All that water in small wetlands has drawn many ducks west. For example, Minnesota teal numbers were high in the 1980s when the Dakotas were dry. Now Minnesota numbers have fallen while the population has skyrocketed in the Dakotas' nutrient-rich prairie potholes. The second big factor has been weather during the hunting season. The past three falls have been unusually warm, especially last year.
Local ducks tend to drift out of the state, pushed by minor cold snaps and hunting pressure.
But northern ducks loafed in Canada and the Dakotas well into November, long after most Minnesota hunters had given up. There were reports of tens of thousands of bluebills rafting on Devils Lake in North Dakota in mid-November last year. That's unusual because bluebills historically migrate through Minnesota at least two to three weeks earlier. Looking for solutions Despite some logical reasons for Minnesota's duck drought, Lawrence and others aren't simply shrugging their shoulders. McGinty noted that more than 700,000 waterfowl were reported at one time last fall on the Mississippi River near La Crosse, Wis., where they remained for weeks.