an occasional hunter won’t stop at the required distance from the auto loop, 100 yards, and set up there, I’ve seen that on a few trips I will admit but it doesn’t happen as often as one might think because hunters want their space regarding distractions and infringements from other people and vehicles that might affect their hunting success so, as a result, most of them are willing to traverse themselves to a location far out in the marsh vegetation.

Of the concerns I hear about birding during hunting season, for me, at least, that is the lesser of the concerns because I have seen it happen so few times over the years that I can’t remember the last time I actually saw a bird being harvested during hunting season on a birdwatching trip.

The bigger concern I personally see affecting my birding experience is the vast increase in vehicle use on accessible roadways and both foot and boat traffic in the wetlands in these publicly huntable areas, like around the refuge auto loop, as one example.

This increased vehicle traffic, as well as an albeit temporary hunter-only accessibility of wetland areas closed to humans the rest of the year, does eventually push a lot of birds away from these publicly viewed areas, thus lessening a birdwatcher’s chance to see and photograph many of the birds found on the refuge this time of year.

I counter this by not going birding to a publicly hunted refuge during peak hunting times, with weekends and holidays being at the top of that list.

It is actually quite uncommon for me to go birding on a weekend anyways during any time of the year because, quite frankly, that is when most refuges see an influx of all types of visitors, but I almost never go birdwatching on a weekend during hunting season because there are just too many interferences, both from vehicles on the roadways and foot/boat traffic in the marsh, that I concede the day and go elsewhere or just stay home and enjoy the birds in my own backyard.

When I do go birding during hunting season, the time of day I usually spend on a public refuge definitely changes during this time of year in an effort to help lessen the effects of a much higher usage on these areas during fall and early winter.

Normally, I am the first person on a bird refuge in the morning, as the best time of day to go birdwatching is just after sunrise for a few hours, but during hunting season I spend my time birding around midday, the time of day the vast majority of duck hunters have left.

Simply put, the majority of duck hunters spend just the early morning and late afternoon hours hunting, both from working around their employment schedules and adhering to the time-honored notion that ducks are more active during these times, especially on a clear, windless day, so I find far fewer hunters during the midday hours.

I also steer clear of public refuges during hunting season when the weather is sour, meaning a cloudy, rainy, and windy kind of day, one that almost every duck hunter dreams of and a type of weather that usually brings a great increase in hunting usage for the day.

All in all, I have admittedly slowed down my birdwatching efforts on publicly hunted lands during the fall once the hunts have started but I don’t stop going altogether, mind you, I love birding and nature photography far too much to completely pack it in for several months so when the birding urge hits this time of year, and it most certainly will, I just go during the middle of the week around the middle of the day when the weather is calm and sunny and just enjoy what nature has to offer this time of year.

If you’re not totally comfortable with the idea of birding during a hunt, that is perfectly fine, too; I fully understand, as I have greatly reduced my birding excursions during the hunts until a deep winter freeze grabs hold of the refuge for what is quickly becoming my favorite time of the year on the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge auto tour route but that’s another story for another day.

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