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Thread: Worried about duck numbers...

  1. #1
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    Default Worried about duck numbers...

    I know that things can vary wildly from year to year, but what I’m seeing in reports from across the country is worrisome. I’ve killed more ducks this year than I ever have, but it’s due to getting tuned into this area and being blessed with access to a deep water pond this year that rarely completely freezes over. I didn’t have access to the pond last year, so once the cold hit, I was done. That said, there were far, far more ducks and geese in this area last year throughout the season. Looking at the migration reports on the DU app, it appears that the majority of the country is experiencing disappointing numbers...regardless of the weather. There have been scattered reports of good numbers and “migration starting/increasing numbers” reports, but I haven’t seen sustained favorable reports, and I have not seen many “peak numbers” reports anywhere. It may just be the app and the reports on the app, but I seem to remember a much different picture being painted on that same app last year. Y’all experiencing the same? What’s going on?
    “I can’t wait ‘till I’m grown” is the stupidest @!#* I ever said!

  2. #2
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    Is it time to maybe cancel duck season for a couple of years, will that help ?
    Keep the Stars and Bars flying.
    Robert E. Lee

  3. #3
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    A certain cadre of Southern folks with the time and financial means to travel to where the ducks are - and killing the piss out of them.

    Honestly? Ebb and flow. The Atlantic flyway is probably done (IMHO ) due to loss of habitat as much as any other criteria.
    F**K Cancer

    Just Damn.

  4. #4
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    Yeah..every year for at least the past 15 years I've said it can't get worse and it always does. This is the worst year I've seen. I'm sure next year will be even worse and so on until there is no point in going. It's almost like that now.

  5. #5
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    Oct 2019
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    I don't know if this has an impact as I'm from different part of the world but in Oct 2019, in sambar lake India, over 10,700 (This is a figure collected and dumped in pits) ducks/migratory birds died including gadwals, garganey, pintail, northern shevlor, tyfted duck, etc...

    A rough estimate of over 22,000 birds died which mdeia is hiding. reason is still unknown.
    Attachment 52337

  6. #6
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    according to Tony V's social media videos that he posts, it seems like he has more birds than ever this year. I cant really argue with Rabbitman. It has gotten worse and worse each year. The last decent year in the midlands area was when they dropped the lake 15 feet to kill off the hydrilla. Ever since then it continues to get worse. I do feel like I have seen more people hunting on Murray this year than in the past but that could be in part to Parr being absolutely God-awful.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by nitro5x6's View Post
    A certain cadre of Southern folks with the time and financial means to travel to where the ducks are - and killing the piss out of them.

    Honestly? Ebb and flow. The Atlantic flyway is probably done (IMHO ) due to loss of habitat as much as any other criteria.
    ive seen less and less in my normal area of operation the last 10 years, places that traditionally held 1000+ ducks are under 250-300. Portions of the atlantic flyway is in much better shape than SC.
    Quote Originally Posted by Roddie View Post
    SCducks is not checkers, it's chess.

  8. #8
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    H5N1, Cholera, Botulism all love a nice warm environment.

    And lets not forget nation wide programs on aquatic grass eradication ( starve them out ) and the chems they are using or how they are being used, not to mention survival behavior genome washing if one were talking mallards via the pen raised mallard programs.

    Diquat isn't a joke and having a strong chemistry and physiology background I trust the EPA saying its not harmful residually about as much as Hillary.
    Last edited by Strick9; 12-31-2019 at 10:18 AM.
    Genesis 9;2

  9. #9
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    I'm been a sponsor with DU for a while now. I give them like $300 a year. I know that's not much but I don't know what the fuck my money is going towards that is actually helping the duck numbers. DU money going to shitty managed SC wetlands that I can only hunt once every 4 years ain't cool. DU grants for private landowners to make impoundments that I can't hunt ain't cool either. Hunting natural beaver swamps with acorns as the food source is getting worse and worse each year. I think I'm about to stop my donations. Seems like all ththe DU dollars are going towards funneling duck to certain areas, not increasing the populations of species. Everyone is just spending money competing for concentrating the few ducks remaining rather than trying to build the population back up.
    Last edited by Rabbitman09; 12-31-2019 at 10:39 AM.

  10. #10
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    I’m no alarmist, and I understand things ebb and flow; it just seems like this year’s reports from across the country are a significant departure from what I’ve seen nationwide over the last 4 or 5 seasons. Look forward to seeing year end harvest survey data and this upcoming years breeding data.
    “I can’t wait ‘till I’m grown” is the stupidest @!#* I ever said!

