re: The golden years for ducks are gone....

the golden age here is dwindling... no doubt..


in addition to good habitat north due to changing farming/land use practices...

degraded habitat here is huge...

and NOBODY that was in the marshes 30-40 years ago can deny the sheer number of boats in "duck" country fishing or just running about is having an impact.

by degraded habitat - marsh loss/degradation - less acreage devoted to moist soil farming. less desireable aquatic vegetation - the list is long...


my fear is that ducks are being imprinted not to use certain areas now... like canada geese were a generation before us(us meaning old farts like me)... granted we have had a good year - but we have really had to go to extremes to do it. and we have greatly restricted how much we are hunting our blinds.... honestly though - the only reason I hunt is for watching dogs work and working with dogs.... if it came to it I'd go shoot black birds and crows. but to see almost no new birds despite the recent weather - is mind boggling..


also keep in mind that states like ND and SD have 5 and 6 times the number of non resident waterfowlers that they did 20 years ago.. motion dekes thinning out young ducks at much higher rates up north.....


and the phenomenon of ducks coming into ag fields at night and leaving before first light nobody knows if this was happening years ago... I know in january of 82.. jan 10 -14... when we had a record cold blast... I killed 10 ducks (sprigs, teal and widgeon) every day after school the week of that front - and I could have done it before school too.....I am not aware of any place in la that has ducks like that this week..... but I am in aware of places in TX and OK and MO that have it like that.... years ago they certainly did not..... january 11 it was 10 degrees at my house - it was was also the fastest 10 duck limit I ever had....