With few exceptions, this year's waterfowling had taken place during relatively balmy weather.

For nearly 50 years, I did all my waterfowling with double guns, whether side-by-side or over-and-under.

There are some cynics who say that it is the fear of waterfowling's demise rather than concern for the birds that causes this outpouring of funds.

But in less than an hour it gives the average gunner more opportunity to test his wing shooting ability than he would encounter in a month of actual waterfowling.

When the California commission balked at the steel shot zones proposed for the state this year, the service responded by saying that there would be no waterfowling in those zones.

-As part of its Kids in Waterfowling and Conservation program, the AWA promotes the building and placement of wood duck nesting boxes.

My waterfowling is no longer a serious food-gathering effort, but a ritual - akin to re-reading a favorite poem - that sustains my love of wet and wild places and their denizens.

Waterfowling is subject to several layers of regulation, beginning with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, which sets seasons and bag limits for migratory game, including ducks and geese.

Dan's favorite waterfowling, because it takes no preparation, is when he is crouched among the tules in a wind-whipped salt-marsh flight shooting black ducks, mallards and teal with no blind at all.

Waterfowling has now ended in the Northeast, save for a few special seasons for resident Canada geese under way in parts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

It was late January, the final day of 2004-5 waterfowling in the coastal region of Massachusetts, and my younger son Jeff and I had decided to take the afternoon off for our last hunt until next fall.

These are first-rate yarns, replete with the flavor of the place and the people, and if your waterfowling has been confined to one area of the United States, you'll be fascinated by how it's done elsewhere in this country and overseas.

Good waterfowling can sometimes be had on the Vineyard, but the island is small and each year hunters and no-hunting areas become more numerous, and you are fortunate if you have one or two places where you can usually count on being alone.

Most waterfowling is over by the year's end, but burgeoning populations of Canada geese have resulted in the season for those birds running beyond the turn of the year in the Long Island zone - where last year the cutoff date was Jan. 31.

Until the steel shot regulations extended to the regions in which I do most of my waterfowling, I had been using a little 20-gauge over and under and lead pellet loads for both ducks and geese, restricting my shots to 40 yards or less.

This season the time for duck hunting slipped away before I knew it, and by the end of January the only remaining legal waterfowling in coastal Massachusetts where I live was a special season for Canada geese, which closed Feb. 5.

There is some superb waterfowling in upper New York on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, but unless you are acquainted with the region and have the proper boat and decoys, you will probably need the service of a professional guide.

New York, for example, opens its ruffed grouse season up north in late September, followed by woodcock hunting beginning statewide Oct. 1; the fall turkey season starts in early October in the Catskills and by that time waterfowling has begun in some regions.