Time to talk about ducks

**TXFowler** · 01-17-2021, 08:26 PM

Aww snap!

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**buckshot1224** · 01-19-2021, 07:56 PM

Thoughts?

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**TXFowler** · 01-19-2021, 08:38 PM

Funny hearing all that from a crook, but he’s right. It can’t be ignored. But given that our politics are so driven by money than promoting what is right, how can you keep those high dollar clubs out of their pocket???

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**Strick9** · 01-19-2021, 09:23 PM

As to mallards listen to this , Joey D posted it up awhile back and its highly distressing, especially with SCDNR being partners with SCWP , which as I understand it from hunters who have participated in the SCWP program are mostly if not all PRM hunts( in the option when you don't get drawn for the lottery).

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas...=1000478002466

As to the rest, it is undeniable that weather has changed, that refuge plantings have increased, folks with lands increasing flooded crops and pouring grains, disease, lack of predator control, poor SE management , grass eradication everywhere along the E coast, pressure from technology etc are all combining in one storm against waterfowl.

As Jab mentioned earlier, as to herbicides and pesticides and of which I believe we often forget, there is a lot of data that has proven the newer Neonicontinoids being used across the nation and into Canada are very harmful to the reproductive organs and fecundity in birds. They are actually banned in Europe I believe. We have seen this in the past with DDT and others. I am guessing that the lobby for these chems and the obvious increase in grain production is keeping this undercover as to many bird species in decline. Pheasants are down, quail same, turkeys same and waterfowl as well.

My SC 20-21 public season is trending slightly above last year but down from 18-19 season. Travel numbers are down as well. I did get to catch a small migrating window ahead of the last freeze line drop down but it was very short lived.

**coot nasty** · 01-19-2021, 10:08 PM

250,000 released mallards in the US. 210,000 of them released in the Atlantic flyway. Sickening

**Catdaddy** · 01-19-2021, 10:21 PM

Originally Posted by coot nasty

Wonder why ducks dont dry feed in the south? I mean you may see a few but nothing like up north. Its mind boggling

I think that recent DNA study might be the answer.

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**tman** · 01-19-2021, 10:51 PM

Originally Posted by coot nasty

250,000 released mallards in the US. 210,000 of them released in the Atlantic flyway. Sickening

well of course. the other flyways have mallards. you don't have to release em if they just come there on their own accord.

whats embarrassing is there are grown men (these are your neighbors btw because these places exist all around the SE USA) that pay to shoot a farm duck all so they can get a few pictures and post em on Instagram and facebook.

**coot nasty** · 01-19-2021, 11:22 PM

Especially with the drakes with all the black all over their bills

**Jay** · 01-19-2021, 11:38 PM

The mallards I just finished shooting in Montana look and act like completely different ducks than the mallards I kill here.

**Southernduck** · 01-20-2021, 12:13 AM

Awful lot of water being wasted to kill a duck in a non-natural setting....

**welltaut** · 01-20-2021, 05:38 AM

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but I think I got it over the weekend....not looking good for the mallard population!

Dear South Carolina Duck Hunter,

As many of you are aware, the daily bag limit for mallards in the Atlantic Flyway was reduced to 2 beginning with the 2019-20 hunting season in response to declining numbers. At that time, the Atlantic Flyway Technical Section immediately began developing a mallard harvest strategy separate from the strategy used to set the general duck hunting seasons and bag limits. We have made great progress to that end, but we are now at a point in developing the strategy where we need your input! The attitudes and desires of our constituency, you the hunter, are critical. Your preferences on a variety of regulatory options will be integral in how we set our mallard seasons in the future while balancing the desires of hunters and our obligations to ensure wildlife populations remain sustainable.

On behalf of the Atlantic Flyway Council, this survey is being distributed to a random sample of hunters in all 17 Atlantic flyway states. This is a chance to voice your opinion from a South Carolina perspective. Please take the time to give this survey your full attention. The results of this survey will assist us in developing a regulatory process that will provide the hunting opportunities most prefer while still insuring the long-term health of Atlantic Flyway mallards. Please click on the waterfowl survey link below to participate in the survey.

