WaterfowlForum.Net

Just saw the first report and picture of bluewing in Arkansas today.

Blake and I went down to the camp Saturday to clean out the fridge and tidy up a bit. There's a 10 hour power outage scheduled for this Friday to cut the entire power system over to the new and much improved power grid. Our power was coming from multiple large generators stationed just up the road from us for three or four, maybe 5 years now. outages were frequent. It's been this way since Hurricane Laura.

The water at the lease is stable but higher than I'd like to see it. No sign of vegetation (SAV) in the pounds in the front that we could see. Randall my former landlord dropped out of this lease. We'll be alone on this property this year, or share some with the landowners family... Not sure yet.
Social media has ruined the Rockefeller refuge. Traffic counters for the entrances to the refuge estimated 29,868 entries during the months of April, May, and June. I've not had the courage to tackle these crowds yet, especially after almost being swamped last year by a ski boat, of all things, while I was trying to get back to the landing. The boat traffic was ridiculous that day. Most didn't have a clue where they were going or how to operate a boat. Most of what I'll call regulars from years past are staying away. Fights at the weirs are being reported and responded to by game wardens. It's turned into a real Sh#@ show.

Hate to hear of what's come of our refuges where there's just so much pressure/traffic.

During my circa '90s Capt. Rick phase, I'd arranged to meet a Lafayette near-shore party at Grand Chenier Park and was surprised to find the parking lot jam-packed. Seemed the Louisiana Sportsman had just printed an article titled "The Forgotten Coast" by some spot-burner named Hall. Dumb ass. Don't want to even think about today's crowd.

First good look at what this "SUPER" El Nino may bring to us this winter.

Could bring more events of cold colliding with wet, so interesting weather down here.

Liberal seasons are going to keep taking bigger bites out of the dwindling population. I think our "U.S. "waterfowl managers" have lost their way.

DComeaux wrote:Liberal seasons are going to keep taking bigger bites out of the dwindling population. I think our "U.S. "waterfowl managers" have lost their way.

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My money is on the higher pond count rebounding the breeding ducks to be counted in May 2027, bookmark this forecast. Given the pond count from a year ago was down almost 20% year over year from 2024, hard to believe anyone could see this BPOP being up for puddlers.

You don't hunt the BPOP, you hunt what they are able to make with the habitat provided.

DComeaux wrote:Liberal seasons are going to keep taking bigger bites out of the dwindling population. I think our "U.S. "waterfowl managers" have lost their way.

But Delta says:

https://deltawaterfowl.org/whats-new/hu ... the-guilt/


Shoot the drakes

“Mallards, for instance, have a surplus of males compared to females. Because they are monogamous in nature, those extra drakes that do not find a mate often disrupt pair bonds or compete for resources without contributing to reproduction.”

So, taking more drakes may actually ease pressure on females during the high-stress breeding season.
“Harvest of males at current levels, or even if we increased it twofold, would have no impact and might have a positive impact on the population overall,” he said.

Hens have their own equation. Adult females drive reproduction, so their survival matters more.

“For most species, our hunter harvest rates for hens are so low that there’s still not much of an impact,” said Arnold. “We sometimes worry about pintails and yet we’re only harvesting around 3% of the adult females. We aren’t concerned about harvesting females in the big picture—we actually need to harvest them to estimate survival, abundance, and reproductive success. But compared to all of the other factors that kill hens, hunting does not have much of an influence.”


The science says that while hunting does remove birds, it’s not the factor driving overall population declines or increases. Causes such as predation, disease, and other natural agents exert far greater pressure on their ability to survive.

Who knows any more!? Just go hunt.

Mallard Numbers Continue to Decline, According to Latest USFWS Survey
Dabbling ducks took a hit even as divers saw gains, rendering duck numbers relatively stable overall. Meanwhile, conditions on the prairie are shifting birds northward.

“It’s a little worse than what I expected, to be blunt,” says Arnold. “The overall duck numbers aren’t bad … I’d say that’s unchanged. What jumps out at me is mallards, blue-wings, and pintails all being down by eleven percent. And also long-term, they’re down. Collectively those two things, to me, mean more than the annual fluctuation. It says the prairies have been dry for a long time, and we haven’t had good production for a long time.”



https://share.google/WUvFJnj0fAndohlkS

Good article, highs and lows.

Fun to kick around for now but on weekends of Sept 19th and Nov 14th, we'll just have to go see!

