Where are the ducks? Part 1

[captainsling]

Friend is in Manitoba right now and he says they are shooting local birds right now. Sounds like the migration is way off.

[captainsling]

Been too dry here for last 4-5 yrs !
Doesn’t get cold till season is over either .

Hurricane Harvey dumped over 60” of rain in parts of SE Texas. 2017 was one of the wettest in history.

[Quackerbox]

short stopping DU!

[MarkV]

I’m 55 and have lived all my life in the same farm, we have a duck spot flooded timber in the middle of about 40 acres of oaks. When I was a kid I could kill a limit of wood ducks every day before school if we had water, no water, no ducks. Hunted this spot my entire life up around 2008 and never killed any other type of duck in this spot. Along comes the drought and we were so dry in 09-10 no water zero for two years, 11 comes along and it rains for what seemed like 2-3 years, and we got water and we got ducks, only now mallards and a lot of them, in the last 8-9 years all we have killed is mallards, maybe 1-2 wood ducks each year, don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining, I don’t know what happened but something did.

where is that farm and do you need a friend to come hunt with you?

[hopedale]

I’m good friends with Dr. Merchants son. Pretty neat to see this video. I can tell you one thing....our hunting trips the last few years in Louisiana confirm this trend. The ducks are not around! It has been SLOW the last few seasons. I would be interested to see what the proposed solution to this is, if any


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The proposed solution is to restore the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to its state prior to the changes made in 1998.

The changes in 1998 modified what is considered normal agriculture practices, and allowed the baiting. Oops, the flooding of corn for the purposes of feeding ducks and allow you to hunt over it.

Folks up north say its no different than when hunters in the south hunt over a rice field.

What I'd like to ask them is when did flooding a corn field become normal agriculture practice?

And as the data showed, 2017 was the coldest on record, but the states just below the freeze line still held birds. They do it with pumping more water into the field and with ice eaters.

MO, which is the focus in the video spends a ton of money on 15 WMAs for duck hunting. Non-residents aren't even allowed to purchase licenses to hunt there. You can go as a non-resident if a resident invites you.

And the feeding isn't just in MO. A ton of money is spent in planting food sources on wildlife refuges just below the freeze line. Its in the name of conservation and duck preservation. The idea is that the birds don't have to travel as far, so they can get back to the breeding grounds after winter faster, so its less stress on the birds.

The reason the treaty won't get restored, as someone already pointed it out, there are so many making money on it. They'll fight it tooth and nail.

But what everyone needs to understand is that eventually zero ducks are going to come all the way to Texas.

Just like in the presentation you learned geese no longer fly all the way to the gulf. It will happen to the ducks.

All the data they use in the video is retrieved from Federal and State Agencies.

Anyway, if you're tired of not seeing birds like we used to, I thought you'd like to see that video.

[Razrbk89]

You just can’t keep that much water open with an ice eater. I’ve yet to see any evidence of this “heated” water up north that people like to talk about.

You CAN turn a pump on and open up/keep a field open for a night or two. I have occasionally done that myself when I felt like it would make a good hunt, but it’s not practical to run pumps. Too expensive. I don’t think it’s done on a large enough scale to short stop even a small part of the migration.

I think our hunting in my area had slowed down some in recent years (for a variety of reasons), but the main reason is warmer weather and open water above us. I don’t think it’s too complicated. If a mallard has open water in Arkansas, why in the world we he fly to LA? If he has open water in Iowa, he dang sure ain’t flying to the woods in Arkansas.

[PondPopper]

Maybe for you, but I feel like the last few years we see less and less.

Did you check out the video or just post?

I bet money he didn't watch it.. He is famous for meaningless 1 liners.. Just view his post history..
The ones that are saying that ducks are plentiful didn't grow up in the 60', 70's.. If they would have they would know the difference.. I remember when they were plentiful..

[CTR0022]

Anyway, if you're tired of not seeing birds like we used to, I thought you'd like to see that video.

It will be interesting to see how the next 3-5 years go. Maybe the trend will start to tic up or continue to plummet

[Moose]

It's a combo of more food up North and less food down South. Just think of all the peanuts and rice that are no longer farmed in OK/TX. One thing is for sure it ain't the weather. The total population of birds aren't going down either, just make a hunt up in KS/NE/MO/IL.....

[Johnny44]

The earth changes, poles change. I wonder if it can alter their migration path a few degrees?

I personally don’t subscribe to the food theory, its God driven they migrate.

[TTUgrad08]

It's a combo of more food up North and less food down South. Just think of all the peanuts and rice that are no longer farmed in OK/TX. One thing is for sure it ain't the weather. The total population of birds aren't going down either, just make a hunt up in KS/NE/MO/IL.....

Bingo.
Anybody here hunt Comanche County in N. TX roughly 15-25 years ago?

[jnd1959]

Bingo.
Anybody here hunt Comanche County in N. TX roughly 15-25 years ago?

You bet. Peanut fields sure attracted the birds.

According to the video, we've had wetter winters up north with no appreciable change in temps. If that is the case then either water is storing more heat during summer months or it's not weather related. The one measurement missing is average water temps up north, also, has there been a substantial increase in reservoirs up north. Larger bodies of water hold heat longer and Don't freeze as fast. Like quail, it is a combination of factors. I do think the increase in flooded grains has caused waterfowl to stay in an area longer when they would have migrated in the past.

It would be interesting to see how much southern migration occurs after the season is over.

[TTUgrad08]

You bet. Peanut fields sure attracted the birds.

According to the video, we've had wetter winters up north with no appreciable change in temps. If that is the case then either water is storing more heat during summer months or it's not weather related. The one measurement missing is average water temps up north, also, has there been a substantial increase in reservoirs up north. Larger bodies of water hold heat longer and Don't freeze as fast. Like quail, it is a combination of factors. I do think the increase in flooded grains has caused waterfowl to stay in an area longer when they would have migrated in the past.

It would be interesting to see how much southern migration occurs after the season is over.

Good point on the additional water available. Birds need food and open water, thus no reason to migrate further south. The area I mentioned had it all, high carbs/protein food and open water. The food base(peanuts) ended with the subsidies, followed shortly by the numbers of ducks.

[hopedale]

Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPQWQJK4WIQ&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2F9scSZ_3HHL4ukvKkQi9uuyIuu-8CdpxHpvpJaLHciSy22tAcVr5LSmo

[ctom87]

Clearly it's global warming and they don't have to travel as far south.