This fall and winter, thus far, has been tough for duck hunters in eastern North Carolina.

For the last few months icy, sometimes violent, storms have traveled across Midwestern states toward the northeast. Rather than pushing waterfowl down the Atlantic Flyway, they created meteorological systems that pulled warm air from the southeast.

As a result, ducks and their kin have remained ensconced to the north of us, content to feed and loaf in the comfortable confines of Maryland and Virginia.

Certainly there have been a few ducks hereabouts. But, for the most part, they have been native wood ducks and small, scattered bunches of scaup, ruddy ducks, mergansers and, of course, the ubiquitous coots. The larger numbers of gadwall, widgeon, pintails, mallards, redheads and canvasbacks just havent arrived, and may not before the season ends on January 31.

I thought about that recently as I stood, gazing across the Pamlico River from the south side at a spot about halfway between Mauls and Core points.

At that point, its four miles wide and, when the wind is ripping across its relatively shallow expanse, can resemble the ocean. On this day, though, it was more like a swimming pool flat and glassy. I mused about the possibility of paddling a canoe all the way across, maybe to the small town of Bath, and the fact that Indians and early European colonists might have done just that in years gone by.

I also thought about a time about fifty years ago, when I stood at that same spot and viewed something that has remained in my bank of memories like an indelible watercolor painting.

It was a huge flock of Canvasback ducks that extended upstream and down almost as far as I could see and out toward the rivers middle for a hundred yards or so. The birds were well out of shotgun range, and seemed to take no notice of me or what I was about. Beyond the Cans, as if providing a white backdrop to their more colorful cousins, a huge raft of tundra swans rested on the calm water, twisting their long, slender necks this way and that, and making their characteristic barking sound.

Canvasbacks were legal game then as they are now, but that day was not for hunting. Like some weve had recently, it was unseasonably warm, better suited for exploring and pondering the wonders of nature. I, obviously, never saw the vast herds of buffalo as they congregated on the Great Plains in the 1800s but I think that those who did must have had some of the same feelings I experienced standing on that bank of the Pamlico River.

Its physical attributes make the Canvasback (Aythya valisineria) a creature worth viewing or, for sportsmen, hunting. Its one of the largest North American ducks (22 long, 3 lb.) and, at least according to some studies, the fastest flying. A diving duck, it can feed from the surface to as much as 30 feet down.

Canvasbacks have been referred to as the King of Ducks because of their impressive physique and striking appearance.

The drakes have a dark red head and neck, black chest, light gray back, long, sloping, blackish-bill and gleaming red eyes. (Their eyes are actually yellow at birth but, at about ten weeks, begin to turn red). Hens have buff-brown heads and chests, and brownish-gray backs.

Hunters can recognize canvasbacks on the wing by their red heads and necks, and sloping bills. The drakes wings appear almost all white in the air. They travel in various-size and shaped flocks, and can come sailing into a spread of decoys with little warning other than the swoosh sound their wings make at close range.

The call they make is a low grunt that, unlike a mallards, is not very distinctive.

That is why you rarely see duck hunters carrying Canvasback calls. Because they are diving ducks, their feet are set toward the rear of their body and, when they take off from the water, Cans have to get a running start. Once in the air, however, they can accelerate and maneuver with the best of them.

The Canvasbacks scientific name is a clue to why it was such a popular game bird during the market hunting days of the 1800s. Vallisneria Americana is the Latin name for wild celery, one of Cans favorite foods.

Its also a plant that gives the ducks that consume it a delicious flavor. Consequently, untold numbers of them were harvested, packed in barrels and shipped to places like Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York where they showed up on the menus of high-dollar restaurants.

Their popularity in that regard was almost the undoing of Canvasbacks.

Fortunately, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 outlawed market hunting and, with the establishment of refuges along the birds migratory flyways, they began a comeback.

Canvasback populations have fluctuated a good bit since the 1950s. Low numbers in the 1980s caused them to be listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a Species of Special Concern. During the 1990s, their numbers increased significantly, though, and today are estimated to be around 700,000.

A bird as special as the Canvasback deserves to be closely monitored and the USFWS does just that. Based on yearly surveys of nesting areas in Canada and the Prairie Pothole Region of the U.S., as well as conditions along the flyways, they calculate the number that can be harvested, erring on the side of being more conservative if necessary.

This season, the daily bag limit on Canvasbacks in North Carolina is two per hunter.

Factors other than hunting affect Canvasbacks, though. The most significant of these is habitat. Eastern North Carolina is a major stopover for Cans as they migrate down the Atlantic Flyway each winter but they dont show up on the Pamlico River where I saw them fifty years ago in the amazing numbers they once did.

Many biologists feel that is because of the absence of the submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) that attracted them in years past. In addition to wild celery, Cans feed on other aquatic plants as well as organisms such as mollusks. There used to be a lot of both of those in the Pamlico. When they began to disappear because of human activities in the river and its watershed, the Canvasbacks (and swans) started to go elsewhere.

Protecting our rivers and adjacent lands is more than just about us having clean drinking water. It can mean life or death for many other species like Canvasbacks.

The King of Ducks and his kin need and deserve a healthy environment.

Ed Wall can be reached at edwall@embarqmail.com or 252-671-3207. His website is http://www.edwalloutdoors.com

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Ed Wall: The King of Ducks - Havelock News