Photo by R.E. Ilg

Bill Ramsey had a zest for life. An avid waterfowler, he was never more in his element than when the air was crisp and the ducks were decoying well.

Duck hunting was such a passion for Bill that he wanted always to be a part of it. He accordingly asked that, when his days were done, his remains be cremated and the ashes spread across a favorite duck hole near his Eagle Lake home. "I want every gadwall that stops in that hole and takes a drink of water to carry a little bit of me to the Canadian prairie," he said before his death.

The Ramsey family went one step farther. In addition to broadcasting their dad's ashes in the manner he had specified, the boys also loaded shot shells with the ashes and, on the opening day of each duck season, fired one over the swamp's black water at the first sight of a circling duck. No doubt some fraction of Bill has by now reached the nesting grounds.

From this you will gather that Mississippi's duck hunters are a passionate breed, spending countless dollars and energy on leases and equipment, dogs and training, clothing and calls -- all for the opportunity to have a sweet day over the decoys as whistling wings incite hearts to beat just a little faster. A little flash of silver on a leg as cupped wings act as flaps to slow a decent causes every hunter's pulse to quicken, adding a bit of pressure to the shot -- pressure not there before the banded bird exposes his treasure.

Every duck hunter is aware of the key factors tending to a successful season. First is the need for water: Duck holes can't be dry holes. Over the past three seasons, hunters have been blessed with relatively wet summers, and the holes held water. Sloughs, old oxbow lakes, low places in open fields -- all became shallow ponds, ideal for feeding ducks. So far, so good for Factor No. 1.

The second factor in the good-season equation is cold weather to the north of the Mississippi Delta. Ducks often fly only as far south during their winter migration as is needed to find food and open water. This brings about a phenomenon known to anyone to the south of where it occurs as "short-stopping." Missouri, southern Illinois, and Arkansas have vast areas of food and water, so severely cold weather is needed in those states to push the ducks into still lower latitudes. Over the recent seasons the weather has played fickle lover to duck hunters: teasing, but never coming across with the goods. The winter of 2004-05 went into the record books as a relatively mild one, so many of the migrating greenheads just never reached Mississippi.

Third, an ideal season needs a lot of ducks, are sufficient numbers of new ones are made only when breeding conditions in the "pothole" country of Canada and the northern United States are optimal. If there's a weak link in the duck chain, it's the nesting period. Precipitation, predation, and a plethora of other elements can combine for boom or bust.