Did you kill many birds this year? Do you know why?

[MSDuckmen]

While I know that this post will likely draw some heat from the weekend Wildlife biologist I will still voice my views on what I know and have concluded from people that are in the know.
Duck numbers have shown to be fine and yet many to most hunters are complaining of low numbers. I have heard all the excuses about short stopping, bad bird counts, and Migration paths changing and found no logic in any of those views. When a person sits back and listens to logic and attempts to put it all in perspective you will gain some insight in what problems that are developing that are causing this shift in numbers in our area.
This is what I know.
1.The weather, food source, and habitat are the determining factors to for migration

2.Refuges, hunting clubs, and farmers for leasing have across the nation planted large tracks of land and leaving un-harvested portions for the Migrating birds.

3.The trend of the weather for the last couple years has proven to be spotty cold meaning that cold fronts move in followed by a warming trend. Sustained cold for periods of 3 weeks in areas south of the great lakes has not existed in several years. Cold that will freeze large bodies of water and drop deep snow.

4.The influx and popularity of Duck hunting has peeked over that last few years meaning that the birds are being harassed more than all years past.

5.The influx of mechanical decoys has helped to reduce immature birds from reaching the southern states. Thus the more intelligent and weary adult birds are seeking refuge in non hunting areas. This trend is very predominant in the Mississippi Delta area as I have seen it first hand.

What I have concluded from this year is that hunting as I always have, had to change to be productive. I watched and tracked large numbers of birds moving from one safe house to another and using wide open fields that are nearly impossible to get concealed in. These birds are much older and the two bands I harvested this year was from 1997 and 1998 which tells me these are adult birds that I’m chasing.
I found from watching their habits over a couple days that they hang tight to non hunting areas during daylight hours and moved to roost areas only after legal shooting time elapsed. The most productive hunts were in roost areas during a full moon cycle. We would arrive to find that there were numbers of birds using the roost area but the numbers were much smaller on days when it was clear and bright moon. Overcast days and nights the roost area would load up after shooting hours and they would leave shortly before shooting time the next morning. We concluded that many birds would feed in the fields during clear nights with bright moon and would relocate to the roost area the next morning, thus giving us some fine shooting during those peek times. This proved to be correct.
The birds we harvested this year were almost entirely adult birds and the use of a call, was a very quick way to send them running. We derived a method to attract birds with little to no sounds. Decoy placement and water movement was strong elements to our success in the marsh this year.

With all this said this is what is controlling our birds in the southern states the last few seasons and is likely to continue until weather patterns change and allow the younger birds to migrate further and earlier in the season.
We have not had sustained cold in the North Central quadrant of the U.S.
Harvest has been able to last longer and increased year after year in the northern states.
As well as weather the influx of new hunters, Clubs, Guides, Refuges, mechanical devices, and food sources have been major contributors to the change in our migration.

The time has come and will continue to show that it is getting harder and harder to take birds under the old ways of hunting. Old ways meaning that you will not consistently kill birds in areas that you are accustom to hunting. Southern hunters have always talked about how educated the birds were by the time they got down here and it is my belief that with the continued use of spinners, what we have are a large majority of young birds being harvested in the northern states, So much due to the fact that the northern states have enjoyed longer seasons due to warmer weather and reports are even showing birds in large numbers still remaining in these areas long after the northern season ends.
The large tracks of birds are staying in these areas and only limited amounts of mature birds with strong instincts continue to track south.

Water is not a major factor in the migration. Three years ago we had water over most of the Delta and still the numbers were low. The migratory path is the Mississippi river and other rivers that feed it. These birds have and will always use that waterway as its avenue to the south. Northern sustained weather is and will always be the determining factor to the harvest in the lower southern states.

This season as of this writing 01/16/04 there has been no hardcore cold lasting weather in the northern states and many days in the southern states are seeing temps in the 50’s and 60’s with some days peeking 70’s.

Watch the trend and watch the totals of birds harvested in the North Central part of the country verses what we are harvesting here. The proof is right there in front of you.

Others are convinced that we just do not have the birds they say we do. Well we will see when the state numbers come out won't we?

[mallardchaser]

Another good post.

[Bustin' Ducks]

another Govt conspiracy..Ollie North is behind it all...

[RedEyed Duck]

Great post, and I am sure it will be an eye opener for some!

[mudsucker]

You are on the money MSDuckmen

[Sasha and Abby]

Good read.

[jdbuckshot]

good post, but we all know who killed the ducks this year,


ducks or no ducks!

[MSDuckmen]

Lack of water has not effected the migration?

Not as much as the weather Ben. Think back Two seasons ago Ben. The entire Delta was covered in water. Heck go back and read some post from that time frame and tell me why people were complaining about no birds. This is the Third year that I have read continued complaints of there being no birds in this area.
That year that it rained I was in Cleveland and could not even pass through certain roads cause they were under water.

Many people were saying we had too much rain and it scattered what few birds were here.

One thing about the net is that you can go back and read what was being said back then and gain some insight on what is going on.

Water plays a part but in years past when we had little rain we were killing the hell out of them because they were where the water was. But they still migrated..

JMO tell me yours

[MSDuckmen]

Well ole boy I see where ya coming from and don't rule out your logic.
I know that imprinting place a factor on migration and is why I was seeing as many as I did this year. Adult birds have the imprint. What worries me is the lack of imprinting going on now with the young first and second year birds that are remaining north of us due to the lack of weather and abundant food that is not covered up from snow.

That year that your referring to that they were here in November. Can you remember the exact year cause I seem to remember that too. I was bitching that they opened the season too early and we wouldn't kill crap but we did. What year was that......?

[Chuckle12]

I agree with MSDuckmen. I think the weather plays the most important role in migration patterns. I think water only plays a minor role due to the Mississippi River. With the River, hell, we got water year round. This may be overstating it, but I think the amount of water only influences the amount of birds that concentrate in the delta some distance away from the River.

