Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk AL Wingshooters Wondering What Happening to all the Ducks?

Killing for #’s. We’ve all done it. We stay to make sure we get a 5-6 man limit. The owners and lease holders won’t say they had a good year they tell ya killed 400-500. It’s money limited everyday we went. Damn eating that many birds.
To me the no til planting leaves food on the ground. Water fowl have no need to move unless all water is froze.

What killed the duck numbers was simply 60 day seasons and 6 duck bag limits.

After 40 years or changing around season and bag limits like the wind we have been stuck on 6/60 for nearly 30 years now.

It was proven that duck imprint on a particular area well before most of us were born. That's maybe 100 year old knowledge if not longer.

You take that fact and add too many hunters and ridiculous hunting pressure to a defined area... make that the MS River Delta OR maybe just make that North Alabama in your head.

Now - Bird numbers are simply an estimated count someone takes by flying over their breeding grounds looking out of the window of an airplane. That's gonna have very little to do with how many will show themselves in you area.

Basic common sense would say that if you over hunt your local population you will see fewer birds in your area over time because less and less will come back each year.

Also common sense would say that over time more and more would stay to our North and not migrate.

I don't feel like this really that hard to comprehend. I know so many want to make it a mystery but I don't get that. Basic common sense is something that 99% of people out here don't possess.


IMO - The seasons should be determined and set for the following year..... at least initially based on Refuge counts in the Southern part of the Flyway. That's what is wrong. Then they can do the breeding ground survey late Summer and these two data points should be factored into the decision. NOT purely the overall numbers from the pond counts which is what I feel is the complete justification for 6/60 and why this has continued for so long.

Goatkiller - The reverse of that holds true for migrating ducks. I know of some folks in North Alabama that created ideal duck hunting habitat in a pre-existing flyway. The maintained it, planted it and didn't hunt it for five years. Their goal was to provide ducks with a safe place and hoping for the location to imprint. Each year, the number of ducks visiting the site increased which they assumed was building off of imprinting and the older ducks bringing juvenile ducks back with them each year. When they did start hunting it, they only did so a few times a year. Now granted, these folks had other places to hunt and this was a test case for them but it worked. Not sure the average duck hunter trying to create a duck hunting property has the resources or the patience to implement a plan like this.

So I think we are on the same page. My point was... You take this pond or duck hole they created where they got birds imprinting on that location... they sell that property to another group...which this new group shoots it every day and kills a good many birds.

The next year comes around and you've got less birds coming back to the hole.. Shoot them year 2 in the same manner... then even less birds year 3 and so on.

We've known this is the case for pretty much forever and a few days. Proven facts from possibly a century ago..... they have literally known this since the dawn of Waterfowl management.


I think the Southern part of the flyway certainly has fewer birds than it did even 10 years ago. Maybe other factors also changed... we can use Farming Practices if we want to as part of the reasoning for the numbers decline and not purely hunting. It really doesn't matter.... what matters is there are fewer birds.

If we are shooting too many birds or other conditions are impacting this on our end of the Flyway, then that should be quantified and taken into account when setting the Federal seasons and bag limits. It is not taken into account. That's part of the issue I believe. From a common sense perspective..... it makes perfect sense to me.

Ducks don't all instinctively fly South for the Winter. If you kill all the birds flying south OR if they get down here and there is no food, etc. The facts remain the same. We don't have enough birds down here to justify 6/60. I don't care what the pond counts in N. Dakota are that's irrelevant to what is happening down here.


Before 6/60 we had more ducks on public land in N. Alabama I can assure you of that. If you go back and look at the Wheeler duck counts I don't know what you will see... maybe they haven't declined. But if 6/60 is bringing enough hunting pressure that the average bag limits are in the toilet from a day's hunting.... why do we not lower the bag limit or shorten the season?

