To most mainland New York hunters, gunning for sea ducks is as foreign a sport as an African safari. Yet it can be as much of an adventure as any bird hunt can be. Even though the action takes place within sight of one of the greatest metropolitan areas on Earth, sea duck hunting on Long Island Sound offers first-rate sport that should not be missed!

Last year, sea duck hunters encountered some tough hunting, but biologists believe that was the fault of weather conditions, rather than to any decline in sea duck populations.

"A lot of the big ducks never really seemed as plentiful as they have been normally," said Mike Clark, a Region 1 wildlife biologist and also an enthusiastic duck hunter. "There were birds around, but not in tight concentrations as they usually are."

That, he said, was a matter of weather patterns. "A lot of our hunting opportunity depends on what happens up north. When it gets cold up north and freezes early, we get big pushes of birds. Every weather front that comes through brings down a lot more birds. That's why down here we want as late a season as possible."

Harvest figures from the 2007 season are not yet available. But in 2006, New York hunters harvested about 9,100 sea ducks, compared to a harvest of about 8,200 sea ducks in 2005. That was just under 11 percent of the total Atlantic Flyway sea duck harvest, which includes 10 states.

New York had about 1,400 active sea duck hunters in 2006 and 1,200 in 2005 -- roughly the same proportion as the respective harvests.

This year, Clark suggested, the nesting conditions for the Atlantic Flyway were pretty good. As inland waters freeze in the north, the sea ducks that winter around Long Island begin moving south. (Continued)

Some flocks will linger on the St. Lawrence River and Lake Champlain until those waters freeze over.

"The reason we get so many wintering birds is that salt water doesn't freeze," Clark said.

New York's sea ducks include common eiders, surf scoters, black scoters, white-winged scoters and long-tailed ducks (formerly called old squaws). Hunters also often encounter mergansers, bluebills, buffleheads and goldeneyes. Clark noted that last year, while hunting around Long Island, he harvested about a dozen different species of ducks.

New York State's regulations for sea ducks recognize only long-tailed ducks, common eiders and the three scoters. However, the Sea Duck Joint Venture also lists the king eiders, spectacled eiders, Steller's eiders, Barrow's goldeneyes, common goldeneyes, buffleheads, harlequin ducks, common mergansers, hooded mergansers and red-breasted mergansers.

"In general, these are all big-water ducks," Clark said. "We get them in the sound as well as the South Shore all the way out east."

However, the various species of sea ducks have some differences in the habitats they prefer.