The ducks finally showed up yesterday

I try and explain to people who have never spent a winter up north how mild the winters have been for almost two decades now.

I lived in Minneapolis for two years and when I tell you it would get so cold, I mean cold to the point that ducks had no choice but to leave and fly south. They literally had two choices. Stay and die or fly south and survive.

I’ve seen the same type of mild weather in southern Illinois the last 10 years. December days in the 60’s with it being almost the middle of January before ice out on shallow rivers like the Skillet Fork and Little Wabash.

I don’t know whether flooded corn plays a big role in what’s happening in Louisiana, but I can tell you that starting last Thursday morning I began receiving photos from friends with limits killed here in northeast Louisiana.

Coincidence? I think not.

We’ve got ducks in every mud puddle right now. Unreal. Had nothing all season.

Day late and a dollar short.

Close to Inverness?

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Need to end the December season and let it run till mid February down here. They just don’t come down early in the season anymore

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If we realize that winter does not start until December 21 and goes thru March 21, we only get to hunt about 1 month of actual winter given splits in the season.

I can see the shortstopping keeping the historical migration from maturing as it used to. I have always said that if I lived at a Pizza Buffet, why would I leave? I get that.

However, it is also a fact that when we experience actual winter weather, birds will move south.

Maybe we can look at extending the season further into actual winter.
When I was on a lease in the swamps along the Calcasieu River in the 1990's, we would have some Mallards from Thanksgiving to end of season.

But I can tell you from hog hunting into March that those woods would be full of Mallards from mid-February into early March.

Al Gore told ya'll yeras ago

Only in old Mexico can you blast ducks on St Valentine’s Day. 100 shots or 20 dead ducks per day. Getducks.com

I got a call Saturday late morning that my family’s farm was a “sea of greenheads” from a guy calling to ask permission. ?????

That was after my sons and I limited on Friday up here in NELA.

We have had 3 strong cold fronts come though this year, with another one before the season and one during the split. 70's, 80's and 90's you would see lots of ducks before the front (south wind), then after the front blew through. Migrating! Hunted the last weekend, sleet, ice, nothing. Hunted the Vet weekend, low 28, wind chill 19 degrees, killed one grey and saw a total of 4 ducks. Somethings happening here, what it is isn't exactly clear.

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let it run till mid February
That would be bad.

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Why? because of pairing?

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because of pairing?

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Yes