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by WhitewaterDuck View Post
    I’m no alarmist, and I understand things ebb and flow; it just seems like this year’s reports from across the country are a significant departure from what I’ve seen nationwide over the last 4 or 5 seasons. Look forward to seeing year end harvest survey data and this upcoming years breeding data.
    I ain't no scientist but I've seen 15 years of ebbing and no flowing. We bought to be ebbed out.

  12. #12
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    Wood ducks used to be thick up here in the late 90's early 2000's. We even saw a flock of mallards about every hunt. Now, I m lucky to see a wood duck and mallards were declared extinct about 5 years ago.

  13. #13
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    I've been going to saskatchewan for 28 years. The number of pot holes is a tenth of what used to be there. As soon as they get dry the farmers are plowing them in and leveling them off.

  14. #14
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    If I had to guess I would venture to say that the loss of habitat plays the biggest role. Look at the Greenville/Spartanburg area in 2002 when I moved this way to what it has become now. In 17 years I bet the population and area has doubled! This is just in the upstate, imagine just 2 cities in the Atlantic flyway (5 in larger states) doubling in size and population. That puts a huge dent in the amount of suitable habitat. Last year everyone was blaming impoundments up north being able to run wells, etc to keep their water open. I tend to lean more on the fact that they don’t even bother with making a pit stop in areas with little to no food or habitat and keep trucking or staying out and swathing out the cold when they still have food. It’s everywhere, not just here. The ridiculously warm weather nationwide this year probably has played some sort of role this year as well as last. I agree with putting the dollars toward the population. The habitat that is restored is mostly in private lands. All a duck club has to do is put a conservation easement in the property and DU will come running. I’ve witnessed it first hand when my grandfather had them come rebuild levees and replant his “duck farm” in Winnie, tx. They are “putting habitat on the ground” but is it really helping the population if it’s mostly on private, hunted land?


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  15. #15
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    Becoming more and more of a fly over state. Our lakes are having less and less vegetation. Why the heck would you stop at a place to rest and eat with no food and having people take a wack at you while your there and hang around. Less and less ducks are imprinting here which means every year we are going to have less and less. No reason for them to stop. I have been on several lakes and scouted far off swamps the past week spent hours upon hours walking, driving, and boating around and have seen hardly any. Just today I walked to a swamp over 1.5 miles from the closets road just beside a ricer with no boating access and only saw 2 wood ducks flying by......
    “Duck hunting gives a man a chance to see the loneliest places …blinds washed by a rolling surf, blue and gold autumn marshes, …a rice field in the rain, flooded pin-oak forests or any remote river delta. In duck hunting the scene is as important as the shooting.” ~ Erwin Bauer, The Duck Hunter’s Bible, 1965

  16. #16
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    I've got a walk in spot on public land that I have killed tons and tons of wood ducks in. It's on an arm of a body of water and and flooded into a hardwood bottom. Used to kill one to three birds almost every time I went. It used to be crowded too back then. Now, I'm the only one who still goes and there ain't shit coming in anymore. Been like five times and killed on duck. That was the only day I saw any and it was one out of a pair. I used to see probably 15 to 30 ducks every morning. The place is loaded with pin oaks. I guess with all the DU funded impoundments ducks just don't have a taste for acorns or natural food anymore. Either that or their populations are in a dire situation.

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by teal74 View Post
    I've been going to saskatchewan for 28 years. The number of pot holes is a tenth of what used to be there. As soon as they get dry the farmers are plowing them in and leveling them off.
    This...

  18. #18
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    I'm worried about the politics that won't let the AHMP "choose" a moderate season framework.
    Ephesians 2 : 8-9



    Charles Barkley: Nobody doesn't like meat.

  19. #19
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    Yo relentless, i see you lurking on here. You are the public land duck masher....what's your thoughts on our duck numbers this year? The coast may still be decent, I don't know but inland sucks!

  20. #20
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    I have two impoundments in the upstate. We aren’t a club. Two years ago we had our best season to date. Last year one of the worst and I say weather and too much rain were the cause. Too many flooded acorn swamps spread the birds out. This year the wood ducks have been more of a hit but less big ducks. Today, I’m back to too much rain spreading them out with lack of another push of birds.
    Go Tigers!!!

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