Ducks, ducks, ducks!!!

[BLACKJACK]

I was in SoDak last week for the pheasant opener and there were ducks all over!!! Every pothole had ducks on it. As we drove west of Aberdeen it was very wet, lots of standing water - and most had ducks on them!!!

Then I got back to MN and was thinking of getting out duck hunting, checked out a few ponds, not a duck in sight. Disgusting. Why is it that SoDak has so many more ducks? Here in MN a lot of ponds have water in them - but no ducks - why?

[Finlander]

The ducks get blasted out of Minnesota just as soon as they arrive! In the Dakota's there is little hunting pressure,

In Minnesota, there are more hunters trying to shoot the trickle amount of ducks that get here.

Why are there alot of ducks and geese in the city limits?

They don't get shot at there!

[delta dude]

No food here. And now we use our ponds for rearing ponds which upsets the pond ecosystem.

[nik]

Finlander has a point about the city ducks and geese. I was at Canterbury Park on Sunday for some simulcasting and the entire turf course was filled with geese. I am talking thousands. Sure would like to put a lay out blind in the middle of that. The birds adapt very well to hunting pressure. They go where they can't get blasted on. Wether it is the dakotas or your local golf course.

[machohorn]

Or the Rogers po*p pond!, hundreds of them

[Jarrod32]

On the pheasant opener, we were where BLACKJACK said...just west of Aberdeen. A lot of the fields were too wet to walk...so we ended up road hunting. Two of us came back with 3 pheasant and three ducks that day. I'd never road hunted for duck before...but they were there in the ditches and potholes, right off the road...

When we are out pheasant hunting, there is almost always a duck or two in the bag at the end of the day...we usually get them by jumping a stock dam or two.

[a47mlb]

I was in SoDak last week for the pheasant opener and there were ducks all over!!! Every pothole had ducks on it. As we drove west of Aberdeen it was very wet, lots of standing water - and most had ducks on them!!!

Then I got back to MN and was thinking of getting out duck hunting, checked out a few ponds, not a duck in sight. Disgusting. Why is it that SoDak has so many more ducks? Here in MN a lot of ponds have water in them - but no ducks - why?

You answered your own question. "Lots of standing water"... Look around here. Drain tiles everywhere, no "lots of standing water" like there is out there. And the water we DO have is generally to deep, otherwise it would have been drained by now. And whoever came up with the idea of pattern tiling prolly ain't a duck hunter.

Not saying it's the only reason, but one that we can actually control. "Build it, and they will come." Not right away, of course, but the ducks will be here for your kids and grand kids. People want a quick fix. It's just human nature. But it took decades to drain everything and drive the ducks west, it's going to take decades to bring them back. It's up to us to be forward thinking enough to start that process, and be willing to stick with it. You can't fix stupid in a day.

[RumRiverRat]

No food here. And now we use our ponds for rearing ponds which upsets the pond ecosystem.

Most of our quality wetlands are now used to raise minnows.

The MN DNR manages the water in this state for fishing and boating, they do not care about duck hunters.

[buddha]

After being in Canada for a week and hunting MN for 30 years and NoDak for the last 12 it's all about pressure and food. MN has plenty of water but most of the fields are plowed black with little to eat. SoDak gets little hunting pressure and the ducks stay around. NoDak has food but the hunting pressure is much more then SoDak so the ducks move until they don't get shot at. Canada has more food then you can imagine. Bigger water stays open so why in the world would a duck/goose leave Canada? Hunting pressure early but by mid-October very little at all and all the food choices in the world. MN may never see the better days of hunting until the food shows up again. Canterbury is a prime example of birds finding food but being able to find non-pressured areas and will stay all year.

[chub]

MN has plenty of water but most of the fields are plowed black with little to eat.

Actually, I don't think much of anything is "plowed black" anymore. 90% of everything I see is either just chopped or maybe disced. There's plenty of food for Mallards in this state. Divers on the other hand...... .

Hunting pressure seems logical, but with among the lowest license sales in our history(and declining), when there was MANY more people supposedly hunting, good hunting could be had.

NE SD, and ND have ducks because they are hatched and raised there. Sure they get the migrants too, but thier numbers are vastly increased by locally raised birds. Here in MN it's pretty much a bust for raising birds anymore.

[MN Greenheads]

Wet ND+SD= No MN Ducks. Just wait 5-10 years it will get dry again out there. I think?

[HOT SPOT]

There are birds in mn. Ya not as many as the last few years but you have to relize how much crop is still up. We did very well this morning on mallards. Just have to put a lot of mi on.