still no birds...and still no ducks dec 15/12

ship wrecked

ship wrecked

Well-Known Member
Well it was another stellar day out there got one bird. I think we've shot around 8 ducks and 1 goose so far this season at the point.Seen some small rafts in the bay nothing seems to want to decoy didn't hear to much shooting. Maybe the big storm will send us some birds till next weekend have a good one.I'm going next fri/sat maybe we will hit #10.Well we hit #10 if you count darts??Seen birds not may marsh ducks and nothing really wants to decoy guess we have to change our methodology.Been to numerous spot with not much luck.Maybe next time.Well we did a Fri.(9th) afternoon shoot in the bay seen some birds and some sandhill cranes managed 2 mallards sky busters nothing would decoy.Sat went to the other end of the bay seen birds again nothing would decoy would look but just out of range.Had a wake at some geese got zero.So far were up to 12 ducks..Off to learn how to shoot again cuz we can't hit $hit.So there must be some shooting going on no postes??Don't really want to go hunting on sat the weather way too nice.gotta love it:D
 
Im on the East side as I speak. Mostly educated birds and not a lot. No swans yet either. Open lake is glass though so birds could be anywhere.
 
I'm still stuck here in Regina. Compared to this time last year I am not seeing anything close to the number of birds I saw this time last year. There are a number of geese around but the ducks are nowhere to be seen. I am getting reports from some of the farmers about large flocks of snows but that is about it. We are experiencing some milder weather so that is not helping freezeup. Ducks must be still sitting further up north. When the freezeup starts the migration should start full force. I fly home December 15 so save me some birds until I get there.
 
Didnt the LPW migration report say something about ducks skipping over some of the northern staging grounds and going straight past us to the south? Id go back and re-read it myself but i cant load the report on my phone.
 
Jello, our statement was for our southern US folks that follow our Weekly Dabbling Duck Migration forecast; the forecasts were previously hosted on the Mississippi State University web page and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks web page and we have presented results of our studies on the relationshp between weather severity indices and duck migration at conferences throughout North America. So we have a pretty wide following north to south in the Mississippi and Atlantic Flyways. The comment was more about ducks migrating beyond mid-latitude locations such as Missouri or Virginia when they started moving out of northern latitudes such as Iowa or Long Point. What we often see is weather severity thresholds not great enough at the mid-latitude locales to cause ducks to migrate but ducks still showing up at southern latitudes. What may be happening is that once they start moving from more northern locales they just boogey all the way to their southern wintering grounds. This year seems like a good example as numbers of ducks are relatively strong at southern wintering grounds even with pretty mild weather conditions. This may be driven largely by relatively dry conditions throughout mid-latitude areas that likely have less habitat and food. Even if ducks do stop, they may not remain because habitat conditions are relatively poor. This also is a good example that multiple factors influence migration and weather is only one of them; habitat conditions, conditions of individual birds, and disturbance are a few examples of other factors influencing migration patterns in waterfowl.


Michael L. Schummer
Scientist
Long Point Waterfowl
learn more at www.longpointwaterfowl.org

& visit us on Facebook under Long Point Waterfowl
 
This comment isn't about dabbling ducks however I'm in Wisconsin right now & things are slow with regard to diving ducks (canvasbacks specifically) here too. From the previous 2 years of survey there are typically 100,000...300,000 canvasbacks in pool 9 alone at this time of year. This year things are really slow. On Saturday 2 guide boats came in with 0 birds, Sunday and Monday weren't much better. Had some weather today which really helped out, but the bird count is what it is.
I'm sure they'll all arrive on Friday when I start heading home :).
Dan
 
Thanks for the info Michael.

Strange year indeed. I'm seeing high numbers of divers on the lake shores (which I haven't hunted yet this year). I noticed I haven't seen the large groups of Swans at the Point yet.

I know a lot of guys are thinking we're yet to see the big migration, but I have a feeling we're just waiting for the usual late Mallards and divers. The rest it seems have come and gone. Last week there seemed to be a mass exodus of birds.
 
