where did all the Ducks go??

[bowtechbandit]

the "what year did it all start" thread made me think of when I was a kid, and how things have changed. in those thoughts, I couldn't help but remember the good times we had duck hunting. from the time we were 12-13 through high school we would hunt farm ponds and stock tanks around Hopkins County. it seemed like there would be a pair of ducks at least on every pond just about. some of them would be loaded down with several limits of ducks. we usually could go somewhere 3-4 days a week and scratch up a couple limits, if not we could go "jump ponds" and finish our limits out. i drive around now and glance over at all the ponds we used to hunt growing up and they are empty. it seems like there are hardly any ducks around anymore, for years now. I got a couple of kids now and would love to take them but I can never find any ducks. is it just me or are things different?

[BRust]

My 2 cents; there are too many areas up north that maintain habitat for ducks year-round therefore they do not migrate like they should... AKA government and huntin clubs

[muzzlebrake]

I grew up pond hopping. Me and my cousin kilt a truck load back in the day. Ducks finally got smart I guess and stay gathered in the safer areas. Still a lot of them where they have a lot of food sources just like dove birds. A cold low clouds misty morning will usually put ducks down on any water they can find.

[ultrastealth]

Something that I've noticed that may or may not be an issue is that many ponds went dry during the drought. Those ponds have water, but they don't have any vegetation yet, so there's nothing for ducks to eat in them.

[muzzlebrake]

Flyways for migratory birds change due to food sources along the way too.
There use to be a surplus of duck, geese and dove just north of Dallas. No more! All that farmland all the way up to the red river is mostly asphalt and houses. Corn, wheat, maise etc all gone now.

[Smart]

You killed them all....

[Quackerbox]

Flyways for migratory birds change due to food sources along the way too.

There use to be a surplus of duck, geese and dove just north of Dallas. No more! All that farmland all the way up to the red river is mostly asphalt and houses. Corn, wheat, maise etc all gone now.

This

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[Flyway12]

Multifaceted answer there. Temperatures are a little warmer than they were 20-30 years ago. We don't have the freeze ups like we used to on big river systems. We don't see snow cover the crops up north the way we used to either. So, many of your mallards etc don't make it this far anymore, they don't have to.

Duck hunting gained in popularity tremendously. The cool factor brought a new crowd that was likely not for the better. Deer hunting became expensive, waterfowl hunting in the 90's wasn't and it attracted more new folks looking for something that wouldn't break the bank. Every year a few more people were out hunting. Ducks aren't like a deer, they'll go hundred of thousands of miles to avoid pressure unlike a deer that may shift a property or two over. People started managing more for ducks as well. Every guy with a little jack started building wetlands and flooding food, it spread out what was here and that continues to happen more and more every year.

"guiding" became the new cool thing to say you do. It attracted people that were for the worse. Running 15-20 guns a morning day in and day out pounding the birds for their social media fame. More pressure, more migration shift.

Pressure is my biggest thing to blame. Bird still migrate, Mexico is stacked. If you look at midwinter index surveys, the hill country is the area gaining the most birds annually... why? Pressure. That's the land of deer leases and big ranches. The birds can rest.

Waterfowling will always be somewhere, but it won't be in Texas ever again like it was. Between many different aspects, Texas will continue to decline.

[Strummer]

When they stopped farming rice in my area the ducks and geese moved on .

[JFFB]

Winner Here

My 2 cents; there are too many areas up north that maintain habitat for ducks year-round therefore they do not migrate like they should... AKA government and huntin clubs

Yep and there heating there ponds to keep them from freezing over so the Ducks don't leave. Been terrible here the pass 3 years.

[AtTheWall]

Drought throughout the Mississippi upper regions - it has impacted core midwest flyways.

[JBJTX81]

There's been 10's if not 100's of millions spent to build an maintain some amazing duck habitat that IS NOT in Texas. Why fly 300-500 miles further south in the winter if you don't have to.

My .02 DU spends a lot of money outside the state of Texas.

[matagordian]

right here

When they stopped farming rice in my area the ducks and geese moved on .

I think the price per an acre foot of water went up until it rice was not profitable. I read that in an article about decreasing snow geese migration into the Katy Prairie area years ago. Used to be able to goose hunt at my families farm land in Beasley. Around 10 years ago they disappeared. Also, said they were staying up in Arkansas since they still had water availability to maintain waterfowl habitat.

[Tex21]

Yep and there heating there ponds to keep them from freezing over so the Ducks don't leave. Been terrible here the pass 3 years.

They arent heating their ponds. Birds keep the big water open more than anything, people have just started using ice eaters(boat prop) or saws to open holes on ponds or sloughs to hunt.

[unclefish]

The ducks have returned this year because of the drought up north....at least to the coastal areas. Go look at the duck hunting thread and look at the piles of ducks being killed so far.