Looking Ahead

[Ducaholic]

No point. Only saying that Eric DC stopped using spinners for a year or two and now he's back using them. Maybe he will tell us why. You may do the same if you don't get the desired result.

Sure might, but for now, full speed ahead without them. I just haven't seen birds break from way high or finish in close for them any better (or at all) with them in the field. Guys in the next blind over from us? They run 3, every day, all day.

We kill more than they do, though.

[SpinnerMan]

Why are y'all urbanizing waterfowl?

This got me curious about why they like that pond. Clearly it is not a food source.

https://wildlife.org/jwm-water-management-can-help-redhead-duck-conservation/

They forage in the saline lagoons along the coast south of Corpus Christi, Texas on underwater shoal grass meadows. But their appetite for these plants means they also ingest a lot of saltwater. To reduce the salt concentration in their blood, the birds are driven off the coast in search of freshwater to drink.

I'm sure that is what is going on there and why it is nearly all redheads. Looking at the satellite, the sound right near there looks like a whole lot of green under water.

I also looked and you can't hunt in the sound near there

Those redheads in the park. That's a different area but also not far from a shallow coastal area that is probably another feeding area for redheads and they hop over to the park for a drink of freshwater and little bread for dessert. I saw a bay down in that area the other year that was just wall to wall divers.

[Rick]

Darren, you hunted with us at Doug's long for me to forget if you knew Miss Betty when she was our cook, If not, you missed the best of them. If so, you might want to know she's passed on and might want to send a prayer with her.

[Darren]

Darren, you hunted with us at Doug's long for me to forget if you knew Miss Betty when she was our cook, If not, you missed the best of them. If so, you might want to know she's passed on and might want to send a prayer with her.

Thanks Rick, and I'm thinking I missed her but sounds like she was a key piece of that fabric I loved so will certainly send prayers.
Jenny Rose ran the kitchen from my first trip and off and on thereafter for a while before misc. others came and went. Enjoyed sitting with her in the kitchen a few times learning a few tricks, reminded me so much of my late Broussard area Mema, below. Always a big loss of those from that area and of that era, many of which were still rare ties back to fluent spoken Cajun French.

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[Rick]

Jenny Rose ran the kitchen from my first trip and off and on thereafter for a while before misc. others came and went. Enjoyed sitting with her in the kitchen a few times learning a few tricks, reminded me so much of my late Broussard area Mema, below. Always a big loss of those from that area and of that era, many of which were still rare ties back to fluent spoken Cajun French.

DSC01779.JPG

Betty was the first I saw stuff ducks and geese in pockets cut, fore to aft, between their breast meat and ribs, and it hadn't been but a day or two since I thought of her while doing so when I learned she was gone. Also told me to ignore Douglas' attempts at French, "That's not real (Cajun) French." Will be interesting to see how much of it I will be heard at her funeral this afternoon.

[Darren]

Spent last week in England, specifically Birmingham, Oxford, London and Newcastle.

Saw some nice fowl around Hyde Park in London , including the "specks" of sorts below.

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Also thought this was a neat painting in Kensington Palace. While art portraying our favorite species is commonplace in the US, it's pretty rare to find it of that era and style. Kind of cartoonish, typical of that age.

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Waking up Friday morning to Heathrow being without power was a bit of a problem, but we scrambled and re-booked via Newcastle for the next morning....and hopped on the train headed north! English countryside is really pretty.

[Rick]

Business or pleasure?

[SpinnerMan]

Very cool. I've only seen England from 30,000 feet. I'd love to go sometime, but there are so many places I'd love to go that I'm not sure that will be one of them.

[Darren]

Business or pleasure?

Play trip, wife and I's 15-yr anniv was last Wednesday. Really liked the whole experience more than I thought, from a concert in an Oxford theater to the food scene, and off-the-scales quaintness of the countryside hamlets. Sure made me realize that, though we do a lot right in the US, we are doing a whoooole lot flat wrong.

[Rick]

No question.

[DComeaux]

Sure made me realize that, though we do a lot right in the US, we are doing a whoooole lot flat wrong.

I had a different perspective after being in Holland for three months and some in Germany with work, though this was in the late 80's early 90's?. Vietnam seemed to be the hot topic for many of those who came to visit the Americans at the Inn. I elected to take a layover, though short, at Heathrow rather than a direct schipol to Atlanta for my return trip. The country side was stunning from the air at low altitude on approach and I wished I had more time to venture out.

