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re: What do you attribute the migration change to?
Posted on 10/14/16 at 10:07 am to bluemoons
Posted on 10/14/16 at 10:07 am to bluemoons
I guess that part gets alittle fuzzier to me. Are there more ducks being killed on nearby areas with less pressure? I don't doubt what you are saying. I'm just not sure about the effect on the migration.
I think it would be much harder to attribute migration patterns at the flyway scale to localized hunting pressure when weather and agricultural practices are much clearer in the way they impact migration.
At the local level, no doubt, I can understand how it impacts the birds. Birds that can sit on an area devoid of hunting pressure are going to sit there. But at the Flyway level, which I believe is the focal point of this discussion, I don't think it has as much impact.
As for the invasives, I think it is, again a local issue, and a very significant one at that. The problem with Maurepas is the lack of freshwater input, which has enabled invasives to take over.
I think there are a lot more factors that affect waterfowl on the local level. I'm not sure how much that impacts the flyway migration though, especially when you have two overwhelming factors, two landscape level factors that are obviously acting on the migration in changing weather patterns and changing agricultural practices.
I think it would be much harder to attribute migration patterns at the flyway scale to localized hunting pressure when weather and agricultural practices are much clearer in the way they impact migration.
At the local level, no doubt, I can understand how it impacts the birds. Birds that can sit on an area devoid of hunting pressure are going to sit there. But at the Flyway level, which I believe is the focal point of this discussion, I don't think it has as much impact.
As for the invasives, I think it is, again a local issue, and a very significant one at that. The problem with Maurepas is the lack of freshwater input, which has enabled invasives to take over.
I think there are a lot more factors that affect waterfowl on the local level. I'm not sure how much that impacts the flyway migration though, especially when you have two overwhelming factors, two landscape level factors that are obviously acting on the migration in changing weather patterns and changing agricultural practices.
This post was edited on 10/14/16 at 10:10 am
1
Posted on 10/14/16 at 10:26 am to Cowboyfan89
Yes, absolutely. It's striking the differences between not only take numbers, but also general numbers of resting birds in areas affected by pressure as compared to those with less pressure (in St. Bernard/Lake Borgne).
I agree that it's difficult to attribute migration patterns to localized hunting pressure on a small scale, but Louisiana has SO many duck hunters now. It's mind blowing. I also fully agree that the impact is small, but it's there. Factors 1 and 2 in OP are, IMO, the real "controlling" factors.
That said, I also believe repeated pressure like we get can change the migration pattern on a local level, and as the scale of the pressure increases, the scale of the change increases proportionately. The advent of the "top waters" (
) has put a remarkable amount of pressure on ducks as of late, so the scale of that pressure has increased dramatically. I don't mean specifically limited to hunting, either. I'm also referring to things like like running a surface drive through a pond with 1500 resting ducks just because a hunter can't tell what kind of birds they are, after those birds have been shot up all day. That happening a few times on a small scale won't change much, but like I said, as the scale increases, so does the scale of the change.
I have no empirical data whatsoever to support anything I'm saying. I've just hunted the same general area for the majority of my life, so my observations are just that - observations from hunting.
I agree that it's difficult to attribute migration patterns to localized hunting pressure on a small scale, but Louisiana has SO many duck hunters now. It's mind blowing. I also fully agree that the impact is small, but it's there. Factors 1 and 2 in OP are, IMO, the real "controlling" factors.
That said, I also believe repeated pressure like we get can change the migration pattern on a local level, and as the scale of the pressure increases, the scale of the change increases proportionately. The advent of the "top waters" (
) has put a remarkable amount of pressure on ducks as of late, so the scale of that pressure has increased dramatically. I don't mean specifically limited to hunting, either. I'm also referring to things like like running a surface drive through a pond with 1500 resting ducks just because a hunter can't tell what kind of birds they are, after those birds have been shot up all day. That happening a few times on a small scale won't change much, but like I said, as the scale increases, so does the scale of the change. I have no empirical data whatsoever to support anything I'm saying. I've just hunted the same general area for the majority of my life, so my observations are just that - observations from hunting.
This post was edited on 10/14/16 at 10:27 am
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