Season

[Ericdc]

Late season teal clean up so nice.

I let them hang and dry in the cold dry air after the hunt yesterday and cleaned this evening.




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[Ericdc]

Date: January 16, 2026

Time: left at 11:30

Location: 86 pit

Cloud Cover: clear with clouds approaching from north later in morning but stayed clear.

Wind Direction and Velocity: SSW to WSW 10 - 15 from start

Temperature: upper 30's warming to 50's

Barometer:

Moon phase: sliver




Special Notes: could be a very tough last 2 weeks

Waterfowl Activity: early speck flight headed due east and on mission. Ducks on water to north would get up and buzz some ( mostly pintail, gadwall, with a few mallards and spoons. Saw 1 teal all morning

Waterfowl Responsiveness: pintails are starting to show interest. Geese getting tough.

Hunters: Dylan and I

Guns:

Malfunctions: none

Dog(s): Dylan's dog Ted

Special Equipment: 2 mojos on remote. (Replaced the 1 receiver that stopped working and synced both back to same remote on first try)

Kudos: no problems

curses: no flight l. 1 late morning speck I had on a string straightened out on last circle and went due south. No buzzing or flaring, just left.

Birds By Species:
1 pintail

Photo Ops:









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[Ericdc]

Date: January 17, 2026

Time: left at 8

Location: 86 pit

Cloud Cover: clear then big cloud bank from south came. Didn't see that in forecast

Wind Direction and Velocity: decent to start out of NW then seemed to lose steam when clouds came

Temperature: upper 30's

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes: got home early, "know when to fold them"

Waterfowl Activity: early flurry gave us hope but that fizzled

Waterfowl Responsiveness: wigeon came pretty

Hunters: Hutton and I

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: 2 mojos on remote

Kudos:we picked up duck decoys ahead of likely ice next couple mornings

curses: losing my desire to go, was planning to go Monday but doubting that now.

Birds By Species:
1 wigeon

Photo Ops:
When the Mardi Gras decorations come out in bastrop you know it's coming to the end.



I prefer the December version






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[Ericdc]

Ducks still come to Louisiana, but they hang tight to quality habitat and managed pressure.

Southwest Louisiana – 1,947,000
Flooded habitat in the region appeared to have increased substantially, due mostly to
increases in flooding of crawfish ponds in the agricultural portion. The duck estimate for southwest
Louisiana (transect lines 1-17; Figure 4) is 73% higher than the December estimate (1.12 million)
and 1% higher than January 2025 (1.92 million). It is 41% higher than the most recent 5-year
January average for SW, and 37% higher than the most recent 10-year average (Figure 3). Similar
to December, more than 75% of ducks observed were in eastern Cameron and western Vermilion
Parishes in marshes and rice fields near Lacassine NWR, Rockefeller refuge, Creole, Grand
Chenier, Gueydan, and the Pecan Island area. Geese were not surveyed during the transect survey of
ducks. Rather, a cruise survey was conducted the following week. South of Hwy. 190 and west of
the Atchafalaya basin a total of 183,195 light geese and 7,213 white-fronted geese were observed.
An additional 8,000 white-fronted and 82,000 light geese were counted south of 31°N in Pointe
Coupee, St. Landry, Evangeline, and southern Avoyelles Parishes, though very few geese or ducks
were observed in Evangeline Parish.

The January survey of northeast Louisiana was conducted January 6-14, 2026 via 1,954
miles of transects. The December survey was cancelled due to plane/weather issues. The last
transect survey that took place was during January 2024, which will be used to compare 2026
result. Recall that historical surveys were conducted as cruise surveys and cannot be used to
compare with transect survey estimates.
A total of 671,000 ducks were estimated, which is approximately 43% higher than the
January 2024 survey of 471,000 ducks and a 248% increase from January 2023’s survey.
Dabblers constituted 85% of ducks counted, with divers the remaining 15%. Northern pintail
(22%), northern shoveler (20%), gadwall (18%), and green-winged teal (12%) made up the
Species Count
Mallard 75,000
Gadwall 118,000
A. Wigeon *
GW Teal 79,000
BW Teal 13,000
Shoveler 134,000
Pintail 148,000
Total Dabblers 567,000
Scaup *
Ring-necked 48,000
Canvasback 49,000
Ruddy Duck *
Total Divers 97,000
Wood Ducks 7,000
Total Ducks 671,000
Coots 13,000
Canada Goose *
White-fronted Goose 6,000
Snow Goose 757,000
Total Geese 763,000
Total Waterfowl 1,447,000
majority of December’s survey. Mallards (75,000) were down slightly from the 2024 count of
90,000.
All observable geese, whether on or off transect, were estimated opportunistically during
the course of the survey. An estimated 763,000 geese were observed which consisted of 6,000
white-fronted geese and 757,000 light geese (Ross’ and lesser snow geese). The goose count is
233% higher than January 2024. Most flocks were small (1-5 thousand) and disbursed on the
landscape. The largest concentration of geese was observed on three roost ponds in southern
Richland Parish. An estimated 700,000 light geese, this concentration contributed most of the
region’s goose estimate.
Habitat conditions throughout northeast Louisiana have been poor throughout fall-winter.
Most areas of region are dry, with less than 5% of fields flooded. Private lands in the Saline,
Ferriday/Vidalia, Tallulah, Oak Grove, and Tensas areas had very few wetland complexes
available. Northern Avoyelles, southern Catahoula Parish, and areas along the Ouachita River
from Columbia to Monroe held most of the birds counted during this survey. In conclusion, a
dry winter with little to no backwater flooding, resulted in many isolated wetlands on a larger
landscape of bare ground and woodland. These areas did not hold waterfowl as well as larger
wetland complexes where, regionally, 10-40% of the landscape is flooded.

