re: What do you attribute the migration change to?

quote:

---

Cold temps and frozen water does not make ducks move like I used to think it did. Ducks seem to stay put until it warms up to where they can leave and feed again.

---

This. Ducks, really Mallards and Canada Geese to be specific, have evolved over the last 20 or so years. They follow the freeze line and only migrate as far South as they need to get access to food and open water and even if they don't have access to open water, they wait it out. This is evident because we have seen fewer and fewer Mallards making it into LA and AR while MO and IL are now covered up. Then when or if they do get down here if the freeze line dips that far, as soon as it warms up they almost reverse migrate back since alot of hunters see good hunts on South winds as ducks work back North which used to be unheard of.

After years and years of doing this, the migration habit has stuck with Mallards to the point that we only get a trickle of what we used to get. However, we do get one benefit, there seems to be just as many Mallards now as there have ever been. We just don't get to shoot them anymore unless we go to IL or MO.