Survey Link:
http://s.alchemer.com/s3/961f4ab602f...very&utm_term=

Thank you for your time,

Molly R. Kneece
Waterfowl Biologist
South Carolina Department of Natural Resources

**Quack07** · 01-20-2021, 06:59 AM

Originally Posted by coot nasty

Wonder why ducks dont dry feed in the south? I mean you may see a few but nothing like up north. Its mind boggling

I've often wondered that. Got to be the climate difference. The colder/dryer air keeps the grain fresher in the field longer and gives them more time to find it and feed on it.

When corn is harvested in the south it's usually in september/october when it's still hot out and the air is full of moisture. Any grain that is spilled into the field sprouts in no time.

**2thDoc** · 01-20-2021, 07:15 AM

Originally Posted by coot nasty

Wonder why ducks dont dry feed in the south? I mean you may see a few but nothing like up north. Its mind boggling

i cant read the rest of this....but we talked about this exact scenario the other day. We came up with nothing....other than a different food source towards the end of their migration.

**2thDoc** · 01-20-2021, 07:19 AM

Originally Posted by Quack07

I've often wondered that. Got to be the climate difference. The colder/dryer air keeps the grain fresher in the field longer and gives them more time to find it and feed on it.

When corn is harvested in the south it's usually in september/october when it's still hot out and the air is full of moisture. Any grain that is spilled into the field sprouts in no time.

lot of dove fields in my area with standing corn. seems a perfect place to dry feed. but it aint

**Quack07** · 01-20-2021, 07:29 AM

I've never seen a duck feed in standing, dry corn. Not saying it doesn't happen but definitely not as often as post harvest. The spillage after harvest is easily accessible to them. I hunted in a corn field in Minnesota this past november that had been cut and then strip plowed and was amazed at the amount of corn still on the dirt.

**union** · 01-20-2021, 08:51 AM

To me the answer is always there are too many damn people and their homes around to think animals aren't affected. If you looked at an aerial map of the east coast from 1990 and then today, you'd be horrified at the amount of wetlands and marshes that have been drained and the number of rooftops. I mean if you were a duck and you could get a meal and refuge at an office park pond that never iced over, why fly to florida? There is story after story of place as far north as NJ and southern NY where ponds hardly ever freeze anymore. This year was a test for sure in the sense that you can rule out pressure up in Canada(no hunters allowed in), air travel was drastically reduced along the coastal routes, but here we are. There aren't anymore hunters, but we do have probably 80 million more people in the USA since 1990 alone.

There is no doubt the climate is warmer also. Friends and I were discussing recently that as late as the 1990's even in the piedmont of area of NC you'd get retention ponds and marshes that would start to get thin ice even in December. I'm not talking MN thick, just that the overnight lows were cold enough to freeze over some still water. Now it's Mid January and I'm looking out at my pond and it hasn't had a layer of ice on it in years, exception being a "cold snap" or two.

As sportsman we spend more time outside than normal people and most scientists. We've all sat in our deer stands and honey holes to the sound of the neighborhood leaf blowers that didn't exist even 10 years ago.
While I would argue that overall things like air pollution and water quality are probably better than 30 years ago, you can't mitigate the sheer number of people out and about all the time. I see it with deer, while their overall numbers are up, they are just about nocturnal since they are forced to avoid the millionth subdivision, mini van driving mom going to soccer practice at all hours of the day.

So what we see is "game animals" become nothing more than a hybrid creature like a suburban squirrel. I'm sure if you could microchip every duck, you'd see they are spread out in every unfrozen office park, neighborhood and city park ponds not to mention private reserves from here to the Canadian border, holed up in relative comfort, not getting shot at, not really freezing and having plenty of food.

**tman** · 01-20-2021, 08:59 AM

Originally Posted by union

I'm sure if you could microchip every duck, you'd see they are spread out in every unfrozen office park, neighborhood and city park ponds not to mention private reserves from here to the Canadian border, holed up in relative comfort, not getting shot at, not really freezing and having plenty of food.

The word you're actually looking for is "wastewater treatment plant"

**BRR** · 01-20-2021, 10:14 AM

South eastern states try to cut crops as soon as possible(hurricane season fears). Warm air and humidity ruins waste grain. Ducks tend to follow geese dry feeding on grain in other states. When our resident geese are eating corn in September there aren't many or any ducks around. Also there are no cold nights driving ducks to feed on fields if they were here. The few dry feeding ducks I have seen in SC were on soybeans late. Just my 2 cents.