Blake and were at the camp this weekend to have a look around and to catch a few shrimp. We did eventually make it to the blind on Saturday morning, where the water is extremely low and the blind needs a lot of brush. We had stripped all the dead brush from around the blind at the end of the season, leaving it naked. It's still naked as no vegetation has grown around it. It was mid-morning and hot as heck when we got to the blind and neither of us had the motivation to do any work.
I jumped 6 or 7 teal on the way out, though I had to use a narrow ditch with tall grass and Roseau on either side, so my sight was limited. I had to use this ditch due to the extremely low water conditions we have, which gave us a stretch or two of crusty top mud flats in our usual run. I had no desire to fight the mud in that heat.
With the Elon Musk fiasco in Pecan Island and the lack of teal, it was not a typical weekend before the season gathering in the marsh. The roads lacked the mud boat/trailer traffic and most, if not all, of the roadside boat houses were empty. The rocket thing has affected a lot of hunters down there. Generational Vermillion corp duck leases are gone.
We'll be back early on Friday morning to get things ready at the blind if we have enough water. I'm not sure of the absorption or evaporation rate per week. When stopped in our pond, the boat is sitting on the bottom. We'll definitely catch more shrimp, if they're still running.

Friday and Saturdays take. 25LB limit both days of 20 per pound shrimp. The by-catch was minimal with very little to no culling. As far the shrimp, the size average was very consistent in each cast. I used an accurate scale at home to get my count per pound.




On the way home early Sunday morning driving through MUSK (pecan) Island we got to see this beautiful sunrise. The picture doesn't do it justice. In the very near future, the peace of this place will be shattered.





I remember a comment on one of my post some time back asking how we catch the shrimp so I thought I'd post this video Blake took of a cast I made. He likes slow-mo.

How many bananas did Blake have to delete to catch a full net?

More seriously, I envy you those pretty shrimp. Glad you haven't been crowed out of all your spots.

Rick wrote:How many bananas did Blake have to delete to catch a full net?

More seriously, I envy you those pretty shrimp. Glad you haven't been crowed out of all your spots.

Honestly, that was the first take, got lucky. Many bananas were made during our time there, especially when fatigue set in.

One of those things where the harder you try, the worser you get.

Pretty spoiled to have a marina within walking distance from the camp; you can buy "bait shrimp" to fish with, and then just eat them if the fish don't, they're usually pretty....and like $3-$4/lb.

Darren wrote:Pretty spoiled to have a marina within walking distance from the camp; you can buy "bait shrimp" to fish with, and then just eat them if the fish don't, they're usually pretty....and like $3-$4/lb.

Like duck hunting, it'd be cheaper to buy then to kill/catch yourself. However, these fresh shrimp and the way they're handled after the catch sure makes a difference in taste.

Rick wrote:One of those things where the harder you try, the worser you get.

That is the truth!

Interesting. Listen to the narration in the FB link.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1BjJzfnCXD/

Ross's Goose is the small white goose that hides inside winter flocks of Snow Geese, and we can learn to pick it out.
Look for a rounder head and a shorter bill that lacks the black grinning patch of its larger cousin. So where do Ross's Geese nest?
About 95 percent raise their young in the Queen Maud Gulf Migratory Bird Sanctuary in Nunavut, on islands in shallow lakes where eggs sit safer from foxes.
The female lays about four dull white eggs in a ground bowl of grass and moss lined with down, then incubates them alone for about three weeks.
Samuel Hearne's Horned Wavey had a home all along, just very far from anyone's window.
Have you ever picked a Ross's Goose out of a Snow Goose flock, and where was the field?
#Birds #BirdMigration #WaterfowlMigration #BirdFacts #NaturalHistory
AI Disclaimer: Images were generated with AI for creative and artistic purposes.
Sources:
https://www.audubon.org/bird-guide-api/1503
https://www.10000birds.com/rosss-goose- ... tle-snow...
https://pacificflyway.gov/Documents/Pfrg_plan.pdf
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38404/3 ... 8404-h.htm
https://archive.org/dow.../biostor-2015 ... 201517.pdf
https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species ... printable=

Not my photo or hunt, but old friends took this mixed bag in SELA. Three on right are, top to bottom, an adult Ross, juvenile Ross, and what I think was the father and son duo's fifth rare blue Ross:


Canadas are a, very rare here, "mid continent" migrant and one of the little Richardson's we enjoyed in numbers here for a little while.

Killed a white Ross 4-5 years ago in Bunkie, and the last Richardson's I saw standing on the ground were just as you turn off the highway on to the gravel road headed due south toward CR and OI, Rick's stomping grounds, probably 8-10 yrs back now.

An interesting take on waterfowl hunting, and there's a lot I agree with.