Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby Rick » Mon Jul 09, 2018 6:24 pm

DComeaux wrote:The land lord lady said she measured 12" for the week, and Saturday was a toad strangler.


Wowza. But it's been kind of like that here, as we had 3-4" over a couple of days, while a Thornwell friend had under an inch. And was much drier farther west. Just a hit and miss summer to date.
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby Rick » Mon Jul 09, 2018 6:26 pm

BGcorey wrote:I like to go look at things and see what needs to be done.


Grandson who hunts on Roger Vincent's Little Chenier piece says it's loaded with "wild rice". (Which I'm guessing is Walter's millet.) Perhaps yours will be, too.
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby Darren » Tue Jul 10, 2018 7:09 am

Lreynolds wrote:
Darren wrote:Can you comment on the following:

1.) Do BW's move down in waves of some kind, sorted in some way? Early males that haven't stayed behind with broods? Other?
2.) When that mass is missed, as in 2017, are we basically SOL for the remainder of the 16 days? and
3.) These birds banded in Port Barre (in spring) opted to go to Texas coast in the subsequent fall migration. Is that common? Did they not imprint on Louisiana? Or is it just a crap shoot of which way they'll head each fall?

Thanks for kicking it around with us :)


1) Males have no role in brood rearing in most duck species. They "abandon" the hen once she gets into incubation, and goes on about his business of maybe finding another hen (one that lost her nest and has time/energy to renest), molting his wing feathers, and for bluewings, heading south. The first migrants are adult males, followed by females and juveniles.

2) I'm not sure. We almost always miss the first bunch of migrating bluewings that tend to move through in early September, but there is a steady, unpredictable stream in most years. I remember in the late-90's when I happened to be in North and South Dakota during mid to late-September for a string of years, and seeing the LA and TX internet forums light up with "they're here!" and tales of great early-season teal shooting. But all the while, I was seeing HUGE numbers of bluewings in every pothole in SD and ND.

I like to gauge the migration based on the age/sex composition of the harvest, acknowledging that I don't get to see a representative amount of it. On the opening 3-day weekend last year, we worked 2 "picking houses" for avian flu samples in SW LA, and the reports from my guys were that not only did they have about 1/3 of the normal number of birds, but nearly half were females.

Those are generalities. I have no idea how many we miss early vs how many migrate late. In some years a bunch of them stay (usually after a hurricane), and other years they don't. In the 14 years I've been flying the surveys, there seems to be more bluewings staying for the regular duck season compared to the past.

3) Bluewings are considered a "pioneer" species in the old waterfowl literature. They favor shallow-water habitats, which are highly dynamic, and they have the ability to find them when and where they become available. I think imprinting, especially to a winter site, means less to them than say a species like scaup, that exploit a food resource of more stable, predictable habitats.

I haven't followed up to know what a typical recovery distribution for those Port Barre birds looks like. If our season was open, we might have taken a lot more in LA than they did in TX. But remember those birds were banded on their spring migration, where ducks often use different habitats than in the fall.



Thanks a lot! Guess on the instances of good shooting here but large numbers observed in the Dakota's it's just an example of just how numerous BW's are as a species.....and how sporadic their choices in when and where to migrate can be. Had a good teal season last year overall so hoping to repeat. Was interesting on opening weekend, however, that a strong hold of Sept teal was a duck desert, the interior marshes of Delacroix, while we did well in more saline marshes not too far away.

Sure would think that the current drought situation on the flyway would favor us down here on the coast.
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby Rick » Wed Jul 11, 2018 4:47 am

BGcorey wrote:
Rick wrote:
BGcorey wrote:I like to go look at things and see what needs to be done.


Grandson who hunts on Roger Vincent's Little Chenier piece says it's loaded with "wild rice". (Which I'm guessing is Walter's millet.) Perhaps yours will be, too.
yea that’s the name for it. Haven’t seen it in higher water years, I suppose a drier marsh is presumably more healthier than one which has too much water and either kills favored duck foods or makes it too deep to reach. Oh and the camp I started staying at last year had 3” of rain in the gauge when my neighbor checked it this past sat. Funny how scattered the down pours can be


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Creole step-daughter said they've had but 3" or so to date, too. Grandson reported last evening that some of the Little Chenier marsh he hunts is now burning. Which really surprised me, even dry like it is, unless someone had poisoned first. Puffed millet, anyone?

