2025 Preseason...

[Rick]

Have long admired your “go and do” something a little ducky every day, Rick.

I’m getting reports from the area I like to hunt in the delta of a significant number of fields laying fallow this year, due to floods or economic conditions, or a combination thereof. What are you seeing in your neck of the delta?

More profitable sugar cane has made some inroads into our rice country, but a mill owner who hunts with me told me the soil in our SW corner of the state isn't right for it, and local attempts have come and gone. But rotating with crawfish keeps our rice farmers going.

[Darren]

Enjoying your updates, Rick, thanks a lot. May come across some Oak Island folks before too long, can pass along the report.

Did you make it out to the calling contest over the weekend at all? Know it's not THE calling contest that's also a known milestone; but nonetheless ducky/goosey!

All I did duck related over the weekend was further immerse young Indy into camp life, and got her swimming skills coming along. She's enjoying just being a puppy still.

[Rick]

That "world" contest was just three doors and graveyard from our house, but I had too much going on to drop in and say "hey" to the friends who put it on. Should see all but Bill Daniels (Riceland Calls) that I care to when we pick Lacasane (their spelling) Land Co..

[Rick]

Call and I have been enjoying a three day, largely rain inspired, hiatus from my egg picking by returning to our customary off-season morning ag land exercise/training rounds in a landscape now golden and sweetened by the smell of soon-to-be-harvested rice, where wood storks seem the predominant bird - if only by their size:

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Lots of squealers, too.

But also algae blooms to spur suspicion in one not knowing the difference between the deadly "blue-green" variety and umpteen harmless ones. Always something...

[Rick]

Passed another milestone this morning, when Call and I learned the highest cut of the two adjoining farms we most often roam was harvested yesterday:

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Our farmer friend host had moved his equipment of the farms without trying any of the lower cuts, presumably in hopes our daily rains will end and allow the lower cuts to dry more. Know I sure hated to see the potentially dog crippling ruts and figure Garrett felt the same, albeit for his own reasons.

Have been chomping at the bit to work Call on some pigeons over stubble, but will have to wait and see how the rest of the farms' harvest goes.

[Rick]

Enjoyed a "second ever" sight this morning, when Call jumped a bird well out in front of me, and seeing its white "black-belly" wing patches, I jumped on a squealer whistle and swung the then odd looking bird my way. Turned out to have a white band at the fore of its black belly feathers and perhaps just a bit narrower than this one I photographed back in 2015:

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You betcha I grabbed my phone/camera and did my best to call it back for a photo, but don'tcha know one 20' or so pass over an old, white-haired fart in a white hat and "t" and blue jeans had been enough to satisfy its curiosity. Has me wondering how many tens of thousands of black-bellies I've seen without picking out others?

[Deltaman]

Very cool pic Rick!

[Duck Engr]

Neat!

[Rick]

"Bummer birthmark."

[Rick]

Despite its rutted start this rainy summer, first (rice) crop harvest went unexpectedly well for Call and my purposes, as our host managed to finish the last half of the farms we like to roam just as it had dried beyond most rutting and hours before the next serious deluge began. The result being hundreds of acres he can run wide open without likelihood of a bad spill and injury.

And we found a nice silver lining this morning on the first half that was badly rutted, in that scads and scads of squealers have found its mix of waste grain and rut water to their liking. Thus providing me with the most calling targets I've enjoyed since last season's end. Tried screaming on the whistle at a few popping up way the hey out, and, next thing I knew, acres of birds were blowing up out of the field and coming our way. Didn't want to educate such a pile all at once and laid off the whistle, but literal hundreds of them made a "close enough" pass. Only spotting the other morning's white-banded specimen among them could have made it much neater, and it's great to know I'll have so many fresh ears to experiment on for a while.

[Duck Engr]

What a morning! Had to give you just a taste of your fix.

[Rick]

Black-bellies aren't quite the same as having a body of blues decide to toll "back in the day," but were close enough to put me in mind of it.

[Darren]

And even in those days, bodies of blues weren't tolling in July.........

[Rick]

True. Sort of a pre-teal preseason treat. Didn't see as many this morning, perhaps because we got there later and they were already in day-roost locations. But the dozens that got up from the same spot did as bid.

Speaking of doing as bid, there have been a few momma black-bellies scattered around our AO for some time, and, as did the momma woodies before them, they've done a great job of leading Call away from their broods, and Call's been good about breaking off those "crippled bird" chases, when my whistle bids him to once well clear of the wee ones. Hoping that level of control will be conditioned well enough by next season that it doesn't go down the tubes when we start letting him catch real crips, as was the case early last season...

[Rick]

Another summer milestone came a bit early when our buyer called for a count that was already enough to end this year's egg season with Lacassane Co.'s yesterday. Most years, poor production somewhere would see me still poking around afoot and/or by pirogue for every last nest within our permitted lands, but this was apparently a banner one across the board.

And speaking of banner years, I learned Lacassane Co.'s duck camp had a strong one, thanks to their location, land management with that priority and teal. "Lots of teal." Mike D. noted that they aren't holding many squealers, but I have to think they're feeding many of those night feeders spending their daylight hours on us.

[Darren]

Re: alligators.......great, banner production, woohoo

Re: ducks at Lacassane..... Wow, don't hear whole lot of reports like that lately, so ducks do in fact still come to La, just more and more have's and have not's.

[DComeaux]

Re: ducks at Lacassane..... Wow, don't hear whole lot of reports like that lately, so ducks do in fact still come to La, just more and more have's and have not's.

You're so silly.....

[Rick]

Re: ducks at Lacassane..... Wow, don't hear whole lot of reports like that lately, so ducks do in fact still come to La, just more and more have's and have not's.

Thank God there are still some "haves" willing to pay what it takes to give some birds reason to keep coming.

[Darren]

I did hear that the state's rice acreage showed a slight uptick for this growing season.....oh yea we comin! Regardless, sure beats a continued reduction giving way to cane.

With the recent news of more pure sugar demand, and continued poor market pricing for farmers growing rice (reportedly, I'm no farmer), can't imagine that cane does anything but continue to spread.