[Ericdc]

My guys got 18 today
Mallards gadwall wigeon and teal


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[Duck Engr]

The front provides!

[Darren]

My guys got 18 today
Mallards gadwall wigeon and teal

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You still under the weather?

Whats the weather been like at your house so far?

Bunkie blind had a good hunt today, though oddly enough, good many scaup/dosgris to go with some spoons and 2 specks. Said a big wad lit the cut behind the pit off the bat so they let 'em rip

[Ericdc]

My guys got 18 today
Mallards gadwall wigeon and teal

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You still under the weather?

Whats the weather been like at your house so far?

Bunkie blind had a good hunt today, though oddly enough, good many scaup/dosgris to go with some spoons and 2 specks. Said a big wad lit the cut behind the pit off the bat so they let 'em rip

We got a ton of sleet and ice, lost power for 1.5 hours but back on now. I am feeling better today. Gonna try them end of week to finish it out.






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[Darren]

Glad you're heading in right direction (and power came back!)

[Ericdc]

Power went back out at 7 last night but we are managing fine.




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[Ericdc]

Date: January 30, 2026

Time: finished on ducks around 9:20

Location: 86 pit

Cloud Cover: small cloud bank to east cleared in time for some to clear tree line to east

Wind Direction and Velocity: NNE 10-15

Temperature: mid 30's

Barometer:

Moon phase: pretty big

Special Notes: today was like the good old days of 7-10 years ago on this farm.

Waterfowl Activity: bunches of ducks coming from north and south. Some huge waves from north

Waterfowl Responsiveness: teal and pintails worked in fast. Mallards worked slow and were banged out a lot

Hunters: Hutton Blake and I

Guns:

Malfunctions:did a lot of missing early, I regrouped us and told guys we had to let them get super close or we'd lose cripples to ice

Dog(s): definitely needed 1 to save steps

Special Equipment: 3 mojos on remote

Kudos: just a great hunt

curses: specks were not fond of ice

Birds By Species:
6 pintail
2 gadwall
1 mallard
9 green winged teal
1 snow goose

Photo Ops:









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[DComeaux]

Awesome hunt.

[Rick]

What he said ^^^.

[Ericdc]

Date: January 31, 2026 last day

Time: we finished around 10 I think.

Location: 86 pit

Cloud Cover: partly to mostly clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: 15 sustained North (brutal one chill)

Temperature: truck said 22 when I got to shop


Barometer:

Moon phase: big full. Beautiful

Special Notes: incredible last day.

Waterfowl Activity: big waves from the south. Including some of the biggest groups I've ever worked or seen in person.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: we had lots of ice and I think that made a lot of ducks finicky. The teal worked perfect and enough big ducks finished once we decided we wanted to let teal pass.

Hunters: Blake Hutton and me

Guns:

Malfunctions: none (Blake shot a teal after our imposed teal curfew but was forgiven)

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: 2 mojos on remote

Kudos: we shot really well today. Hutton should have gotten some great photos today with his big fancy camera.

curses: my only complaints that I could even propose are,

Wish this weather came in December
Specks don't like ice

Birds By Species:

4 gadwall
2 pintail
2 mallards
1 brewer's hybrid
9 green winged teal
1 speck

Photo Ops:
















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[DComeaux]

Wow!! So nice.

[Duck Engr]

My goodness what a finale!!!

[Darren]

Wow just awesome, great work !