Thanks to everyone.....

[B.S.D.]

That a boy deadduck!!!!! Get em son!!

[Spider]

lmfao, Harv have you been drinking

[HARV]

Re,lack of birds.Being higher up in the flyway here I wonder if part of the problem is the local geese.We are covered up with the bastards.They nest in every ducky looking area and anywhere else they can squat.I'm thinkin they've pushed out the ducks.A pal just left here a minute ago.He wants me to tell ya that Luther Marsh is looking sweet.He was running a hunt test there(master hunter) in August in the Montibello (sp) project.The brush was flooded beforehand for this event.They went in at 6:00 am and the number of ducks scared him. [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Blacks,mallards,woodies etc egrets too and by the thousands(I think this section is only 185 acres) He said you couldn't fit another bird in there.Birds were working the decoys during the trials and .He's been ducking 45 years around these parts and can't remember seeing anything like it in Ontario.This is a DU project and I understand SC DU chapters have put money in this here deal.People within 10miles of the place don't even know it exists.Your efforts have been paying off fellers!!!!He told me they had a couple good hunts early Oct.(for puddlers) at Long Point Bay(Lake Erie).Nothing to speak of inland from there.Divers were plentiful later in the season.Save a duck,fuck a buncha geese.

[HARV]

Damn Spider, I thought I caught that before it posted. [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Drinkin? me? [img]graemlins/drinky.gif[/img]

[deadduck]

Dawg,

I understand weather has alot more to do with lack of birds than many other things. But the point is that in South Carolinas past we had more open land and crops like rice that helped get em down here. Release birds that stay in the 2 acre former catfish farm pond they were released over is a joke. Flat out.

When the osprey was endangered did anyone hear of them releasing pen raised osprey in South America? Thats where they winter... nobody did that because they new they would not migrate because they had never been to their natural nesting ares before. Why would they come here? Why would a migratory bird, released in it's wintering location go back anywhere when there is food and water at its present location? Just like they will not come further south when there is food and water up there. All of a sudden you have created an impure, non migratory gene that can effect an entire population.

That money should have gone to something smarter.

Lets get them to do it again and we can build me an ultralite, paint it like a mallard and I'll lead them back to Canada. ( or further south, someplace like disneyworld)

[skydawg]

DeadDuck,
I totally agree with what your saying in that aspect. It doesnt make sense to raise a bird in the south to release to go back north. Not usre what SCWA band #'s are, but i am sure there arent many up north. As of lately, its been too warm and any bird has no reason to leave, plentiful food here.
I think that as a state, there is a ton of pressure all over. Like here in GA., Lake Seminole used to be one awesome lake to tag some ringers and Canvasbacks as well as trash ducks. Then there are all these articles all over about how great the hunting is there. Next thing you know, every orvis endorsed rubberhead is down there in the swamp with there 45hp War eagle boat(Go-devil is the only boat you can truly use to duck hunt down there) skybustin' and now its crap down there. It amazes me when there was no season on Canvasbacks, I used to sit out and have hundreds of C'Backs in our decoys bringin the ringers in. There was no pressure on the and low and behold they were everywhere. I swear i coulda knocked em down with a tennis racket. After seeing all that i would be game to skip one season and see what happens to the duck population as a whole..