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The 2025 season was the 55th year of managed hunting on the Harsens Island Managed Waterfowl Area. We were fortunate to have good growing conditions through most of the summer and, apart from some consumption by sandhill cranes, had good crops of corn, buckwheat and millet. Our small grain production returned to normal after very difficult conditions and low yields in 2024.
The biggest change to the 2025 season was that our start date was pushed back one week, starting the third Saturday in October, October 18th. Weather conditions were seasonally average through October and into November before a snowstorm and heavy cold front November 9th. This pushed through the bulk of the migration and hunting success plummeted after this week, with only 20% of our season harvest coming after November 16th. We froze hard Thanksgiving weekend and had very little hunting opportunities in December.
Our total season harvest was 7,689 ducks and 180 geese in 6,060 hunter trips, for an average of 1.27 ducks/trip or 1.30 birds/trip. While this is a very normal average harvest rate, our total season harvest was down from average due to losing a week of hunting in October, typically our best month statistically. The best zone on the area was zone 29, as is often the case, followed closely by 26 and 26, then 28 and 15 rounding out the top five spots.
We averaged just over 30 parties per draw this season, but that is brought down significantly by the low participation rates in December. Through October and November we averaged 40.5 parties per draw and on average 27 parties selected zones and hunted each draw. Our largest draw of the season was 92 parties, with several other draws right around 90 as well.
We'd like to thank our supporters, hunters, partners and staff for a successful duck season and are looking forward to the 2026 season!
| Area: | Hunter trips: | Ducks: | Geese: | Ducks per hunter trip: | % of harvest: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crops | 4614 | 6277 | 83 | 1.36 | 81.64% |
| West | 1012 | 1002 | 52 | 0.99 | 13.03% |
| East | 423 | 400 | 45 | 0.95 | 5.20% |
| Uplands | 11 | 10 | 0 | 0.91 | 0.13% |
| Totals | 6060 | 7689 | 180 | 1.27 | NA |
| Area: | Hunter trips: | Ducks: | Geese: | Ducks per hunter Trip: | % of harvest: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 59 | 11 | 0 | 0.19 | 0.14% |
| 2 | 91 | 34 | 0 | 0.37 | 0.44% |
| 3 | 142 | 91 | 0 | 0.64 | 1.18% |
| 4 | 184 | 186 | 2 | 1.01 | 2.42% |
| 5 | 137 | 95 | 1 | 0.69 | 1.24% |
| 6 | 191 | 256 | 0 | 1.34 | 3.33% |
| 7 | 198 | 294 | 1 | 1.48 | 3.82% |
| 9 | 147 | 72 | 1 | 0.49 | 0.94% |
| 10 | 117 | 76 | 0 | 0.65 | 0.99% |
| 11 | 140 | 113 | 5 | 0.81 | 1.47% |
| 13 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 14 | 199 | 200 | 1 | 1.01 | 2.60% |
| 15 | 231 | 387 | 3 | 1.68 | 5.03% |
| 16 | 222 | 369 | 2 | 1.66 | 4.80% |
| 17 | 206 | 295 | 9 | 1.43 | 3.84% |
| 18 | 130 | 73 | 4 | 0.56 | 0.95% |
| 20 | 66 | 32 | 1 | 0.48 | 0.42% |
| 21 | 187 | 157 | 0 | 0.84 | 2.04% |
| 22 | 186 | 254 | 1 | 1.37 | 3.30% |
| 23 | 204 | 360 | 2 | 1.76 | 4.68% |
| 24 | 206 | 378 | 4 | 1.83 | 4.92% |
| 25 | 240 | 460 | 8 | 1.92 | 5.98% |
| 26 | 244 | 479 | 8 | 1.96 | 6.23% |
| 27 | 203 | 286 | 7 | 1.41 | 3.72% |
| 28 | 253 | 452 | 6 | 1.79 | 5.88% |
| 29 | 226 | 555 | 10 | 2.46 | 7.22% |
| 30 | 205 | 312 | 7 | 1.52 | 4.06% |
| Totals: | 4614 | 6277 | 83 | 1.36 | 81.64% |
