Preseason

[Deltaman]

Bet their is a lot of missing fingers in that crowd of boat captains

[DComeaux]

I made my first check-in with a good source for all things fowl down in Chenier this morning and the reply to my how's the ducks look down there text was, "THICK". I've got the new boat ready to go and the lumber for the new boat hide is bought and painted. Blake and I will head to the camp Friday evening and spend the cool morning in the marsh on Saturday building the boat hide and watching fowl, hopefully.

With the open water we now have the 100+ yard pirogue trip would be a little more adventurous than I'd like on windy days so I've opted for a low profile boat hide placed just south of our blind. We're going to be pulling up to the now new end of our boardwalk, which is shorter now thanks to the hurricanes. The north side of the boat hide will be covered almost at full length by tall, thick cordgrass which is growing naturally. The south and top of the hide will be covered with lengths of leafy grass matting complemented by taller, full roseau woven into the vertical matting and pushed into the mud. This will be done on the Friday before the opener. I plan to make the top matting look 3D, if you will, by adding short 2x4 pieces vertical on the cross horizontals to raise it in a random pattern with varying heights.

The blind will also need a helping of roseau tops for fill in as the "whip", as I call it, is suffering from the hurricanes wrath on our west side. I will try to get pictures and or video of this outing, if I can remember to do so.

I'm getting just a little excited!

[Rick]

Looking forward to photos.

[Darren]

Sounds awfully good, DC! Good luck with the work

[Duck Engr]

The most wonderful time of the year is upon us! Preseason optimism!

[BGkirk]

I made my first check-in with a good source for all things fowl down in Chenier this morning and the reply to my how's the ducks look down there text was, "THICK". I've got the new boat ready to go and the lumber for the new boat hide is bought and painted. Blake and I will head to the camp Friday evening and spend the cool morning in the marsh on Saturday building the boat hide and watching fowl, hopefully.

With the open water we now have the 100+ yard pirogue trip would be a little more adventurous than I'd like on windy days so I've opted for a low profile boat hide placed just south of our blind. We're going to be pulling up to the now new end of our boardwalk, which is shorter now thanks to the hurricanes. The north side of the boat hide will be covered almost at full length by tall, thick cordgrass which is growing naturally. The south and top of the hide will be covered with lengths of leafy grass matting complemented by taller, full roseau woven into the vertical matting and pushed into the mud. This will be done on the Friday before the opener. I plan to make the top matting look 3D, if you will, by adding short 2x4 pieces vertical on the cross horizontals to raise it in a random pattern with varying heights.

The blind will also need a helping of roseau tops for fill in as the "whip", as I call it, is suffering from the hurricanes wrath on our west side. I will try to get pictures and or video of this outing, if I can remember to do so.

I'm getting just a little excited!

Take some pics of the blind build


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DComeaux]

I was sent a couple of videos via text yesterday with my duck report, but IPhone to android video sending screws with video quality really bad. He was in the marsh this morning and sent me a picture saying that the gadwall were coming in. I had him send me one of the videos from yesterday via email so I could see what was out there. Watch on youtube for better viewing.

[Rick]

So that's where they are. Aren't here. Was at the marsh (bailing the boats w/o automatic pumps) this morning and saw exactly one little ball of teal at first light. Nothing but blue sky seen between there and Gueydan and back, either. Hate a westerly wind, no matter how good it feels.

Hate that so much country that should be covered with specks by now is so barren, too.

[DComeaux]

Hate that so much country that should be covered with specks by now is so barren, too.

From what I've seen Arkansas has plenty of those right now.

[MARSH BEAR]

WOW that was a mess of Gadwall. I hope to see some of that Nov 6 and 7 for youth weekend.

[DComeaux]

WOW that was a mess of Gadwall. I hope to see some of that Nov 6 and 7 for youth weekend.

That video was a mix of many species. The gadwall I mention came in a photo he sent this morning. He mentioned pintail, teal and gadwall in that video.

[DComeaux]