Definitely a totally different time in history. I'm not sure what I'd think today. The world is not in the same place it once was.

[Darren]

I could go on for days but I'll try to portray the gist....

Perhaps the largest thing was a nearly unanimous sense of pride in their trade or workplace role, outward politeness to all, pride in their appearance, all with zero apparent sense of entitlement, factors being those we have severe problems with here in the US.

My kids (and thus my wife and I) spent a lot of time watching the British cartoon Peppa Pig over the years, where everyone's just jolly and polite, from the grocery store worker to the roadwork man to the train operator to the airline pilot to the local dentist...........

It literally seemed oddly just like the cartoon over there, and just such a stark contrast to here at home.

We weren't on the ground for an hour when we were in need of assistance I figured we were to be totally SOL on. The kiosk that issues their Oyster cards (pay-per-ride train system card) spit out just one when it owed us two. I mistakenly judged the first fella to come by as likely to be of no help, and was floored by his attitude and willingness to see it through until it was rectified, all simply going by our word. That's but Exhibit A of what would become a long list, but really set the tone that things were different there from jump.

Had that happened in one of our local airports or train stations, I'd have likely just had to eat the lost fare and move on, sadly.

[DComeaux]

I could go on for days but I'll try to portray the gist....

Perhaps the largest thing was a nearly unanimous sense of pride in their trade or workplace role, outward politeness to all, pride in their appearance, all with zero apparent sense of entitlement, factors being those we have severe problems with here in the US.

My kids (and thus my wife and I) spent a lot of time watching the British cartoon Peppa Pig over the years, where everyone's just jolly and polite, from the grocery store worker to the roadwork man to the train operator to the airline pilot to the local dentist...........

It literally seemed oddly just like the cartoon over there, and just such a stark contrast to here at home.

We weren't on the ground for an hour when we were in need of assistance I figured we were to be totally SOL on. The kiosk that issues their Oyster cards (pay-per-ride train system card) spit out just one when it owed us two. I mistakenly judged the first fella to come by as likely to be of no help, and was floored by his attitude and willingness to see it through until it was rectified, all simply going by our word. That's but Exhibit A of what would become a long list, but really set the tone that things were different there from jump.

Had that happened in one of our local airports or train stations, I'd have likely just had to eat the lost fare and move on, sadly.

Ahhhh, Peppa Pig. I've logged a few hours with the grandkids watching this.

[Rick]

Need more Peppa Pig in the world.

[Darren]

Oh and essentially no tipping. Tap your credit card for instant payments at bars and restaurants, none of this "would you like to leave/add a tip?" prompting.

Some high end restaurants had a listed 15% service fee, fine, but vast majority of service received had no expectation of, or opportunity for, tipping.

[Darren]

Made a trip out to the marsh lease Saturday mid-morning, part of a fishing/lease recon outing with the family. We all took pirogue's into the back blind so that I could pull some of the brush out of it to allow local growth for offseason. Was pretty disappointed by the lack of SAV showing back there, but for whatever reason, our Redhead Pond/blind had bumper crop of predominantly wigeon grass coming along so that was a pleasant surprise.

Old brush out, scraped the marsh grass off the floor. She's good to go for summer growing season, just wish I saw more SAV, very unusual for that hole to be free of it.

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buttoned up duck boat for a nap

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[Darren]

Nice story, interesting insight on some names many will recognize:

[Ducaholic]

[Darren]

A few grays still coming down to my salt marshes

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[DComeaux]

The future is not looking good for Louisiana and waterfowl. I'm losing more and more hope as time goes by. We'll see how this season plays out for us down there. I'm growing very weary of the fight with all aspects of waterfowl hunting.

I can't help but think we have no conservationist making decisions when it comes to waterfowl. Money is a big driver and as long as there's a duck flying somewhere we'll kill it. We'll band and study them to the end, which takes money.

[SpinnerMan]

The future is not looking good for Louisiana and waterfowl. I'm losing more and more hope as time goes by. We'll see how this season plays out for us down there. I'm growing very weary of the fight with all aspects of waterfowl hunting.

I can't help but think we have no conservationist making decisions when it comes to waterfowl. Money is a big driver and as long as there's a duck flying somewhere we'll kill it. We'll band and study them to the end, which takes money.

