Just getting here or reverse migration?

Last two weeks a friend and I have seen duck numbers go up significantly in our area. He has a farm, two ponds he plants corn & millet and floods. Got cell cams out in the ponds that alert him when duck are in there. He has been getting slammed with pics of everything from gadwalls, redheads, mallards, ring necks ect. For the whole 60 day season, they killed less than 50 ducks and that is way off on normal year.

I pass farm ponds on the way to & from work daily and they are not far off Neely Henry. Last week there was one that looked to have 150 ring necks in it. I hit the breaks so hard I nearly caused a pile up just to see them. Fast forward to this week on Monday. Another pond on the way home was slam full with 100+ red heads and other ducks mixed in. Used cell phone to zoom in to see what they were.

Since there was so many good discussions Outdoor Life article I did not want to hijack.

So, what say you? Are these ducks just now getting here or is this reverse migration? I will say this, for the last 8-10 years, I have seen redheads and other ducks on the river in good flocks starting mid February thru March.

It just got cold up north for the first time this winter. Whatcha think?

I think we have a mix of both. I agree with you on the redheads, I have seen them in pretty good numbers the last few years in late February and all through March, even as the temps warm up, I would say those guys were on the way back. My area has seen more mallards in the last week or two than I have seen around here in a pretty long time. We didn’t really see the mallards all season, and with the weather how it is up north I would think these have to be ducks from the north. It seems to me that mallards more than other ducks are really dependent on the weather to make a move.

I truly have no clue. Thus the question. Even when we had warm winters here and very little to no freeze up up north, I have still seen the numbers of birds this time of year. Especially last 4-6 years.

I have a similar setup on my duck hole with a cellphone camera. I’ve seen no significant increase on my duck hole and of course it’s frozen solid now.

I read the other day that a lot of the ducks being seen in February are returning. With this weather I’d say both. Byers go’s bird’s fly all around it seems. Lots of research is being done trying to find answers.


I’d imagine the extreme cold pushed some in. I saw on FB my wife’s friend in Saline MI posted the temperature was -11 this morning.

My duck hunting buddy is a mussel diver and calls me when he sees significant amount of ducks on the TN River.

I believe this is the delayed southern migration. What we are seeing post-season at our place are the heartier birds that cold weather finally pushes down to us. They are finally showing up bc the food up north is covered up and the water is frozen solid.

But now our water is frozen and some food is unreachable as a result. Expecting great trail cam photos by Friday of this week until it hits 65 degrees over the weekend and everything moves along again

https://www.ducks.org/conservation/...waterfowl-tracking-the-mallard-migration

Mallard Tracking Facts
The average distance traveled by satellite-marked mallards during spring migration was more than 730 miles. The average distance traveled by individual birds during fall migration was almost 875 miles.
One of the first mallards (a drake) ever marked with a GPS satellite transmitter in Arkansas flew more than 500 miles during spring migration, from Minnesota to Saskatchewan, in only four days.
This same bird made a remarkable one-day flight in early fall from Saskatchewan to south-central Iowa—a distance of more than 900 miles!
Although fall migration commonly is thought of as a one-way trip, several mallards in the tracking study made south-to-north movements during fall and winter.

I’ve always heard the big ducks follow the freeze line.

Yep. Finally enough snow and ice up north to force birds south

You referring to the NW corner or Alabama?

I am not making light of the situation AT ALL. My Son is up there with Power Grid working.

This, yes, along with all down the Central Flyway to the border so everything flew east or west.

Had 20 mallards on my pond yesterday in south MS. First ducks I have seen on it all year.

I don’t think any migratory bird is going back north this week.

I’d say they are just now getting here .

Just now getting here. It’s all weather dependent, the birds don’t know seasons and dates. I have seen piles of mallards in random ponds and ditches in late April while turkey hunting. I would guess that would be closer to when they start heading back north.

Was in Missouri last week. Saw one of the biggest mallard feeds I've seen in 5 or 6 years. Roosting on big water and going to feed in AG fields with 6 inches of snow late in afternoon for a couple of hours. Those birds won't ever get south of the Arkansas /Missouri state line.

I’m driving to AR today. Curious to see what numbers look like

If they haven’t made it by late February, you’re right.

Yep. Several ducks up here. At white river and bayou meto

That duck in front in the first picture is doing his best impression of a mojo.

They just keep piling in

Yeup, figures after season it out.

I’d like to see some gps data from radio collared ducks would be nice to see during this time frame. Might be telling to what is happening. I’ve heard of some die offs of waterfowl that were locked in place last week. Not sure how bad it was but there is some talk about it happening.

I thought that was just a myth

I hope so.

Supposedly there is a lot of pics of dead waterfowl that got caught up in the weather last week. I saw some pics so it’s does seem it happened just not to what scale.

How would cold, wet weather kill waterfowl?

I was told the the sudden change and ice and freezing rain Locked them in place. Honestly I don’t know but several locations that do a lot of banding was reporting that and they were also concerned the food sources were covered. Waterfowl require a lot of food because of their metabolism being high. Just things I’ve been told. I saw a lot of pics of alligators froze in place with their snouts stuck out of the ice. I’ve also seen pics of waterfowl frozen in chunks of ice.

They starve when food sources get covered up.

Saw pictures of doves killed by the storm but no ducks.

I am up here in Southern IN. The geese are flying over by the 1000s heading back north.

....or just fly south. Why else would they fly south?