State of the Season

[5 stand]

Thank you, Larry

[Darren]

Quoting DC's note of the "have had's", indeed many have talked about for years now this game becoming a case of the have's and have-not's.

There's a wealthy fella I won't name that manages some phenomenal habitat just south of the farm we hunt in Avoyelles Parish. I keep hearing from others that "right now you can't put another duck on it," and for good reason given managed pressure, reportedly only hunting twice per week, and carefully managed food sources flooded up.

This morning I caught this episode from Daybreak Outdoors hunting at White Oaks Duck Woods in Arkansas. Just the same, someone with the means to, is providing protection/safety and food galore for a transient critter....giving them no reason to leave there.



Sure there's plenty mallards there, but a whole lot of everything else under the sun too. In my marsh we've got no food this season, and always fairly scarce on rest areas that arent disturbed. In the ag land area I hunt, there are multiple brand new blinds i've noticed this year, every piece of water is shooting at the birds. It's comparatively hellish versus what some others are doing for the birds.

[Deltaman]

Thanks for the video Darren, and what a huge "have" there!
There is a fellow hunter on the Fuge (da fowl slayer), located in TN, that manages his farm in a very similar manner. He only hunts every 4th day, and like the White Oak farm, he has plenty of rest areas that don't get hunted. His farm is only a tenth of the size of White Oak, but his success rate is very similar, as is his methodology for duck management.
Dave,
Thank You for compiling these numbers, and dammit man, the 2023 numbers tell the tale that we've all been seeing.
On a high note, looks like 1995 was a banner year for the area.

[DComeaux]

With the low numbers of birds in the state, that type of operation is the only way to attract and hold concentrations birds.

there are multiple brand new blinds I've noticed this year, every piece of water is shooting at the birds. It's comparatively hellish versus what some others are doing for the birds.

Your place reminds me a little of Cazan's, which is near your farm. I looked at leasing a blind in that place out of desperation over 10 years ago and didn't like what I saw. The blinds were close enough that your working birds would have to swing over someone else. I wasn't that desperate. I hate to see more blinds being put in at your place.

Pressure on our place seems ridiculous now but when I think about it every one of those blinds has been in it's current location for over 40 years. Back in the day it didn't seem to be an issue with everyone finishing quickly and getting out of the marsh. We just need more birds to make it here. Using Larry's numbers, the average over those years posted is 2.8 million birds with the max a @ 5.5, if I'm reading that correctly. This December we're at 1.1. That's a lot of missing fowl.

[Darren]

Group text chatter this morning went something like as follows:

"Neighbor just got back from a group trip to Stuttgart. 6 guys hunting twice per day for 3 days killed a grand total of 10 ducks"

[Darren]

Pretty enlightening on the matter of pressure driving ducks' daily habits/flights etc

[DComeaux]

Quoting Phil Robertson: " I'm not a mallard purest". It seems everything revolves around this park duck.

[Darren]

As many of us already figured, data still being compiled, I'm sure more to come.

https://www.noaa.gov/news/us-had-its-wa ... -on-record

Meteorological winter (December 2023 – February 2024) | Year-to-date

Meteorological winter was the warmest winter on record for the contiguous U.S., with an average temperature of 37.6 degrees F — 5.4 degrees above average. Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Vermont and Wisconsin each had their warmest winter on record. Twenty-six additional states saw their top-10 warmest winters on record.

....not exactly migration-inducing.

[Ducaholic]

I'm of the strong belief that a normal winter would not have the same results it did in 2000 in terms of migration numbers. Specialized Habitat Options to our north like never before and spinning wing decoys killing off lots of the new hatch every year just makes it tough on everyone this far south.

[Darren]

Finest bluewing drake specimen I've seen in person, hadn't seen one with the white going all the way down the back of the neck.

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Available for everyone's enjoyment, 7 days a week at the Aquarium of the Americas, New Orleans, Louisiana

[Deltaman]

Beautiful birds for sure! Always love to see them this time of year when they come back thru in full color.

[SpinnerMan]

My Dad who duck hunted quite a bit in his day almost got in an argument with me. He had a pair of BWT land on his pond in the spring. He asked me what these ducks were and he described them. They were clearly a pair of BWT which I told him. He told me he'd shot a few BWT over the years. These were definitely not BWT. He had know idea what they looked like in their breeding plumage. They are pretty all dressed up for the dance.

[Rick]

That's as nice as I've seen on the strap or from under the spring banding nets.

Years back a fellow who'd hunted with someone else approached me at the boat house and asked if I thought he should mount his banded teal, and I got to tell him he was a more apt to shoot others with bands than with a white mane like the one in hand. Similarly, had a fellow mention hoping for a decent mounting blue-wing just before this one showed up:

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Don't see them often enough to not be tickled by the chance.