re: The ducks finally showed up yesterday

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About 2,000 gadwall, mallards, teal and pintails poured into one of my ponds I have out of production and let it grow up in willow trees for duck hunting.

Hasn’t had a single duck all season. Of course this happens the day after season closes

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Just gotta tip your hat to them….they won the game this year!

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The problem with hunting much later in the season, as I understand it, is that birds are starting to pair off for mating and are more vulnerable to hunting.

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Solution: shoot doubles only.

Using mallards as a baseline, they start pairing in December. They pair in January, they pair in February, they really pair in March. They breed June-August when they're back on the nesting grounds. Would allowing 2 weeks in February in the lower MS flyway really affect the overall numbers because they are "paired up"? I don't think so. Selfishly I would say make the upper MS flyway open 2 weeks later and add 2 weeks to the lower. That would do more than any flooded corn, heated pond, blah blah, blah argument.

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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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So no real "flight days" this year?

I heard very little shooting on the lake from my place all season. Not that I was down there a lot. Usually I hear some shooting throughout the season and on good fronts you can tell there is an increase in the amount of shots.

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I mean, it's the truth. It is the reason they won't allow into February.

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Come on man, don't you know biologist just have a hidden agenda to keep the hunter down!

Said this in other threads, the season always ended around January 15-20 because biologists know the majority of ducks are generally starting to pair around that time. The energy expended during courtship by the hen is then wasted when the drake is killed and she has to do it all over again. She then goes back to the breeding grounds, at least what is left of them, later and in worse body condition. We have Senator Lott to thank for that change in the 1998 bill.

Now January 31 isn't late enough, so we need to go to February. Like clockwork after the season guys are like look at all the ducks that showed up...They were there, just on spots they know they wouldn't get shot. Now they can spread out since the pressure is over. Telemetry data shows they generally won't go further south after about the end of December. They just redistribute east/west and across the habitat once they know the shooting is over. The ice event across the middle of the country did lock up some food so they did have to redistribute to other places that weren't locked up. That gets them killed since they are redistributing to places that they aren't sure are safe.

The simple fact is that the breeding grounds are in terrible shape (weather and manmade) and we aren't getting duck production. A healthy mallard population is 10 milliion. We are at 6.5 million. Less ducks means the food lasts longer up north, they can be more concentrated and they aren't going to go further south than they need to. The loss of habitat on the PPR also makes them more concentrated, which is easier pickings for predators. Add in the milder winters and it is a recipe for hunting disaster. More ducks would fix that.

Everyone should be screaming for wetlands protection up north (making sure swampbusters doesn't get repealed) and convincing Canada to stop draining every wetland in the PPR to plant crops. A couple good years of production and this whole corn debate would disappear. The corn is actually providing habitat that we otherwise wouldn't have. The habitat in LA is definitely degraded. Until we get rid of Salvinia, our habitat is screwed among other habitat issues we have.

Turned Ice eaters off and drained ponds up north

GPS studies show the ducks you are going to get are here by early to mid December. Only thing that's going to make a difference is a deep freeze or a warming trend that will cause ducks to start migrating back. Did I have a stellar year, no. We killed plenty of ducks.

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

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Good thing they called you. Your brother would have given them my # and had them blowing my phone up all weekend