Duck Movements during season

https://www.themeateater.com/hunt/w...tRPZGGnI5cbRnGrx6Ca5JJYkwAXty0i19mKdvHNg

Fascinating stuff. Amazing how smart they are.

I’m not completely sold in it. I do think it is reasonable. I’ve not seen the end of the season birds for several years now. They never got here or stayed for long.

I’ve seen the most birds by far in February or March when things really flood out- like whole fields that rarely do. You’re right that it seems unlikely those birds were just “hiding out”. But maybe they were.

Going off my duck hole and my neighbors. We used to regularly, during season see 200 plus woodies and 40-50 big ducks per day. Now very few. The most I’ve seen was 30 woodies or so and couple of big ducks. I did have a group of 20 mallards hanging out and spooky as heck. I run a cell cam on my duck hole so I get to see who drops in and so forth. That way don’t bother them to see what’s there.

I am calling BS on most of the research. Go out to a swamp in any North Alabama Co, that has historically held ducks, when it got cold or a front was coming through there are none. Mallards are smart, no doubt on that. But to get a tru X section of the migrators, you cannot be even remotely close to a refuge or sanctuary. The imprinting on ducklings is one of God's incredible miracles. Whoever had the banding map for the last 30 years a while back showing the distances the ducks traveled was not a shock. They do not come here anymore.

Also, you know something is not right when you see 200+ blue wing teal in May on Neely Henry. Those ducks should be in the prairie laying by then.

They never got here.

I have good friends that own several hundred acres in Etowah Co and specifically plant, flood and whatever else for ducks. Last 4-5 years have been pathetic. I always get a couple invites and they told me it is not worth wasting the money on it.

I guess North Dakota is my bucket list trip to at least kill some good ducks.

I'll see hundreds of ducks during the season on Wheeler. Swan Creek is just down river a couple of miles, and I've never seen flocks that large there.

They are super adaptable to the pressure they are under. I pulled boards on one of my fields today we never hunted this year because of so few birds. Over 80 mallards got up when I went in and I was shocked. This particular place has always been good late season for mallards and I’ve taken kids there on the youth weekend and had them limit on mallards. I guess they were just a month late. Lots of pressure in the area were this place is with probably some baiting going on as well. We need a reset with a 40 -45 day season with good splits to let the birds rest. It will never happen but it’s nice to wish

Arkansas has piles of visible birds right now.

Nobody has brought up the deal where the states further North drain there spots and quit putting out Grain in order to keep Ducks from going south.....once the southern States season is over.

Kinda proves the hunting pressure deal. They’re free to move about now and focus on food and the upcoming breeding season.

I think it’s like turkey number fluctuations, besides the weather there’s numerous other variables to all this. Throw in hunting pressures and walla here we are.

New water and lot of food has them hanging.on. I wonder if that cold front is pushing new birds in there too.

Short stoppin’ SOBs!!

I love how there’s this well done, thorough study done with the latest technology and all us duck hunters are like “nah that’s BS”

Lol i ain’t even much of a duck hunter and was chuckling about this same thing

Saw a pile of mallards today in west Tennessee just swimming around as I was driving by

I thought it was a very good article and even shared it with a few close friends that duck hunt.. The one experiment that I think they should have done was to actually shoot at the ducks with blanks and see if that resulted in a change to the patterns and for how long. The result of the boat surprised me a little so I would have liked to compare the blanks.

I agree
I followed along on when in particular. She’d leave out and come back in after shooting time.

Just like flushing ducks out of the hole. They rarely come back during shooting hours. We noticed this on our duck holes years ago when more and more duck hunters enters the game. Back in the 80s and 90s on our ducks holes we’d flush out and wait. They’d be back in 15-30 minutes. We only did this a few times a year.

Now a days, flush them and they are gone

I can look at my duck Joe I’ve had experience with for 20 plus years. They no longer use the hole as in the past. They go straight to the corner with all the cover. Young willows and ash with lists of grasses. I’m gonna plant half in corn again to see if they use ten stalks for cover. The hole is 8-9 acres and has a1/4 in timber I’m opening a hole in it. Woodies already use it but going a little bigger in hopes for big ducks. Also planting hardwoods around the corner they’re using now. Chores and Tupelo’s mixed in

The whole thing is stupid.... Basically the reason we are NOT seeing and killing ducks in the Southern United States during duck season is because they are hiding?

Probably one of the dumbest articles I have ever read.

When the Temps dropped to 0 degrees for days where were all those red legs? Hiding right?

Try... Nowhere. They are not there. Why? Whole nuther discussion.... I certainly have my theories which DO NOT include "hiding".

Ducks have wintered on refuges my entire life and not left. That's Duck Hunting 101. The key is to have so many birds in the area in general that they cannot "hide" on the refuge systems. They spill over where hunters have a chance. THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT IN A REFUGE!

You can say the data isn’t generalizable, but you can’t really argue with the GPS data.

I have several friends that are OLD school hunters out of Scottsboro. Most of them are in their 70s now. When I was on the DU committee back in early 2000s in Etowah co, one guy told me "that is the worst thing you could have done for ducks around here". None of that $30K yall raised at the banquet will ever be seen back in Alabama. Pat was right. All of the monies went to Memphis and was spent in the prairie states, not Alabama. They could hang up for several days since there was an abundance of food on refuges and never had to migrate further South. When Doug Lasher said he was not concerned with spending money in Alabama, I walked off from the committee the next year.

I think the majority of our State Duck Stamp money still goes to the Feds.

Effectively you and I have paid for decades for some dude in South Dakota to have a badass duck hole. That money is unaccounted for once it leaves I would be sure that some of it has gone to WRP. That's NOT public land.

That's been a pet peeve of mine for years. We have plenty of money to give away but went to "moist soil management" on Wheeler decades ago. I said from Day #1 that money should be used in State for habitat improvement up to and including paying a farmer to plant and leave a flooded crop standing. Boat ramps, etc. Why not a boat ramp? Or just gravel for the road at Swine Creek.

Nobody at DCNR cares about a duck hunter. That's been obvious for decades. Super easy administratively to just give it to the Feds. They don't even try.

The biggest issue I have in this State is AL Power does ZERO for waterfowl. They have raped and pillaged our waterways and not even a single management area to their credit. They just want to send the Marine Police after us if we step out of the boat on a AL Power Waterway. That could be the biggest Travesty of all this.

Amen to all of that. I don't believe any company anywhere has gotten a sweetheart deal the equivalent of what the state of AL has given to AL Power.