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A volunteer who knew Isaac called and told him they were looking for hands to help band and transmitter birds at Lacassine NWR last evening, so he and I joined the party waiting in the rear for enough birds to get on the bait. And we did get to see some of both ducks and specks drop to the spot.

But that was it. Even with corn on a refuge, they couldn't get enough mallards to insure the ten hens they wanted to transmitter where they needed them in front of the net. And a fellow who'd been watching another Sweetlake site, reported that the birds that had been using it heavily the past few days were gone today. Pretty much ducks being ducks. Especially this year.

Going to meet them at Lacassine again early this morning and see if the rain holds off long enough for another stab at it.

Very cool! Hope they've caught some this round

DAMMIT! You always get to have the fun.

Not much fun yet, as there still were too many specks and not enough mallard hens among the ducks on the "X" this morning. Maybe tomorrow afternoon. Crew in Sweetlake did get 6 hens this morning, but Lizz having explained the process complete with phone photos while we were waiting for a shot that didn't happen, I passed on driving over to watch the transmitters actually be installed.

Something I found interesting, though, was that the corn they were intitially baiting with apparently started fermenting when conditions were warmer, and while geese eventually moved in and cleaned up, the ducks started avoiding it. To get the ducks where they needed them, they had to move the net over 60-70yds and re-bait with rice and milo. Or at least that's how I understood the goose tech, Kyle.

Rick wrote:Not much fun yet, as there still were too many specks and not enough mallard hens among the ducks on the "X" this morning. Maybe tomorrow afternoon. Crew in Sweetlake did get 6 hens this morning, but Lizz having explained the process complete with phone photos while we were waiting for a shot that didn't happen, I passed on driving over to watch the transmitters actually be installed.

Something I found interesting, though, was that the corn they were intitially baiting with apparently started fermenting when conditions were warmer, and while geese eventually moved in and cleaned up, the ducks started avoiding it. To get the ducks where they needed them, they had to move the net over 60-70yds and re-bait with rice and milo. Or at least that's how I understood the goose tech, Kyle.

Nonsense! No specks in S. La any more, how could there be too many!??

It would seem that unless you're targeting them, it doesn't take a whole lot of specks to be too many to put through the stress of netting for just a couple of your target species.

Rick wrote:It would seem that unless you're targeting them, it doesn't take a whole lot of specks to be too many to put through the stress of netting for just a couple of your target species.

Have never considered that side of things. I figured they set a trap, hoping to catch waterfowl, then noted what they were as they banded. Shows what I know.

The focus of this particular netting effort is getting transmitters on a total of 20 mallard hens. So they're watching for those with a spotting scope. Everything else in the net is by-catch that will end up being banded, too, but getting those Susies is their primary objective. Shooting with just a couple of those on hand means losing however many live decoys were potentially helping to draw a more satisfactory number of their target birds, but there also seemed some special stress myelopathy concern about putting the specks through it. And these folks seem to bend over backwards to avoid collateral damage.

No need in leaving departing specks with a stressful experience of S. La, we want them to return

Rick wrote:The focus of this particular netting effort is getting transmitters on a total of 20 mallard hens.

Any idea what information they are looking to gather? Are they trying to figure out if these hens are allergic to corn and that is why they didn't stay north on a flooded smorgasbord?

Just wanting to track their movements for a few years, I think. Current transmitters are solar powered are downloading tracking info anytime the bird is close enough to a cell tower; when out of range, the transmitter stores the info to be "dumped" when it's again near enough to a tower.

So, they can literally follow the birds' anywhere, albeit not always in real time, and I got to see some examples from specks nesting way the hey north of cell tower coverage. Also was told of a speck that made a dash for the Gulf and sat out on it for a while when our shooting started last(?) year, then followed the coast to TX before giving ag land another go below Winnie, TX.

We scratched again out there last evening (my third in a row), and Link and his two techs were going to set up a second net on another spot the birds were showing preference for - weather allowing. Meaning they'll be hoping to pop two at once, and I'll be just hoping to eventually get my hands on another duck - pretty much like during the season.

Darren wrote:No need in leaving departing specks with a stressful experience of S. La, we want them to return

Guy I spent yesterday evening talking to is a long time volunteer who told me they have caught blue--wings in the same place they'd just been banded. God bless their, er..."trusting," little hearts.

Hard to pass on that free meal.

Darren wrote:Hard to pass on that free meal.

That's what I was thinking.

Free food and jewelry and all you have to do it put up with a few guys getting a little handsy. Sounds like a woman describing a date.

SpinnerMan wrote:

Darren wrote:Hard to pass on that free meal.

Free food and jewelry and all you have to do it put up with a few guys getting a little handsy. Sounds like a woman describing a date.

That made me laugh

Strike four this morning, too much human activity both by refuge workers and visitors. Don'tcha know Paul and his helper are getting sick of laying in that ditch for naught.

Not so easy to study coastal mallards as one might think, and "what's happening to Louisiana specks" is going unstudied while the techs charged with checking the habitat they're using wait on the mallard gods to nod their way.

Strike five yesterday evening, too much human activity again: both a poaching fisherman and others "looking for the guy posting pics of poached fish on FB."

Perhaps they're inadvertently finding the reason coastal mallards are dwindling: too much human activity.

