Seeking waterfowl is one of Maryland's great hunting traditions.

Do you want diving ducks on rivers that feed the Chesapeake? Or dabbling ducks on marshes? Or do you prefer field-hunting for Canada geese? The Free State has it all.

Often the best hunting takes place on private waterfowl leases, which are not available to all hunters. But Maryland's significant amount of public lands also contains good duck and goose habitat. And recent efforts by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) are aimed at opening up more public land to waterfowlers.

First, here's a look at the status of waterfowling in our state, recent migration movements and population trends. Then we'll examine some new public waterfowling opportunities, and finish up with some good public areas that provide traditionally solid late-season action.

"Last spring, breeding conditions in eastern Canada were pretty darn good," reports Larry Hindman, the DNR's waterfowl biologist. "For birds out of those areas, populations should be pretty good. But for birds coming out of the prairies, that's another story. The prairies are dry.

"So birds produced in the prairies, well, their numbers are going to be down. A lot of dabbling ducks and species like canvasbacks are not going to have good production this year.

"You end up with several species on the same pothole, which doesn't lend itself to good production. So I think duck production out of the prairies is going to be poor. That doesn't bode well for some species that end up here. The birds that come out of eastern Canada -- like black ducks, eastern mallards, green-winged teal, pintails, bufflehead, goldeneye -- their numbers should be good. We should have good numbers of scaup, but canvasbacks will be down."

As in any late-season waterfowling scenario, how many birds and which species you see will depend pretty much on the weather -- particularly what's being experienced in states north of Maryland.

"A lot of it's going to depend on the weather," agreed Hindman. "If we're to have a reasonably good duck season, it'll take winter conditions up north to push the birds down here.

"With the poor production in the Midwest, it's going to be a mixed bag. I think Canada geese are going to rule the day. There was a really good hatch in northern Quebec, so there should be a lot of young migrant birds to help save the day."

While Maryland has a strong waterfowling tradition, middle- to late-season success is going to be strongly tied to good habitat. As ducks and geese move through an area, only the choicest spots collect good numbers of birds. Doing a bit of fieldwork to discover an area's ducks and geese are using will pay dividends at the end of the hunting day.

"It's not good everywhere," said Hindman. "Unless you have a waterfowl lease, you need to scout to find areas that hold enough ducks and geese to provide good hunting.

"We have a lot of private impoundments managed for moist-soil plants that hold considerable numbers of dabbling ducks. They are generally good throughout most of the season, except for brief periods when we have some freeze-up. And during the past couple of years, we haven't had even that.