Waterfowlers in Arkansas and Mississippi who own or lease property where they can pump water and manage their habitat, by contrast, will usually have very good hunting. It's interesting that waterfowl harvest figures actually tend to go up in dry years in the South, probably because the birds gravitate to areas with water, and many of these areas often are privately managed for waterfowl hunting.

"Still," Moorman relates, "given too much hunting pressure, the birds may move in large numbers to safer areas. There remains a lot we don't know about winter movements of mallards. When frozen out of some areas, the birds will move farther south, but then move back north again, below the freeze line, as soon as it becomes warmer, say during a mid-winter thaw.

They respond that way to precipitation cycles, too, flying south to the Gulf Coast without stopping at traditional wintering areas in Arkansas and Mississippi when they're dry, then flying back up to those areas as soon as they're wet, which may be only a few days or weeks later. Depending on habitat conditions, the ducks may even fly east or west to find better conditions. How the birds know how to do that-respond to habitat changes in other areas-is a mystery."