Take this year, for example. The delta was almost completely void of sheet water and even most timber holes were only holding minor amounts of water. The only substantial amounts of water were in areas that were pumped or in areas fed by smaller rivers. I found that the majority of ducks were holding on the River.

The way I see it, granted I'm no expert, is that a group of ducks migrates down the River and gets to MS. When they get here, they go to areas that they have imprinted on and find the majority of these areas to be dry, or get shot to hell in pumped areas; so they go back to the River, where there is plenty of water, food to be found and minor pressure (compared to areas holding water off the River).

I had good success hunting either on the River itself or in areas holding water very near the River (oxbows, bar pits, etc.). Pretty soon I found that the ducks holding in the easily accessible oxbows and river lakes became very hard to hunt due to tremendous pressure and required new techniques to hunt because they were older birds (they didn't live this long by luck), so you come up with a better way to hunt or get skunked.

In my opinion, we always have the water to support ducks due to the River. Water only determines how far they spread out into the delta. The areas they concentrate in is determined mainly by hunting pressure and water and the amount of ducks we get is determined by weather.

[Chuckle12]

Talking about the weather pattern we are in now, look at what has happened yesterday and today. There is a big cold front coming down across the midwest that normally would bring good numbers of ducks along with it. Perfect duckin weather, as Benny would say. But, at the same time, there is a warm front pushing up from the Gulf of Mexico. We end up with mild temps across the state and the ducks sit in right at the freeze line in southern Missouri and the most northern part of Arkansas. That's the way it's been over the past 3 or 4 years. I don't see us getting good numbers of migrating ducks in this area until we get out of this weather pattern of southernly wind.

[Caller1]

Now that that has been solved, what about women?? Ya'll have them figured out as well??

[Chuckle12]

Benny, you don't think that the majority of ducks follow the MS River as a migratory path?

I understand that the ducks spread out when there is plenty of water. That's what I'm sayin'. Without a bunch of water to spread out on, ducks stick close to the River. With plenty of water, they spread out as far as the water reaches. Like I said, I ain't claiming to be no expert. I'm just goin' on what I have seen and my past experiences.

The nearest place south of here with ample water to support ducks are the marshes around the coast. I just don't see ducks flying all the way down there because we don't have much water in the fields of the delta, especially with the mild weather we have been experiencing over the past few years.

On a year like this past season, when the delta was dry, did the number of ducks and ducks harvested in south Louisiana and coastal marshes increase? I'd like to know how duck numbers down there compare to ours during a dry year.

[Goose]

Another factor that y'all really have not mentioned is the shift in agricultural procedures in the Mississippi Delta these days. The new varieties of soybeans and corn are allowing earlier harvests than ever before. This year I saw the first combines starting in late July. By late October all of the corn crop and most of the soybean crop was pretty much harvested. We didn't get our first killing frost in the lower Delta until November 25, so all of the corn & bean fields were full of small corn & bean plants; i.e., all of the waste grain had germinated long before the waterfowl ever got here to feed on it. I know there are other things for ducks to feed on in a flooded agricultural field, but there is absolutely no subsitute for a soybean or a kernel of corn. Could it be that a major food source is no longer available for the ducks, or at least not in the quantities that it used to be?

[goosebruce]

Good post so far...

Dead ducks dont imprint on anything cept the mud they fall on... take record kills 5 out of 6 years, and guess whut, ya aint imprinting on a lot of birds. This is the 3rd year of suck ass, but overall we had 6 killer years in a row before that.... If imprinting is real (and science says it is) ya gotta think killing that many birds is gonna effect it.

Ducks know where there is and isnt water. They don't go places they are gonna be in a hard way, unless forced to. My entire life, when the cahce and white river blow out, and they run together, a million ducks show up overnight. 2 years ago it happened, and they didnt come. First time it didnt happen. Bet it wont be the last. Just like ducks follow the crest of a river, they know where water is, and where the freshest water is. Great senses, esp, magic, hell who knows... but belive that they do KNOW where the water is. Same reason they dont fly over ricefields when its 20 degrees, they KNOW its froze.

Ducks dont follow the river channels. They follow the river vallyes. Arkansas grand prairie is nothing but a giant river valley, including the ark and ms deltas. If the polar ice caps melted tommorrow, they'd flood, with the expcetion of crowleys ridge itd be water from the other side of little rock, to the bluff on the ms side. Thats the historic path of water, thats the low stuff, thats the flat stuff. Ducks know that. Same reason one place will hold ducks, and another wont a lot of times is the general slope of the earth, pushes how they fly and where they turn and such... sometimes you can see it, sometimes you can't, but only a duck knows whut turns he him on, we can only watch and figger where they are going, not why.

Sept 1st till jan 31st, ducks are getting hammered somewhere along their migration. Spinners and straight seasons make that effect worst, imho.

LA is gonna have ducks no matter what. The ducks that hit LA are their ducks. You see pinnies and shovelers in sept that are heading that way... had no intetion of sticking around here. Heck, in janurary we kill pintails regulary that have rusty bellies from being in LA costal marshes, and are already headed back north. The problem we have is, we arent getting OUR ducks. Our ducks are sttting on their ass in MN, walking on the ice, living it up. The fewer ducks we've had are not our ducks... evidenced by the fact they dont go to the same places, and seeing weird numbers of speices we dont normally have in those kins of numbers, and the absence of other speices. LA got theirs... we got something else, and ours are stuck 5 states away. Coastal la does not have mallards in any kind of numbers... their ducks are not the same, and the things that effect our ducks doesnt effect theirs. North la is effected the same as we (ark & ms) are... and they for the most part sucked ass too this year. travis