Photo by Brian Strickland.

The Sooner State's favorite son Will Rogers may or may not have said it -- the true originator actually appears to be lost in the mists of folk history -- but he easily could have: "If you don't like the weather in Oklahoma, just wait a minute."

It's true that our weather is varied and unpredictable, but it may not be quite that changeable. Not only are we in Tornado Alley, but we're also in that portion of the continent where all sorts of weather extremes are possible, if not probable.

We never know from year to year or even season to season whether it'll be hotter or colder than usual, wetter or drier than usual, or sunny or cloudy. You may see flash floods in August, normally a very dry month. And you may see folks cruising in convertibles with the tops down on Valentine's Day, normally one of the coldest times of the year.

If you're a duck hunter in Oklahoma, you learn to adapt. Your tactics and locations, not to mention your clothing, may have to change radically from season to season, depending on the weather.

Rainfall totals can vary widely from month to month and year to year in the Sooner State. Take October, for example, since that's the month when duck hunting seasons often begin to get serious in Oklahoma. In October 2006, the National Weather Service office in Tulsa reported the total rainfall for the month was 1.31 inches; just a couple of years earlier, in 2004, the October total was 8.51 inches. And other October extremes run from an almost unmeasurable trace of moisture for the entire month to the record of 16.51 inches back in 1941.

Rainfall totals are important to duck hunters because precipitation affects the water levels in ponds, lakes, streams and, especially important, those areas that are marshy and wet during rainy periods but bone-dry during dry periods. It's those intermittent wetlands that provide some of the most attractive waterfowl habitat in the state.

If the marshes are wet and the major reservoirs full enough to spread out into the surrounding lowlands, thousands and thousands of ducks on their southerly autumn migration stop to spend extra time in Oklahoma. But if the marshes are dry and the lakes shrunk down to normal pool or below when the ducks pass through, the birds are more likely to keep on flying or, maybe, to spend just a quick night on an Oklahoma lake before catching the morning express to south Texas the next day.

If you hunt the big reservoirs -- and many Oklahoma duck hunters do -- you may have to change tactics and locations between dry and wet years. For example, ducks are likely to flock to flooded vegetation in the upper reaches of Lake Eufaula if its water level's high and a lot of flow is coming down the Deep Fork and North and South Canadian rivers.

Most of the duck hunters I know prefer this situation. Not only does it result in infinitely more choice in places for spreading out decoys, but it also attracts and holds a lot more ducks than do low-water conditions. In order to hide from the ducks, waterfowlers may not have to build any kind of blind but can instead just back up into the cover of a clump of bushes or saplings. Such "natural hides" are usually more effective than constructed blinds, as long as the hunters are dressed appropriately and keep still when ducks are near.

But if the lake is a foot or two below normal -- a pretty typical level in a dry year -- you may have to hunt the open water of the main lake, because there is no flooded vegetation at the upper end of the lake to attract the ducks.

Most of my duck-hunting acquaintances dread having to hunt under those conditions, but some have learned to cope. They may use bigger, deeper boats, which can navigate the open water more safely, or spread out two or three times more decoys than they would if they were hunting back up in the bushes in high-water conditions. And they may have either to hunt from their boats or to spend more time constructing shoreline or shallow-water blinds, because usable cover is scarcer in most of the spots they may hunt.