Spent better part of mid morning out on the lease piddling with my blind in the floods. ENE wind is rippin today and has tides way up; usually I'd B*tch up a storm but given the magnitude of northWEST winds on tap for late tonight and all day tomorrow, we can use every bit of spare water we can get for now. Was kind of the usual pattern of not seeing any birds until you get to certain areas that are the usual, and sure enough fair many grays were scattered about including some on our lease. With the floods they're mostly using the skinny puddles. Mostly small groups here and there bit did see one nice group of grays, maybe 50+. Nothing to get crazy excited about but nice to have a few around given today's warmth and the promise of tonight's front.
Got roseau situation reined in, finding that it grew 3 to even 4 feet in some sprouts since teal season's breakover routine. Added bushes on our backside and stashed some as-needed roseau in the blind for the crew to stick where they'd like it on arrival in AM.
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Also the traditional LDWF coastal area + catahoula lake aerial survey is out, excerpted below:
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COMMENTS:
Although the 1.3 million ducks estimated on this survey is the highest since 2017, and is up from last November’s record low estimate (855,000), it is still lower than the most recent 5-year (1.5 million) and 10-year (1.7 million) averages. Despite Hurricane Ida’s path through the SE marshes in late-August, both coastal regions showed increased bird numbers from last year. Estimates in SW and SE LA (Figure 2) are up 57% and 19% respectively. The 87,000 birds on Catahoula Lake is a marked increase from last year (12,000), and is above its 5-year (84,000) but below its 10-year (98,000) average.
Though the overall duck estimate was up, this survey marked record low November counts for both gadwall and mottled duck. Unchanged from the September 2021 estimate of 18,000 mottled ducks, this year’s estimate declined from 27,000 last November, 19,000 in 2019, and is down 72% from the long-term November average (64,000). Mottled duck estimates have typically been lower for the September surveys, and counts lower than 18,000 occurred in September 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019. The lowest being 12,000 birds in September 2016. The gadwall estimate (243,000) declined 16% from the 2020 estimate of 288,000 and was 70% below the long term average (818,000). The most recent 5-year average for gadwall is 603,000. More mallards (20,000) were observed than any November since 2014 (also 20,000), and the most recent year to top 20,000 mallards was 49,000 in 2010. Alternatively, fewer scaup have not been estimated since 2015 when only 2,000 were observed.
Looks like there's some birds, though the gadwall number is concerning. Hoping front moves em in.
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