The answer is Money. If you go back and read the Framework they set in the mid-90's you will walk away understanding this is all about money. The goal was to "Maximize Harvest". And that's the issue the entire thing is a intricate web but the underlying intent is to "maximize harvest". 6/60 maximizes harvest not what is best for the ducks. In that regard it is severely flawed IMO. Shocking that we have held 6/60 for nearly 30 years? I'm not shocked. This is exactly like gauging how well we were doing during the Vietnam war by using a body count.

Agree, I think we are seeing it through the same lens. Unfortunately for these guys the property is not holding ducks anymore but that is due development on the surrounding properties. Seems building warehouses, strip malls and multi-family developments will destroy a duck hole. Who knew?!?

I have a wood duck hole that I hunt in North Alabama. We try to limit it to three hunts a year, one at Thanksgiving, one at Christmas and one in mid-late January. it produces most every hunt because we don't over hunt it. Fighting the urge to be in there once a week is the difficult part.

I don't think hunting has as big of an impact on actual waterfowl populations as much as the loss of brooding habitat up north does.

Now I certainly think you can make the argument that hunting can change waterfowl movement patterns, but if that were the case then that would eliminate everyone's argument about birds short-stopping Alabama. Places like Arkansas certainly get more waterfowl hunting pressure than Alabama yet still have tons of ducks. Which, by that line of thinking, would push birds even further south into places like Alabama.

We have a blind on reelfoot lake we have had since the 1950's and here is what I can tell you with absolute certainty. We keep records on birds killed and conditions. The blind has not moved and nether has a single blind around it since 1995.

Hunting Pressure has been a 10/10 since 1950 the blind and every blind around it is hunted every day of Waterfowl season. Numbers have steadily declined. Same blind, same guide running it, no other changes.

I'm not talking about a woody hole 'm talking about a blind a couple miles off the MS river that use to consistently put well over 2,000 dead ducks on the books it shoots 12. 50/day x 60 days = 3k for perspective. We use to average around 30 with 50+ days not being uncommon. Average less than 15 today.

6/60 is either a supportable season/bag limit or it isn't. If the overall duck count remains the same that is irrelevant we can't continue down the current path it is ruining our hunting on our end of the flyway IMO.

Now this is a case where over-hunting having an affect on bird movement certainly seems to have an argument. If you (and man others) consistently hunt the same spot every day of the season for 50+ years then you should certainly expect to see a decline in the numbers of ducks using that spot. These historic hunting grounds in places like Arkansas may hunt most days of the season, but they're limiting the pressure they're putting on the birds by having resting areas that are not hunted, hunting multiple holes instead of the same spot every day, and not shooting into large groups of birds(or at least they should be IMO).

Again, I would lean towards loss of brood habitat playing the biggest role, not hunting. Every year there is a drought up north farmers are burning cattails and drying out potholes to be planted the following season. I'm not faulting farmers for this, but it certainly plays a role when ducks are running out of suitable habitat to lay nests.

Well, the fishing isnt as good either. 😁

In the late 80s/early 90s ducks (around here) were something my friends and I would kill before the canada goose season came in. My friends farm would kill 300 geese a year and about 200 or so ducks. When the geese quit coming those numbers went from around 50 canada geese and 500 to 800 ducks. I dont hunt with that friend anymore, but the other buddy of mine has said almost the same. Now we shoot maybe 60-100 specks and 200 ducks. The ducks are still there they simply dont feed off the refuge during the day. If you wait 30 minutes past shooting hours thousands will fill the field.

Most refuges count their birds. I havent looked into the numbers but that data is readily available. I just go shoot them for fun, Im not really a serious waterfowl hunter.