For your sake and mine, I hope we have an early, cold, and snowy winter. It's been quite a few years since that happened.

It's not going to be a bumper year in southern Louisiana if there are ducks that never left Canada at the end of the season.

Before I started hunting near the cooling lake, It wasn't unusually to hunt the last couple weeks of duck season on top of the ice. I can't think of the last time we've had safe ice in November. It's been since 2016 since the total snowfall in December was above 5 inches. We had a foot total in Nov in 2018. Completely minimum November and December since then. January has been a little better with snow, but we get it and then it warms up and melts everything. I can't think of the last long hard freeze that locks up all the rivers and keeps them locked up. We get fits and starts of cold, including some really arctic weather, and then it'll hit 50.

I hope we get completely froze out by Thanksgiving and covered up by snow shortly there after. It's been a couple generations of ducks that haven't seen a long cold winter. It's no wonder their are patterns shifting.

[Darren]

Weather stuff noted above is the reality for sure, thanks Spinner.

[Ducaholic]

I'm of the belief that our minds always think of the coldest and most harsh winters/weather events because we they stand out. I also think that they were a lot rarer than we think. It is warmer of late without a doubt, but it's never been as cold or snowy as our most vivid memories consistently speaking. With that said I'd like a normal winter to see what will happen. I am a firm believer it will take one of those historic years of cold and snow for La. to sniff what used to be a normal migration without fail. There are now multiple generations of waterfowl that have never been to La. The number of ducks that have imprinted on La. has dropped significantly over the last 5-7 years.

[SpinnerMan]

I agree it was up and down in the past and the historic snow fall totals show that. We are just in a relatively long stretch of low snow and no extended cold. But we've had some of the absolutely coldest days the last few years, but then it gets so warm it doesn't just melt the snow, but opens up a lot of the water.

[DComeaux]

I'm of the belief that our minds always think of the coldest and most harsh winters/weather events because we they stand out. I also think that they were a lot rarer than we think. It is warmer of late without a doubt, but it's never been as cold or snowy as our most vivid memories consistently speaking.

The grand passage of 1956/57. I've attached a link to St Louis Missouri's temps for 1956 by month. I've also posted a link for Bismark ND for the same year. You can change the year and look at 1955 which is mentioned below. I didn't find a big difference from today's weather.


WATERFOWL FLIGHTS IN THE MISSISSIPPI
FLYWAY, 1956 AND 1957
FRANK C. BELLBOSE AND JAMES G. SIEH
A LMOST every year in the Mississippi Flyway there is one waterfowl flight
that is greater in scope and magnitude than all others. Some refer to
it as the “grand passage” of waterfowl. This great movement usually occurs
during the first week of November, but it may be earlier or later. In 1957,
this spectacular duck migration occurred from October 23-25; in 1956, it
occurred from November 6-8; in 1955, it occurred from October 31 to
November 3.
The 1955 grand passage of waterfowl was discussed in an earlier paper
(Bellrose, 1957). The p resent paper largely concerns the grand passage of
waterfowl in 1956 and 1957. Although the 1956 and 1957 flights were not
so large as the one in 1955, they were still of unusual scope and magnitude in
the Mississippi Flyway. They are discussed here not so much because of
their size, but primarily because of the unique complementary observations
made in Iowa and in Illinois.
The 1955 massed waterfowl flight was well documented on its passage
from Canada to Louisiana (Bellrose, 1957). Therefore, in discussing the
1956 and 1957 grand passages of waterfowl we have attempted to provide
only a sketchy documentation of the over-all flights in favor of more detailed
descriptions of the movement through Iowa and Illinois.
Studies of waterfowl movements are productive of information on three
aspects of migration: (1) the mechanics of migration including routes, speed,
altitude, and flock behavior; (2) the problem of navigation; and (3) the
weather conditions responsible for initiating migratory movements.

https://www.extremeweatherwatch.com/cities/st-louis/year-1956

https://www.extremeweatherwatch.com/cities/bismarck/year-1956

More recent St Louis recorded temps.
https://weatherspark.com/h/s/12083/2024/2/Historical-Weather-Fall-2024-in-St.-Louis-Missouri-United-States#Figures-Temperature

https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/wilson/v072n01/p0029-p0059.pdf