Print edition: 
RENO COUNTY — The flights began with the first shades of daylight.
Squadrons of green-winged teal buzzed in and out of the grayness, passing inches form the decoys. Shy, slender-necked pintails cautiously kept their distance as they circled and circled the spread.
Six longtime hunting buddies breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of so many ducks. Bob Snyder, our group's ring leader, said, "I really didn't know what to expect at all."
Like many serious Kansas bird hunters, we weren't expecting a lot going into Saturday's opening of the low plains late zone duck season. There hasn't been much good news for the past several months.
Pheasant populations tanked across most of the state when the drought left nesting cover non-existent and record heat led to the death of many adult birds.
That we have record numbers of ducks coming down the flyway is almost a painful tease because of the pitiful conditions of most central Kansas marshes and wetlands this fall.
Ideally, we want water and flooded duck food in abundance so migrating birds will stick around. Our best hunts on our private wetlands are when the nearby Quivira National Wildlife Refuge is brim-full and we enjoy the overflow of birds. This year the refuge has precious little water, and basically no flooded food.
As is, a little hunting pressure on very limited waters may well send the birds packing. Word has it conditions in the Dakotas and Nebraska are so ideal that many ducks will hang north until ice-up arrives.
The prospect for sour seasons this year stings a bit extra because Kansas has been on such a good roll the past five years.
Pheasant populations in many areas last season were the best in nearly 30 years. We had days when we flushed 500 or more.
Waterfowl populations on the flyway were so good and local habitat so strong the past few falls that we've went afield expecting the hunting to be from good to great.
Snyder, Russ Snyder, Ed Markel, Andy Fanter and I met Saturday morning at a marsh owned by Charlie Kimbell to again open the season together. Landen Snyder, Russ' eight-year-old son, was along to watch.
As it turns out, the opener's biggest problem was a lack of wind, leaving decoys floating lifeless on a mirrored surface and causing ducks to shy from the spread.
Fanter eventually strung a jerk cord to which he attached three decoys. With a few tugs, the decoys bobbed and their ripples made the rest of the spread dance.
Word would later come that within the past few days many species of ducks had arrived in big numbers to what little water Quivira is holding. Saturday morning, the birds were searching private waters for something to eat.
Green-winged teal made up 26 of the 36 ducks we shot on the hunt, where we had our limits of six each by 10 a.m. Other species in the mix included blue-winged teal, gadwall, widgeon, redhead, pintail and mallard ducks. A whitefront was the only goose for the day.
That would be a great hunt under any conditions, but with this season's unsettled outlook the day seemed like Christmas to a bunch of children.
Several times, Fanter and I discussed the prospects for the following day and upcoming weeks.
We're sure local upland bird hunting will be tough to dismal. Where we often heard up to two dozen pheasants cackling in the grasslands surrounding the marsh in past years, Saturday we heard just one.
Despite the season's great start, we know this duck season will probably hold some long stretches that will be short on ducks. No matter what happens, though, the 2011 season produced at least one hunt for the ages.
