Preseason 2022-2023

[BGkirk]

At first I thought your blind seat/bench was on the wrong side but appears you have water on both sides?
I like being able to shoot the north and south winds from the same blind. Very nice


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[Darren]

At first I thought your blind seat/bench was on the wrong side but appears you have water on both sides?
I like being able to shoot the north and south winds from the same blind. Very nice
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Good thinkin, and I should have clarified that the "bench" you see is actually a shelf for convenience, something we've come to love given large swings in water levels that at times can inundate the floor. Makes for nice place to put your bag, shells, coffee, snacks whatever.

We bring in our own lightweight folding chairs to sit in OR I also have a set of home made bench seats in another blind that I may bring over to this one and leave there.

The blind faces about due south/SSW, and does have some water to its immediate north behind us as well as a scattering of potholes that are typically where the mottleds traffic to and from.


shelf in use

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[Darren]

While we're in optimism season, brrrrr:

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[SpinnerMan]

Unreasonably cold and snowy. Looks like ideal conditions for hunting near the cooling lake

I will have about 5 weeks of vacation in the bank come this fall. If that forecast does actually play out, I'm ready to give 'em hell.

[Darren]

Bundle up and go look for teal

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[Rick]

Bundle up and go look for teal

While wandering through the rice and weeds in search of a couple blinds yesterday, it occurred to me that I've yet to hear of a single teal sighting - and haven't seen the shorebirds that usually precede them yet, either.

[Darren]

Went back to last year's preseason thread(s), rice outfitters were posting videos of clouds of birds on Aug 15th. For sure if there were some to show, they'd be doing the same right now but there's nothing but "book your hunt with us!" posts with stacks from prior seasons pictured.

[Rick]

Seems most farmers are now leaving what once would have been second crop dry and leaving it up to rains to sprout green rice for increased crawfish production and fewer apple snail issues. Could shift blue-wing distribution, but I've not been in the marsh since July.

[DComeaux]

Bundle up and go look for teal

While wandering through the rice and weeds in search of a couple blinds yesterday, it occurred to me that I've yet to hear of a single teal sighting - and haven't seen the shorebirds that usually precede them yet, either.

Read the first reports of hummingbirds starting to show up in numbers. Don't they usually ride on the backs of the blue wing?

[Duck Engr]

I’m ok with no reports this early. I want em here in September, not August!

[Rick]

I’m ok with no reports this early. I want em here in September, not August!

I expect to see them start showing in numbers the last week of August - but "reports" generally start in late July...

[Darren]

Seeing a few hummingbirds around the house.

I agree that we want the birds in Sept and not August, but Rick's spot on in that usually someone's brother-in-law's 4th hand report of birds has long come through by now, but not a peep. Suspect its any day now for first little bunch on a video over the rice.

Did see a mention of a few showing in S Texas

[PorkChop]

They are just starting to fly here. Later spring so for the most part a later hatch.

[Ricky Spanish]

They are just starting to fly here. Later spring so for the most part a later hatch.

Lots of hummingbirds showing up.
They're buzzing anything yellow.

[Deltaman]

Starting to see some on the Gulf Coast as well.

[Darren]

Bundle up and go look for teal

While wandering through the rice and weeds in search of a couple blinds yesterday, it occurred to me that I've yet to hear of a single teal sighting - and haven't seen the shorebirds that usually precede them yet, either.

Through an unconfirmed, like 6th hand source, few lil bunches seen outside of Gueydan this week in the rice.

[Darren]

Second bunkie farm camp work day yesterday to do some cleanup and continue with the addition. Was pretty productive all around, and my son tagged along and had a ball with his BB gun and helping out. Banana spiders for days just like everywhere else in the woods this time of the year.

Rice in field is ready to be cut and sure enough they were getting it out on a few cuts over so likely to be out on our end within the next few days if weather is cooperating. It's still really dry up that way, bayou behind camp really low, many ditches dry.

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From Rick's response to the first trip up there back in June:

That ragweed's gonna be a 10' tall problem come fall. I'd have mowed it myself.

Indeed, every bit of 8-9 ft for now, living up to its name of Giant Ragweed. That said, given it's growing elsewhere on other nearby levees just the same, it makes our blind not appear quite so much as one, and instead of cutting it down that leaves us with woody stalks, we plan to do a whole lot of breaking it over to generate the much needed over-the-top cover we've long been short on. Maybe by season's end it'll be deteriorated enough to just pull it up by the roots in hopes something else grows next season.

