Duck hunting alive and well for some in Western Pennsylvania
Share this post:
Fat off stale bread and hip to locations of warm sewage outflows, ducks are plentiful on the Allegheny River.
“We saw hundreds of ducks today,” said hunter Tyler Bressler of Irwin as he and his family transferred their gear from a jon boat to a pickup at a Harmar boat launch.
The birds’ not-so-natural predators, like Bressler, aren’t quite as abundant.
While the Pennsylvania Game Commission hasn’t published the number of licensed duck hunters or harvest sizes since 2010, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has documented a decline in waterfowlers.
The federal service’s 2022-23 harvest report shows the number of waterfowl hunters nationally slipping to 913,000 — the lowest tally since 1962.
Few sporting goods retailers in Western Pennsylvania even sell the necessary supplies, such as decoys, in stores.
The sport’s shrinking profile could be part of why the sight and sound of duck hunters in Harmar generated a call to police Thursday and, ultimately, a visit from a state game warden.
The caller reported somebody shooting ducks from a boat and sending their dog into the water to collect the carcasses.
That’s exactly how Bressler, his father, Terry, and cousin Jake Bender, all of Irwin, spent their morning, though responding game warden Kolton Boyer wasn’t sure if the call came for the trio or other nearby hunters.
Such complaints to law enforcement aren’t uncommon, Boyer said.
The Bresslers and Bender have even set off Pittsburgh’s ShotSpotter system before, sending a swarm of police cars to their location along with a federal fish and wildlife agent.
“People hear shots and get concerned, so we follow up and see what we can find,” Boyer said.
Though the gunshots can be noisy, duck hunting is legal and in season until Jan. 18 in the southern half of the state.
Since ducks are migratory birds, traveling state to state or even country to country, their harvest is regulated by both federal and state authorities.
Pennsylvania duck hunters must have a state general hunting license, state migratory game bird license and a federal duck stamp, the cost of which goes almost entirely toward habitat conservation for birds and other wildlife.
Hunters also must use nontoxic shotgun pellets to avoid contaminating waterways with lead or other substances harmful to ecosystems, keep their shotguns unloaded while moving on the water and stick to a six-ducks-a-day limit.
Within that bag limit, there are further restrictions on the species and sex of the ducks. Coots and mergansers, waterfowl often mistaken for ducks, have daily limits of 15 and five, respectively.
No shots may be fired within 150 feet of any structure that might be occupied.
And successful duck hunting usually requires the willingness to wake up early and brave freezing or gloomy weather, according to Tyler Bressler, since ducks are more likely to fly around in those conditions.
Of all the available game — deer, turkey, bears and all the rest — ducks and other similar waterfowl take the most red tape to hunt, Boyer acknowledged.
Maybe that’s why, as Terry Bressler put it, “it’s a dying sport.”
Don’t tell that to the group’s hunting dog, Gunner.
The 12-year-old English pointer and Labrador retriever mix is no spring duck, as it were, but after a long morning of collecting downed birds, his energy levels hardly wavered.
“I treat him like an athlete because he is one,” Tyler Bressler said.
Gunner helped harvest four female ducks and one male Thursday.
The group still is deciding whether the ducks will end up in jalapeno poppers or stir fry.