re: The ducks finally showed up yesterday

I'm 45 and was one of those kids that got a big insulated starter jacket when I was 10 and remember it being cold enough for Halloween to wear it. The winters are just milder now.

My dad grew up in Bayou Blue and hunted the marshes there in the 60's & 70's and at that time the issue was global cooling, at least that's what the experts were claiming. He tells me how much colder the winters were during that period and the duck numbers were just insane. He kept one tail feather from each green head he killed and had 2 gallon size Ziploc bags full.

Milder winters + purposely flooding food for ducks = horrible duck hunting in the south.

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I'm 45 and was one of those kids that got a big insulated starter jacket when I was 10 and remember it being cold enough for Halloween to wear it

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Like 3 or the last 6 years its gotten in the 30s in South LA around Halloween
One of the year we had a killing frost on Oct 15th - the earliest ever

Where are all the ducks? Also what about the ducks that migrate more on photoperiod rather than weather

Reduced habitat in la is complete bs. if that was the case the places in la with good habitat would be loaded because there is less of it

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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

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This man knows what he’s talking about.

The ducks that “just showed up” didn’t just show up, they have more sanctuary now that they’re not getting pounded on.

When ducks migrate the first thing they look for is sanctuary, then food.

We still have Sandhill Cranes behind my mom's place. They've been there in and out for weeks, but today it is unreal the number. I bet there are 1,000 of them, and they sound like an SEC football stadium when they get going at once.

ETA: North AL

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but now there isn’t any hydrilla (food) to support any ducks so it sucks now too

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What are you calling hydrilla?

I grew up hunting Toledo and it was very good in the 90s. Spraying grass screwed that place over

I went over to my mom's yesterday and checked on the cranes. There were even more and they were steady coming in. I bet there were well over 1,000 with hundreds on the ground. I watched and listened to them for a bit. I've never seen them in those numbers in that particular area. The refuge always has a lot, and I've seen them in a field just north of her place in smaller numbers, but nothing like this.

Mom said that she was outside after I had left and someone back behind her fired two shots. All the cranes immediately left and they haven't been back. I guess they got tired of them.

She said a bunch came back this morning, but didn't hang around too long.