That’s interesting Rick, however unfortunate for you. How many go’s will they give it before throwing in the towel and moving on to something else?

Not a big thing for me, but I hate it for them. They're spread way thin, and Paul's back in BR attending to other duties until the weekend - when strong south winds may take most mallards with them. Techs may get a chance to try before he can, but they're also tasked with ground checking the habitat transmittered specks are using for that study and have already taken a lot of time away from that. Supposed to call me if they get something going, but I'm not confident the techs would be confident enough to pull the trigger without Paul. Seems likely the project may fall short of its goal this year.

Too late with crawfishing well under way this year, but I do believe I can help set them up for success on a large parcel of unhunted ag land we can control traffic on next winter, for whatever that's worth.

I found an airconditioned, seed blocking egg collector for you.

Don't know how much of an issue the extra weight of diesel and cab would be, but I'd rather deal with the crap coming over the grass rake than sit in that unairconditioned box in a Louisiana summer. Reckon a fellow could slip right up on 'em with that camo?

Spent a long afternoon in the rain making my sixth, count 'em 6, in a row banding and transmittering scratch yesterday. This time over in Sweetlake. Just about the time they they were going to get netted, the birds in front of the net bugged out and others eventually followed, instead of moving over the bait.

But at nearly 69, I can finally add baiting a spot for ducks to my life's experience list. Given how spread out the birds have been in the Go-Pro and game camera stuff I've seen, I was a little surprised by how concentrated the baiting is, perhaps a 5'x10' area. Lots of other stuff in a moist soil unit and pasture swale that the birds apparently prefer to poultry (corn) chops and rice.

Rick wrote:Spent a long afternoon in the rain making my sixth, count 'em 6, in a row banding and transmittering scratch yesterday. This time over in Sweetlake. Just about the time they they were going to get netted, the birds in front of the net bugged out and others eventually followed, instead of moving over the bait.

But at nearly 69, I can finally add baiting a spot for ducks to my life's experience list. Given how spread out the birds have been in the Go-Pro and game camera stuff I've seen, I was a little surprised by how concentrated the baiting is, perhaps a 5'x10' area. Lots of other stuff in a moist soil unit and pasture swale that the birds apparently prefer to poultry (corn) chops and rice.

Darn near reads like my hunt log from this season

Way to check off a bucket list item, just bummer no birds in your hand sporting new jewelry.

Taking another crack at the refuge this afternoon...

WOW, sure would've thought the golden kernels would be a strong draw for those birds

Strike seven.

Been transcribing my log here to Word and came across this in the "2018-2019 Preseason" section:

10/15 Mon:

Darren wrote: “Weather does appear to be shaping up properly well to our north

......hopefully”

Had coffee with Clark from Cherry Ridge this morning, and he's all fired about favorable weather patterns. But I'm afraid to even consider the possibility of what I think a "normal" first split show of big ducks, let alone bonus birds. Last first split's memory is way too fresh in mind, and I’m focusing my efforts on making due, as best I can, with little ducks.

Given that blue-wings ended up taking the top spot in our regular season bag, it's a good thing I did.

Rick wrote:Been transcribing my log here to Word and came across this in the "2018-2019 Preseason" section:

10/15 Mon:

Darren wrote: “Weather does appear to be shaping up properly well to our north

......hopefully”

Had coffee with Clark from Cherry Ridge this morning, and he's all fired about favorable weather patterns. But I'm afraid to even consider the possibility of what I think a "normal" first split show of big ducks, let alone bonus birds. Last first split's memory is way too fresh in mind, and I’m focusing my efforts on making due, as best I can, with little ducks.

Given that blue-wings ended up taking the top spot in our regular season bag, it's a good thing I did.

Yep it was all shaping up nicely about ut that time, but went downhill from there. Many northerners, and maybe someone on here can confirm, saw an early stint of cold then never really got too bad after that.

Eighth time's a charm. The current front brought the LDWF crew some luck, and they finally netted far more than enough Susies for their coastal mallard telemetry study late yesterday afternoon, along with with by-catch including greenheads, specks, green and blue-wing teal, a few spoons and more wigeon than my blind shot this year.

"Pulling" them and getting them out of the net and cold water before the later could work its way to skin and endanger them was the priority for our small crew, and I didn't dare take time out to snap even a quick shot of that until we were nearly through and I was returning from crating a speck (and still felt guilty about it):


The teal and many of the others were released ASAP, but most (if not all?) of the wigeon :


and specks received bands from the study leader, Paul Link:


This one's for you, John:


Not sayin' who this one ("for luck") is for:

After that, we retreated from the cold wind to a nearby shed to band gosh knows how many mallards and let the skilled folks, Paul and Liz, install the chosen hens with transmitters, some fastened around the birds' bodies in fairly typical "backpack" fashion (not pictured) and others with what I gather a newly developed method employing subcutaneous wire toggles:



Not the best of photos, I know, but when not shuttling birds to their bander or otherwise making myself useful, I did my best to stay the hell out of the way of those doing the real work.

Above all else, my little banding adventure over the past however-many days has given me a real appreciation for the long hours and flat labor the LDWF folks and their volunteers (most of whom have been working with them long enough to make me feel like a bumbling tourist) put into their work.