After one of the driest Augusts on record, the lack of rain is expected to translate into a challenging weekend ahead for Iowa hunters as duck season starts Saturday. Guy Zenner, a waterfowl biologist with the Iowa D-N-R, says many hunters will find their favorite marshes dried up — and if there’s no water, there’ll be no ducks. Zenner says northern Iowa, along with much of the rest of the state, hasn’t had a significant rainfall in eight weeks leaving most of the seasonal wetlands and all of the temporary wetlands dry. Zenner says the dry conditions will make it hard for duck hunters to find any targets — and in the areas where there is water, hunters will have a lot of company and competition. He says the conditions will crowd both the ducks and the duck hunters onto the few areas that do have water, making it more difficult for the hunters. Zenner says the lack of small lakes, ponds and other wetlands will be stressful for the ducks, too, and may force the feathered creatures into bypassing much of the Hawkeye State. Zenner says “The ducks…aren’t going to have a place that they can go sit down and relax for a few minutes once the season opens up so they may have a tendency to keep moving south once the shooting starts.”