We're headed back over that way again this morning in a very few minutes to try to be there at first light and take as much advantage of whatever dew there is to help slide the airboat.
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby Darren » Wed Jul 11, 2018 2:35 pm

Looks like some pretty good storms rolling that way this afternoon
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby Rick » Wed Jul 11, 2018 2:36 pm

Afraid I don't know where he hunts. Just understand it to be in what folks call "the burns" and assume off Little Chenier Rd..

Will try to remember ask Gauge next time they're here.
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby Rick » Wed Jul 11, 2018 2:39 pm

Darren wrote:Looks like some pretty good storms rolling that way this afternoon


Lot of noise but little rain, so far. But I ain't kicking after being back out to our west again today. Going to be an "interesting" next few days over there. And I'm feeling blessed to have what we do in our marsh after fighting that crap.
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby Rick » Thu Jul 12, 2018 4:12 am

Rick wrote:
Darren wrote:Looks like some pretty good storms rolling that way this afternoon


Lot of noise but little rain, so far...


Three-plus hours of periodic thundering promise and the drive under the edge of our front oak was still dry. But would think something a little more meaningful to us fell somewhere in the Mermentau Basin.
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby Darren » Thu Jul 12, 2018 8:37 am

Similar story at my house yesterday and day before, radar was lit up all around me but largely the storms stayed just that, all around me. Harry's dust pile he likes this time of year is still........dusty.
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby Rick » Sun Jul 15, 2018 6:00 am

Happy July 15th. Just two more months...

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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby DComeaux » Sun Jul 15, 2018 2:51 pm

It'll be here pretty quick. Time seems to be passing quickly for me lately. What I'm really looking forward to are those first cool fronts (teasers).
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby Darren » Mon Jul 16, 2018 7:07 am

Just over a month from the sighting days of last couple of years for me. Hurry! not much time left for prep :lol:
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby Rick » Tue Jul 17, 2018 5:28 pm

Spent much of the afternoon with "The Pond Doctor" both learning what he felt he could do for our boathouse and watching one of his machines work on one of Cherry Ridge's ponds. Think I prefer grinding on mine to what they're doing as it leaves a berm of spoil around the pond, but it sure will be nice if he can muck the boathouse out deep enough for that to no longer be an issue. Sorry to say I didn't think to take a camera, Dave, as I know you're interested in that sort of thing.
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby DComeaux » Tue Jul 17, 2018 6:48 pm

Rick wrote:Spent much of the afternoon with "The Pond Doctor" both learning what he felt he could do for our boathouse and watching one of his machines work on one of Cherry Ridge's ponds. Think I prefer grinding on mine to what they're doing as it leaves a berm of spoil around the pond, but it sure will be nice if he can muck the boathouse out deep enough for that to no longer be an issue. Sorry to say I didn't think to take a camera, Dave, as I know you're interested in that sort of thing.



I was thinking this when I read "pond doctor". A short video would have been nice.
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby Rick » Wed Jul 18, 2018 7:27 pm

Pond Doctor backed out on us, presumably for fear his "dredge" wouldn't handle it. Is a couple augers pushing stuff into a 4" centrifugal pump that's easily jammed by wrapped grass. Apparently made for very clean bottoms. Back to the drawing board - or is that "shovel and bucket"?
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby DComeaux » Wed Jul 18, 2018 8:33 pm

Rick wrote:Pond Doctor backed out on us, presumably for fear his "dredge" wouldn't handle it. Is a couple augers pushing stuff into a 4" centrifugal pump that's easily jammed by wrapped grass. Apparently made for very clean bottoms. Back to the drawing board - or is that "shovel and bucket"?



Well, that sucks.
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby DComeaux » Wed Jul 18, 2018 8:35 pm

Have you been out in the marshes around Chenier? Curious about water levels. Do you ever ride south of 82 on your quest for eggs?
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby Rick » Thu Jul 19, 2018 3:50 am

Other than a couple one or two nest stops, the Grand Chenier (Money and Tiger island) school sections above 82 are usually the last thing we do, aside from cleaning up little one or two nest spots, and with multiple boats there's a chance I won't see them this year. Pretty sure the Sagreras have Vermilion Corp. and likely anything else worthwhile South of the road and on that side of the refuge, don't know about yours.

