The Minnesota duck hunting season that begins next Saturday at 9 a.m., runs through Dec. 2.

But even though the season is 60 days long, the memories of the season usually are made in just a couple of those days.

Catch a flight or two of fresh northern mallards on a weekday when few others are hunting and the wonderfully gullible birds are allowed to work into the decoys, and all of those memories of mornings of empty skies can be erased in a moment.

For many Swan Lake waterfowlers, the 2007 season was made on the opening weekend.

Through the fortunes of good luck and timing, the lake was teaming with flocks of blue-winged teal that provided plenty of shooting opportunities.

This year, things may be different.

Department of Natural Resources manager Joel Anderson was on Swan Lake last week and while allowing that the situation could change by next Saturday’s opener, what he found wasn’t particularly encouraging.

“I didn’t see near the ducks we had last year,” he said. “What we’re missing are those big bunches of teal.”

But teal, one of the earliest migrants, can be notoriously unpredictable, he said. “Teal are an on-again, off-again thing ... they could still move through.”

The vagaries of teal aside, Swan Lake hunters should find the lake in excellent condition. “The lake is really in super shape, as clear as tap water,” Anderson said. “There is dense vegetation and the cattails are in good shape.”

Even though the lake is still about two feet lower than normal, hunters should find it much easier than last year to get around since the dense mats of vegetation that hampered mobility are gone.

Getting a handle of resident duck populations is always difficult and aerial surveys of Swan Lake and others across the state won’t begin in earnest until next week.

However, Anderson said he saw mallards, woodies and ruddy ducks while exploring the lake last week.

“Just not the big congregations,” he said.

Steve Cordts, a DNR waterfowl biologist based in Bemidji, said hunters should expect a season similar to 2007.