Forbes Biological Station
391cSu17m03otanst7lrd9hi ·
October 26th, 2021 – Aerial Waterfowl Inventory Blog
We flew the waterfowl survey on Tuesday, October 26, 2021. A high Illinois River and perhaps the youth season redistributed birds across much of the IRV, probably more the former than the latter. The youth season likely pushed some birds onto refuges this week, but otherwise I did not observe a significant change along either river system numbers-wise. We observed ~ 25% numbers bump from last week along the IRV (~165,000), but are 26% below the 10-yr average for this time of year. I expect those numbers will change along much of the Illinois River when hunting opens this weekend and birds are pushed into the refuges. The backwater lakes along the Upper IL were 90-100% inundated this week, and it appears much of the food that matured despite the late drawdown is overtopped. A few of the refuges from Big Lake running south have fared a little better so far, but it is inevitable that food will be overtopped in these areas soon given the most recent river prediction (18’ @ Havana). On the bright side, birds are finding newly-flooded food at Chautauqua NWR, North Globe, and Emiquon Preserve. Further south, birds are also exploiting new water on Cuba Island and Big Prairie. In contrast, habitat along the MS River looks good so far. The MS river saw a 13% bump in duck numbers from last week and is right on par with the 10-yr average for this time of year. Many of the clubs and refuges at the river confluence are gradually bringing on water and they’re starting to be rewarded for it with ducks. We’re still pintail- and teal-heavy across both rivers, which has me optimistic for the central-zone opener this weekend.
Waterfowl hunters along in the IRV are a resilient bunch; we have to be. Fifty-one weeks ago Aaron was writing about the drought we were in. “……. we can’t ‘buy’ a drop of water up here. The drought naturally dewatered many seasonal wetlands this summer and made abundant food resources for ducks. However, many refuges are struggling to get water back on the duck food. And those areas without water control and pumps are high and dry.” Two years ago he was describing exactly what we are seeing right now, decent habitat along the river in early October swamped by a mid-late October flood event. Looking back over the last decade of river data, it certainly appears that is our new “normal” for the IRV. A changing climate combined with a severely altered river system is leading to more extreme cases of weather and river stages as opposed to an in-between, happy medium. But hunters persist. It is either a testament to the passion we have for the outdoors, or to how stubborn and bull-headed we truly are. I’m not sure if either (or both) is accurate. Many times we find ourselves “looking on the bright side.” For instance, habitat and duck numbers along the central MS River are looking good right now!
If you’re heading out to the duck blind this weekend, I wish you the best of luck! You can find more information about the waterfowl survey along with recent numbers at our webpage http://www.bellrose.org. See ya next week!

The water stage (ft) of the Illinois River at Havana as of the timing of this post. Courtesy of http://www.water.weather.gov.

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The last remaining unflooded habitat in Grass Lake during the flight on Tuesday, October 26, 2021. The river has since overtopped this piece.

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It isn't ALL bad news. Northern pintails and mallards using a club refuge at the confluence of the Illinois and MS Rivers.

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[DComeaux]

Radar migration tracking.

https://birdcast.info/migration-tools/live-migration-maps/?fbclid=IwAR3DnCEp_yM2S2Io-AHfkSBzDenRCLkVNMOjEcwBcN81Ecj54hnLFyY-8C8

[Darren]

well isn't that neat!

[SpinnerMan]

Further up the Illinois River from those surveys, we couldn't buy rain this summer. Now we have a ton of water everywhere.

That buck I shot I went over my boots tracking him through what normally has some water but was completely dry ground in late summer and early fall.



According to the survey taken on the same day in the areas in my county surveyed there were a grand total for ducks was 260 mallards. Although I suspect with all the rain, the mallards aren't using the refuge areas but the standing water in every field that has been recently picked for the rain set in. But still, ducks are few and far between. Won't be picking anything more for quite some time. Geese numbers even seem to have dropped dramatically.

We had so much rain lately, I had to make my first water retrieve on a deer.

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[DComeaux]

We got a good start on the boat hide which was tedious and time consuming, to say the least. We ran short on thatch for a small portion on the north side and may just fill that with roseau. With the levees south of us on other property destroyed from the hurricanes the water in our place was very high, but according to the actual land owner who stopped for a visit at the boat launch, it was even higher just a few days earlier. This was evident by amount of land and vegetation that was lost from the wave action before and after this last front. We had waves crash over the blind which we had never seen before. The west wind did us bad.

I'm not sure how long we'll be able to hunt the blind this season without water control, but we'll hunt nonetheless. We may lose this blind early in the season at this rate. I spoke to the guy I lease from and he'll have a marsh hoe on our lease very soon to build up his blind area and told me he'll stop by our blind and add some dirt to give us a buffer for the season. I hope this happens.


We did jump a few ducks on the way out but had our head buried (literally) in work the remainder of the time. We did however get to see a few flocks of different species come by from time to time including a flock of beautiful pintail that drifted over our pond. We have plans to be back out there next weekend to add some finishing touches to the boat hide and blind and put a few crab traps soaking.

After framing up the structure we ran back the the trucks and loaded the thatch. Blake had a soft and relaxing ride back out.

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I think a little green roseau placed in front of this will blind it in nicely. To the left of the hide you can see the blind. The water is now right on it. We're now on a narrow 3' stirp of soft marsh mud with some vegetation hanging on for dear life.