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Gathered up three snake skins, one about 5.5 ft, presumed to be all the same variety of rat snakes we've seen in the past, and indeed I hauled out a live one about 3 ft to vouch for that.

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That's probably about it up there until mid to late October when time to do a bit more grass cutting and camp cleanup under much more pleasant weather conditions.

May be some drought relief coming to some this week, better get the rice out.

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[Darren]

In other preseason chatterings, wanted to keep my own notes here on the first breeding and pond count data we've gotten since 2019. The first transmittal of the numbers to me was from someone shocked and dismayed over the numbers, but reasonable heads should prevail, and I've seen on a few other notes on here that some are doing just that.

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In short, these low numbers should be of surprise to exactly no one. The breeding stock that showed up to the prairies this spring was battered, with much lower overall numbers (as counted) after two years in a row of poor production due to poor habitat/drought conditions. As a result, you got comparatively little addition to the population, while still chasing them and harvesting them with more pressure than ever on the resource over the same period.

Hunters on our end of the flyway want to cry fowl over "their" birds being short stopped, and rarely stopped to think that maybe there just weren't that many ducks. This spring's count points to that reality being more of a factor than we previously wanted to acknowledge. In past years with a return of water, we saw significant population upticks, so I'd imagine this year no different with a fair rebounding effect. We'll have to wait til May '23 to verify that but it would seem a reasonable assumption at this point. With the uptick in breeding blue wings AND ponds, that would seem to be a sure bet to see plenty of them next month and beyond. Hoping the grays do the same.

[MARSH BEAR]

Waterfowl survey does not look good for our area of hunting. Gadwall and green wing teal are our two main ducks - not looking good for us this year

[Ericdc]

Could be better than last year or 2 if production and recruitment is very good.


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[Duck Engr]

I’ve often wondered, what’s the average production per duck? Ok so there’s 7.22 million mallards in the breeding population. Assuming near long term average pond counts, Drake to hen ratio, and nest success, how many young of the year ducks does that equal?

Of note, I did read nest success is up significantly this year, as our very own porkchop reported on the ground. Evidently drought is hard on predators too, and it takes them a couple years to bounce back, helping ducks have a good year or two.

[SpinnerMan]

how many young of the year ducks does that equal?

I would think that is pretty sensitive to weather and maybe other variables and likely varies quite a bit from year to year.

[Ericdc]

The graphics in this article show the estimated production numbers based mostly on may pond counts. This is an older article but helpful.

https://deltawaterfowl.org/we-hunt-the-fall-flight/


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[Duck Engr]

Exactly the article I was looking for! Thanks Eric!

[Darren]

Great info in that article, basically in some of the better habitat years they are nearly using 2X the BPOP as the "fall flight forecast". I'm all in on that (ambitious) notion, we sure could use some young ones not so hip to our game.

[SpinnerMan]

Definitely interesting.

I thought it was interesting how much more volatile the harvest in the south seems. Not sure that the correlation with May Pond counts is as strong as he implies, but it looks like it is definitely much more volatile. My guess being the much bigger impact weather has in pushing some ducks that far south and the amount of time they spend that far south. Also interesting that the harvest up north seems much less sensitive to the number of ducks there are then I would think. I would think it would be nearly proportional, but that is definitely not the case.

[Darren]

Having just flown back to BR from Des Moines, the approach to BTR readily revealed just how wet it is around here....rivers and creeks are super swollen, and sheet water for days in places that don't normally flood.........teal magnets. We need that to stop!

[Darren]

Thought we'd left the railings (and overall stature) of the new blind a little high on the original install, convinced my wife to take a ride with me Friday afternoon on a quick scaling-back mission. Thankfully with the high tides I was able to pull right up to it, step in and get it all done in my tennis shoes. Added more green to the paint job, cut some barrel notches in the front rail, lowered all the rails, etc. to get something that's now scaled how we had in mind, at and below the grass height.

Not a teal nor mottled seen.

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Even with the tide up, feed in the pond is strong as usual. Visited another of our lease ponds and found it's feed also really good. It's the time of year to knock all the wood you can find.

[MARSH BEAR]

Your marsh is looking GOOD.

[Darren]

Your marsh is looking GOOD.

Yea it's vibrant for sure, knock knock knockin all the wood around.