Much of what we're doing along the north end of the marsh is so dry that we can only run a boat in it at all when the dew is on, and then with great difficulty: lots marsh busting on foot from where we're stuck to where we flat can't get and much, much, much more manual grass mashing and pushing and pulling the boat's front end to get unstuck. Tried the old Dixie/now Michal White marsh mid morning after working another near our camp yesterday and felt lucky to get back out without ever getting to the first nest. So it's slow enough going that the teal might beat us to Grand Chenier...
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby DComeaux » Thu Jul 19, 2018 7:29 am

Rick wrote:Other than a couple one or two nest stops, the Grand Chenier (Money and Tiger island) school sections above 82 are usually the last thing we do, aside from cleaning up little one or two nest spots, and with multiple boats there's a chance I won't see them this year. Pretty sure the Sagreras have Vermilion Corp. and likely anything else worthwhile South of the road and on that side of the refuge, don't know about yours.

Much of what we're doing along the north end of the marsh is so dry that we can only run a boat in it at all when the dew is on, and then with great difficulty: lots marsh busting on foot from where we're stuck to where we flat can't get and much, much, much more manual grass mashing and pushing and pulling the boat's front end to get unstuck. Tried the old Dixie/now Michal White marsh mid morning after working another near our camp yesterday and felt lucky to get back out without ever getting to the first nest. So it's slow enough going that the teal might beat us to Grand Chenier...



Not that I'm wishing for dry or low water conditions above 82, but it would sure help us out. I know those guy's, my neighbors in Chenier that hunt there (north of 82) struggle with water hyacinths and other vegetation most years, and low water would be an added pain.
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby Rick » Thu Jul 19, 2018 6:52 pm

See the Lacassine refuge Mermentau gauge most relevant to us is dropping again and am feeling it in my back after manually digging and prying out the only boat in our boathouse today with Ed O's much appreciated assistance. Was a far, far cry from the pleasure of watching the wood ducks pass while zipping across the "no motor" portion of the refuge in an airboat (with permit in hand) at sunrise this morning. But the really good news on the boathouse front is that Ed found a buddy who'd trade trackhoe work for teal hunting and having the wall blown out by my stall became a blessing:
001a.jpg


Bulkhead's rotted out so we didn't dare cut it too close, but the boat we dug out is now floating fully under cover in my slip. '

Also braved running it to my blind (ok, couldn't stand not to) and got a much better look at the mudhole than the hurried one in the ran a couple weeks back. Still flat tickled that the "pond" isn't a goose weed prairie, but continued drought may yet make it so, as shown by the view from the dog stand:
030a.jpg


Then, too, there's the ongoing cane battle. While spring poisoning knocked them back, they and the stuff that's trying to take their place, needed another lick:
015a.jpg


and got it late this afternoon. Which led to the first of what will be many "sticky" Mudhole situations:
050a.jpg


But I was at least able to get out there today, so I'm still counting blessings. (And dreading taking another shot in the morning at the much worse marsh that kicked the airboat's arse the other day. Not at all sure dew will be enough to make that one passable.)
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby DComeaux » Thu Jul 19, 2018 9:05 pm

Your flowers are lovely.
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby Rick » Fri Jul 20, 2018 3:55 am

Much, much more so than the goose weed hedge in the blind's boat slip.
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby Rick » Fri Jul 20, 2018 4:58 am

A shot of that "hedge" that also shows the contrast between more normal and current water levels:
031a.jpg
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby DComeaux » Fri Jul 20, 2018 6:55 am

I hope you get some rain water in the near future. Are you going to leave that wall open on the boat shed?
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Re: Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

Postby Rick » Fri Jul 20, 2018 9:24 am

It blew out some years back, and the landowner's been "going to fix" it ever since. But I like having it open for easy access from where I park next to it, and it sure came in handy yesterday.

Will also make replacing the rotted (largely untreated!) bulkhead simpler if/when that has to be done.

Re: rain, got out of the Dixie marsh this morning with most of our marks and a bonus found nest, but at least a couple of their ponds are bone dry. Counting my blessings and knocking wood... (And fixin' to go try for six more afoot due to tough sledding conditions.)
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