Historically, Tundra Swans arrive close to Remembrance Day. They'll be at LP no later than next Monday along with a lot of other waterfowl:

http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/bismarck-nd/58501/weekend-weather/329830
 
I hunted wed, theres tons of mallards around just need the weather.
Shot 12 greenheads and 10 geese by 12 oclock out of the unit. Easily decoyed 20 hens, 30 gaddies and 10 other greenheads that got free passes cause we werent sure what they were cause of the sun. And by decoyed I mean 20 yarders floating. Lots more came over low enough to shoot.
Keep at her next rainy day will be a good one
 
Glad you saw some Gadwall. Hadn't seen any on the big river or the unit lately. Last week was when the migrants came through my private areas. We slaughtered geese pretty good. A pretty big back fill of lessers moved in with the odd snow goose mixed in. Aside from having mud in everything that could possibly get mud in it, it was a load of fun (except for trying to wash the mud off my ffd decoys... man that sucks!).
 
Agreed, drove around on Wednesday morning and the number of mallards seemed to have increased substantially (at least from what I could see from Front Rd and the Causeway). Same thing this morning. I'm not sure how much this was birds looking for open water as skim ice formed on all the shallow marshes both mornings and how much of this was actual migration of these ducks. We often tend to attribute cold conditions with mallard migration when sometimes it just concentrates birds that are already in the area. Notably, banding data suggest that 80% of the mallards harvested in Ontario come from Ontario and Quebec, whereas 1% come from the prairies, the other remaining percentage is derived from Michigan and the NE US. While we do get many prairie ducks such as Gadwall, Redheads, and Cans from the north and west a good number of Long Point birds are derived from eastern areas.

http://longpointbiosphere.com/Publications/Wetlands/8.0/8.1.htm#Figure 8.5

Although some of this is a bit old from a report Petrie wrote in 1998, the trends are likely still quite similar; note the west to east trends in Redheads and Cans (not many Gadwall are banded, as it is difficult to get them in a trap baited with milfoil!). Anyhow, story is, if you are concerned about the number of mallards you should look to your 'backyard' because we reap what we sow. This year was extremely dry in our part of the world and it may have impacted mallard production. We usually get a good bump in the abundance of 'northern' mallards late in November at Long Point, so let's hope that saves us!

Michael L. Schummer
Scientist
Long Point Waterfowl
learn more at www.longpointwaterfowl.org

& visit us on Facebook under Long Point Waterfowl
 
Also, for those that wonder about us 'biologists' and do not know who I am, I'm a duck hunter. It pretty much defines who I am. My experiences duck hunting with my father are why I pursued a career in waterfowl and wetland ecology and management. Although my work tends to always try to take me away from my passion, I have hunted three times this year at Long Point and last night shot a nice LPoint mixed bag of 2 mallards, 2 gadwall, and 1 wigeon which nicely fits with the LPW migration report as well :)! Always feel free to shoot me a PM if you have questions.

Michael L. Schummer
Scientist
Long Point Waterfowl
learn more at www.longpointwaterfowl.org

& visit us on Facebook under Long Point Waterfowl
 
Shot the bay last Saturday, got 10 redheads, 1 bluegill, 1 gadwall, had to put In some time out there, but eventually they started coming and didn't stop. Great shoot! Definitely looking forward to getting some green soon.
 
Shot the bay today. Nov. 9th.
Light west wind. Overcast almost all day.
No morning flight
Very few flock trading between the lake and the bay.
No evening flight
Only duck to even circle the decoys was a dart.
Got one Bbill and one mallard flying by.

Several boats came out late afternoon. Maybe they limited out in the unit?

However. Friends of mine were fishing out from the old cut and they saw thousands of ducks. Could've been coot tho for all I know.

Maybe tomoro will be better :).
 
I shot a blind in the unit and managed 2 drake mallards. Only other thing that came in was a hen hooded meganser that I let fly do to hearing stories on the taste. Not alot of shooting today.

Delhi, Ontario
 
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