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Thread: Spring season?

  1. #1
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    Default Spring season?

    After the mass arrival of nothward traveling shovelers, mallards, wigeon, and cinnamon teal in all their breeding plumage glory, I’m starting to think a 5 day, 1 drake only/species spring duck season for species that are doing extremely well per survey numbers...well, I know I’m thinking I’d pony up a few bucks for a spring permit. The thought got me wondering if there has ever been a spring duck season anywhere for any species?
    “I can’t wait ‘till I’m grown” is the stupidest @!#* I ever said!

  2. #2
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    Oct 2017
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    Depending on what you mean by “anywhere” and “ever” but, No. Two reasons I can think of - it is generally unacceptable to harvest animals during their baby-making season and two, you’d be harvesting paired waterfowl and greatly impacting nesting success of females. Feds say that all duck seasons must end by Jan 31. Exception being snow geese because they're overpopulated and causing habitat damage up north.

    DU did an article about how seasons are set. It’s actually a little outdated since the framework has been extended to Jan 31 for the upcoming season and mallard bag for Atlantic flyway has changed, but is still informative.


    http://https://www.ducks.org/hunting/waterfowl-hunting-regulations/how-the-seasons-are-set
    Last edited by ajwf662; 04-02-2019 at 11:25 AM.

  3. #3
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    Default

    and they arent using the mallard model going forward. its goldeneyes, gwt, ringos, etc.
    Ugh. Stupid people piss me off.

  4. #4
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    I can see wood ducks,ringers and greenwings , but goldeneyes.....our seasons here are going to be set based on goldeneye populations.....brilliant .
    If it aint got 8 toes & a green head,it aint a duck.

  5. #5
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    i laughed at the goldeneyes, too, but apparently they have a reason behind it. they are a very late migrator.
    Ugh. Stupid people piss me off.

  6. #6
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    I meant in the US. i know the reasons it would never happen, and the logistics would be a bitch. I don’t think it would mess with breeding success at all if small numbers of drakes only were allowed in a spring season in this area and areas south of here...farther north you get...the later it would be...and it would be dead center of baby making season, so I know it will never happen. We chase deer during rut and male turkeys when they are trying to get some love, so I was curious if no spring ducks was always the law.

    Another ? So, I did not kill any and I don’t recall seeing any cinnamon teal this fall/winter. Right now, a freaking swarm of them have hit the waterholes around here. Did I overlook/mis-ID them this fall, or will species take a circular migration route vs linear? I can’t ID any weather patterns that would be dictating a different route either direction.
    “I can’t wait ‘till I’m grown” is the stupidest @!#* I ever said!

  7. #7
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    they probably werent as pretty
    Ugh. Stupid people piss me off.

  8. #8
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    most ducks are paired before mid-February, before they even start twitching about heading north.

    There's more to breeding success than the number of ducks we send north. Data shows the females that arrive on the nesting grounds with a drake in tow have increased nest success AND have better body weights AND are more likely to survive nesting than those that arrive without a drake. If she arrives without a drake but once she's there attempts a nest, she arrives with lower body weight, has decreased nest success, and is less likely to survive nesting at all - if she even attempts to nest. Also, males that have paired before heading north have increased body weights and are more likely to survive until winter migration.

    And yes, always the law. Well, I suppose it could change one day... but so far the Feds have been tough to get a Jan 31 change through. Too much fear of accidental take and biological impacts.

    Could have been that the habitat wasn't right (for whatever reason we'll never know) for them to stop on the way down, but it is on the way back...

    And biologists are trying to push the turkey thing back until the males are mostly done spreading the love but... that's not being well accepted.. But overall, the whole "pairing for a season" reproductive strategy of ducks is so different than the reproductive strategy of turkey and deer that a comparison is hard.

  9. #9
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    Gotcha. I was thinking the same tooth...probably just didn’t recognize the cinnamons in and amongst the ducks that were here. These are the first I’ve ever seen. There are two little ponds 4 feet from the roads I drive each day, and the day they thawed, they got covered up. I’ve never really been excited to shoot a shoveler, but those little .5 acre waterholes full of fully plumed shovelers, mallards, wigeon, and cinnamons are amazing and are making me wish I could get a shoveler and cinnamon drake down to Shane. I guess I should go invest in some good photography equipment.
    “I can’t wait ‘till I’m grown” is the stupidest @!#* I ever said!

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