| Area: | Hunter trips: | Ducks: | Geese: | Ducks per hunter trip: | % of harvest: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 | 3 | 10 | 0 | 3.33 | 0.13% |
| 62 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00% |
| 63 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00% |
| 64 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00% |
| 65 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00% |
| 66 | 20 | 18 | 0 | 0.90 | 0.23% |
| 67 | 38 | 69 | 1 | 1.82 | 0.90% |
| 68 | 106 | 127 | 0 | 1.20 | 1.65% |
| 70 | 100 | 75 | 9 | 0.75 | 0.98% |
| 71 | 159 | 135 | 8 | 0.85 | 1.76% |
| 72 | 113 | 95 | 4 | 0.84 | 1.24% |
| 73 | 179 | 213 | 9 | 1.19 | 2.77% |
| 74 | 152 | 139 | 13 | 0.91 | 1.81% |
| 75 | 43 | 25 | 2 | 0.58 | 0.33% |
| 76 | 13 | 8 | 2 | 0.62 | 0.10% |
| 80 | 83 | 88 | 4 | 1.06 | 1.14% |
| Totals: | 1012 | 1002 | 52 | 0.99 | 13.88% |
| Area: | Hunter trips: | Ducks: | Geese: | Ducks per hunter trip: | % of harvest: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 | 137 | 85 | 4 | 0.62 | 1.11% |
| 32 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0.75 | 0.04% |
| 33 | 28 | 30 | 0 | 1.07 | 0.39% |
| 34 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00% |
| 35 | 56 | 61 | 8 | 1.09 | 0.79% |
| 36 | 63 | 101 | 6 | 1.60 | 1.31% |
| 37 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0.20 | 0.01% |
| 38 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00% |
| 39 | 31 | 32 | 9 | 1.03 | 0.42% |
| 40 | 43 | 74 | 18 | 1.72 | 0.96% |
| 41 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00% |
| 43 | 17 | 7 | 0 | 0.41 | 0.09% |
| 44 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 0.18 | 0.03% |
| 45 | 15 | 4 | 0 | 0.27 | 0.05% |
| 46 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00% |
| 47 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00% |
| Totals: | 423 | 400 | 45 | 0.95 | 5.20% |
| Date: | Number of days: | Hunter trips: | Hunters per day: | Ducks harvested: | Ducks per day: | Ducks per hunter trip: | Geese harvested: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9/1 – 9/9 | 9 | 111 | 12 | 76 | 8 | 0.68 | 13 |
| 9/20 and 9/21 | 2 | 51 | 26 | 39 | 20 | 0.76 | 12 |
| 10/18 – 10/26 | 9 | 1405 | 156 | 1944 | 216 | 1.38 | 74 |
| 10/27 – 11/2 | 7 | 895 | 128 | 1083 | 155 | 1.21 | 29 |
| 11/3 – 11/9 | 7 | 1060 | 151 | 1610 | 230 | 1.52 | 16 |
| 11/10 – 11/16 | 7 | 889 | 127 | 1399 | 200 | 1.57 | 14 |
| 11/17 – 11/23 | 7 | 615 | 88 | 562 | 80 | 0.91 | 4 |
| 11/24 – 11/30 | 7 | 898 | 128 | 836 | 119 | 0.93 | 14 |
| 12/1 – 12/7 | 7 | 33 | 5 | 43 | 6 | 1.30 | 2 |
| 12/8 – 12/14 | 7 | 33 | 5 | 53 | 8 | 1.61 | 1 |
| 12/27 – 12/28 | 2 | 70 | 35 | 44 | 22 | 0.63 | 1 |
| Totals: | 71 | 6060 | 85 | 7689 | 108 | 1.27 | 180 |
| Species: | Total: | % of harvest: |
|---|---|---|
| Mallard | 5076 | 66.0% |
| Green-wing Teal | 582 | 7.6% |
| Black Duck | 526 | 6.8% |
| Pintail | 419 | 5.4% |
| Ringneck | 288 | 3.7% |
| Wood Duck | 243 | 3.2% |
| Wigeon | 171 | 2.2% |
| Gadwall | 119 | 1.5% |
| Shoveler | 92 | 1.2% |
| Blue-wing Teal | 53 | 0.7% |
| Hooded Merg | 39 | 0.5% |
| Bufflehead | 28 | 0.4% |
| Ruddy | 20 | 0.3% |
| Scaup | 11 | 0.1% |
| Redhead | 8 | 0.1% |
| Goldeneye | 2 | 0.0% |
| Canvasback | 1 | 0.0% |
| Domestic Duck | 1 | 0.0% |
| Snipe | 2 | NA |
| Coots | 8 | NA |
| Geese | 180 | NA |
If additional information is needed about Harsens Island that is not contained within this report, please contact John Darling, Wildlife technician, St. Clair Flats Wildlife Area.
