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Well in the summertime I typically leave the coyotes and fox alone. I just focus on the raccoons and skunks. Yesterday I saw a fox and did not have my rifle with me. She was actively hunting the pothole edges. Saw her again today and she was running across the field with a duck in her mouth. So she will be my priority number one!

Doing the Lord's work, Pork Chop! Keep those predators knocked back. Rough life for a duck.

Amen

Get that SOB!!!

While you're at it, get the plows that are the absolute worse of nest predators. Banning ethanol would be a fine start.

Rick wrote:While you're at it, get the plows that are the absolute worse of nest predators. Banning ethanol would be a fine start.

100% agree! Unfortunately with the last few dry Falls we’ve had here a lot of nesting cover was turned into croplands. Now a lot of that is flooded and for the most part the birds have to nest in road ditches As we were blessed with a lot of water this spring. I know for a fact there are still many ducks on nests on the roads edge and my county put out a notice that they will start cutting the ditches on 5 July. They do this so that the farmers that want to hay those ditches can do it before the 5th so a lot of guys are getting after it and I cringe at the thought of how many eggs are being destroyed. Kind of the curse of moisture as it is made those ditches grow fast this year. Thankfully though every day I see more and more ducklings and I will go as far as saying that in my 18 years of living here in North Dakota this may be the most ducklings I have ever spotted. As I’ve mentioned in other posts it’s been mostly blue wings and pintails. A few gadwall mixed in. Have not spotted any mallards yet.

PorkChop wrote:

Rick wrote:While you're at it, get the plows that are the absolute worse of nest predators. Banning ethanol would be a fine start.

100% agree! Unfortunately with the last few dry Falls we’ve had here a lot of nesting cover was turned into croplands. Now a lot of that is flooded and for the most part the birds have to nest in road ditches As we were blessed with a lot of water this spring. I know for a fact there are still many ducks on nests on the roads edge and my county put out a notice that they will start cutting the ditches on 5 July. They do this so that the farmers that want to hay those ditches can do it before the 5th so a lot of guys are getting after it and I cringe at the thought of how many eggs are being destroyed. Kind of the curse of moisture as it is made those ditches grow fast this year. Thankfully though every day I see more and more ducklings and I will go as far as saying that in my 18 years of living here in North Dakota this may be the most ducklings I have ever spotted. As I’ve mentioned in other posts it’s been mostly blue wings and pintails. A few gadwall mixed in. Have not spotted any mallards yet.

On the south end of the Flyway when the migration hit me in January I was stunned by the lack of hen mallards..it was 100:1 drake:hen easily.
If there are lots of mallard ducklings I'd be stunned again.
Something is very out of balance among the mallard flock.

Ricky Spanish wrote:

PorkChop wrote:

Rick wrote:While you're at it, get the plows that are the absolute worse of nest predators. Banning ethanol would be a fine start.

100% agree! Unfortunately with the last few dry Falls we’ve had here a lot of nesting cover was turned into croplands. Now a lot of that is flooded and for the most part the birds have to nest in road ditches As we were blessed with a lot of water this spring. I know for a fact there are still many ducks on nests on the roads edge and my county put out a notice that they will start cutting the ditches on 5 July. They do this so that the farmers that want to hay those ditches can do it before the 5th so a lot of guys are getting after it and I cringe at the thought of how many eggs are being destroyed. Kind of the curse of moisture as it is made those ditches grow fast this year. Thankfully though every day I see more and more ducklings and I will go as far as saying that in my 18 years of living here in North Dakota this may be the most ducklings I have ever spotted. As I’ve mentioned in other posts it’s been mostly blue wings and pintails. A few gadwall mixed in. Have not spotted any mallards yet.

On the south end of the Flyway when the migration hit me in January I was stunned by the lack of hen mallards..it was 100:1 drake:hen easily.
If there are lots of mallard ducklings I'd be stunned again.
Something is very out of balance among the mallard flock.

I agree. Couldn’t believe it.


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December before last, our first two coastal mallard captures ran something like 15:1 and 32:2. Got better after that, but there were more than I could unofficially track and I never bothered Paul for the final ratio. (This past winter we struggled to capture mallards but were, perhaps thankfully, generally focused on pintails.)