Arkansas doesn't get "tons" of Ducks like they used to.....especially Mallards. Those guys firmly feel that more ducks have shifted to the Central Flyway than ever before. But, there's plenty of rice for them to feed on in Arkansas.....Why did the Birds shift.....only thing left to say is PRESSURE. The Older Birds started making the shift via Mother Nature and the younger Birds followed. Having hunted/shot all species of Ducks.....Mallards and Black Ducks are the most Wary.....same as an Older Goose. A prime example is the overpopulation of Snow Geese-----the Older Birds are tough to fool and they live up to 20 years. The Old Veterans lead the Younger Ones to Safer areas. Most of the Snows killed during the Spring Hunt are juveniles. As far as Ducks shifting and Coming to Alabama seeking less Pressure.....they possibly would IF We had suitable water and the Food. We got PLENTY of Water......but most of it is too Deep for Puddle Ducks. We've got plenty of Wood-Ducks but they walk up on the land and feed on Acorns for the most part.....the others are not Accustomed to doing such. Various Pockets in N. Alabama near the Tenn. River are the only spots for decent "Big Duck" hunting.....been that way for a long time. We don't plant a lot of grain crops in Alabama anymore.....much less on ground that could be flooded....too hilly.A Zillion years ago I was told that the Mobile Delta was a really good area for Gadwalls,Teal,Pintails.....and of course Wood-Ducks. Every Swinging Dick in Mobile and Baldwin County go there now and push the handful that do come.....OUT......again.....PRESSURE.

All about pressure

My 2 cents but robo sucks leveled the playing field. At minimum they should be outlawed in Canada. Did a trip up there and I bet 90% of the mallards we killed were young birds. Not much bigger that a wood duck. Don’t even need to know how to blow a call these days with all the motion decoys.

Robo ducks

It is amazing that with all the rules and regulations around duck hunting that a battery powered decoy is 100% legal. You can’t do that for any other species.

They regulate every other detail tightly.

The robo early on absolutely got ducks killed. Still will on occasion but wher we hunting arkie it’s a flip of the coin I don’t use one around here especially for big ducks. Teal love them though it’s seems.

At the end I of the day it’s so much pressure applied for a long time over a vast area. There is no rest and when they find it they stay put.

How they’ve been hunted has changed. The Midwest used to not bother with them and Canada geese was king. They were over hunted and they switched to ducks.

As far as rest ponds. That’s been around as long as I’ve hunted and the pressure was a heck of a lot lighter.

We hunted with Rich-n-Tone guide service and they had rest holes all over their property. That was during a 30 day 3 duck season during the late 80s early 90s. Large guide service shave rest holes where no one is allowed to even flush birds.


I still hear Larry for Louisiana mention that the same number of birds are killed every year so there’s no biological reason to change anything.
The number of birds killed per hunter has dropped and for some significantly so hunter satisfaction is way down overall.

What is really happening is BIG money has the best properties and birds. Everyone else is fighting over the leftovers

I think that farmers are installing more field tile and causing those wet winter and spring low spots to not hold water and provide a rest and food for ducks

The migration is due to everything up north freezing over correct? When was the last time that actually happened? And If it did freeze over within a couple days things thawed back out. Seems to me like the birds don’t have to go that far south anymore, more folks are hunting now than ever, and we have become exceptionally efficient. All that lends to the problem and the answer is somewhere amidst all of that.

I live in north Jackson county. In the 70’s and 80’s we shot ducks in the flooded fields for 3-5 days when the water got out in the fields after a big rain. Now there is farm after farm diked up trying to have duck habitat. The trouble is most of them close to me quit putting in the time and effort to get them drained and planted it takes a lot of time and effort. We all worked together this year to get food planted. It hasn’t paid off yet but if they don’t get discouraged I think it will.

I think there’s several migration patterns. One is earlier and pretty much ingrained and they make it down to Louisiana in a timely manner. The others are more weather influenced but has some timely pattern too. The last one is definitely weather related as the big ducks fluctuate with the hard freeze line. Locked up and can’t bounce back north. There is always open water somewhere and the stragglers cling to that. A friend hunted Maine for sea ducks and said the broadside ditches were full of mallards and black ducks but the water was open and running yet open waters were locked up.