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[Darren]

Wow, you ain't lying, that nice chunk of ground yall built on couple years back is hanging by a thread. Glad to hear you were seeing some birds to make the work easier.

[BGkirk]

Hope the marsh hoe shows up for you… boy would I like to run one for a day


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DComeaux]

Blake and I were out in the marsh again this weekend with me getting out there early afternoon on Friday. On my way out to set the crab traps the first bunch of birds I jumped was a flock of 150 or so green wing with a couple of other flocks of 30 or 40 getting airborne as I made my my to the back. I returned to the truck immediately after setting the last trap but did see a few milling around in that time. Blake an I did push a few on the way out Saturday to do a bit more work to the boat hide. The water is really low now and I hope it stays this way. The GW really love it.

This morning Blake and I were up early to get out to the traps to take what crabs had crawled in and while standing outside at the camp waiting for the sun clear the horizon we witnessed a fowl migration, one I hadn't seen in a few years. For 5 to 10 minutes we watched several large flocks coming from the north. As far as we could see east and west both of us would point out flocks as they would appear on the horizon.

As we cleared narrow ditch from the boat landing this morning I had to stop to get this shot....Misty Morning.

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The crabs were select and delicious.

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We'll both be out in the marsh next Friday to get the blind bailed and brushed and will add roseau to the boat hide as a final touch. Neither of us have high expectations for opening morning and will take what we're given. We have plans to chase redfish on Friday after the hunt Saturday. Only one camp neighbor went out for the youth hunt Saturday and they took 10. Spoonbill and teal were on the strap. They hunt just a mile or so east of our blind.

[Duck Engr]

Awesome weekend DC! Never hurts to see birds, even if it doesn’t mean diddly one way or the other come next weekend.

[Rick]

This morning Blake and I were up early to get out to the traps to take what crabs had crawled in and while standing outside at the camp waiting for the sun clear the horizon we witnessed a fowl migration, one I hadn't seen in a few years. For 5 to 10 minutes we watched several large flocks coming from the north. As far as we could see east and west both of us would point out flocks as they would appear on the horizon.

I ain't kicking about what we had for the weekend, but if we had any passing high new bird flights at all, my eyes are to poor to have spotted them. Am jealous of the feeling of promise seeing such flights brings. And the big swarms of green-wings I'd seen a few of last week apparently headed for Grand Chenier, as well. Hope they stick for you.

[Deltaman]

Look at those blue beauties!!!!! Have you thrown the cast net for shrimp yet Dave?

[DComeaux]

Look at those blue beauties!!!!! Have you thrown the cast net for shrimp yet Dave?

Shrimping is about over for us in the marsh. They're in the process of leaving the marsh for the gulf. I may try next weekend but these fronts with cooler temps have triggered a mass exodus.

[DComeaux]

I can't remember ever seeing an opening weekend weather forecast like this one. Two fronts a day apart. Might get our first frost in a few days.

https://www.facebook.com/TheRobPerillo/videos/612785049762657

[Darren]

I can't remember ever seeing an opening weekend weather forecast like this one. Two fronts a day apart. Might get our first frost in a few days.

https://www.facebook.com/TheRobPerillo/videos/612785049762657

Thanks for posting Dave, I'd thought it looked like two different systems (basically we're showing forecast of two different wind shifts) but didn't know for sure it was actually two separate frontal boundaries.

Yes, jacked up for this one Sat morning regardless of what I see or don't tomorrow while brushing.

[Rick]

Weather and birds are gonna do whatever they're gonna do. Best we can do is hope to be there if and when they do.

[DComeaux]

Weather and birds are gonna do whatever they're gonna do. Best we can do is hope to be there if and when they do.

It will and they are, but I'd rather have this weather while sitting in the blind than a hot, stale weather pattern. I know these forecast winds for you are at a from your back final approach.

[Rick]

It will and they are, but I'd rather have this weather while sitting in the blind than a hot, stale weather pattern. I know these forecast winds for you are at a from your back final approach.

Still waiting on a remotely meaningful north wind here.

[DComeaux]

Everything is ready to go out in the marsh. We didn't see but a few on the way out and had gadwall try to land in the decoys while we were brushing the blind. Eyewitness reports are that we have plenty of birds around us, and my hope is to get some of those pushed birds.

We decided to check on the shrimp situation in the marsh after we finished with the blind and there were a few but it would have taken many hours to get enough. Also, the bycatch was terrible. We checked a spot on the way in for reds and caught a few bulls. We didn't fish very long.

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[DComeaux]

Reminded me of the Gueydan area the last year we were there.

https://www.facebook.com/thehounders/videos/537114956752462