05 waterfowl season

[island guy]

With the bleak reports that are out for the upcoming season, do you feel there will be a decrease in license sold? Duck forecast is just awful! Geese sound OK. Does the outlook affect you and your friends going out? How many will do ND instead? Ideas or thoughts?

Be pro active! Do what you can to save our wetlands. Speak up for the future of the sport.

[BLACKJACK]

The MN Waterfowl Assn is looking for pledges to stay afloat, have you contacted them yet? Thats one way you can help.

The lack of ducks won't stop me from going out, duck camp on the opener is getting to be a tradition. After the first weekend, its a matter of scouting and then going after them. I did get drawn in SoDak, that will also help, we're going to combine duck hunting and the pheasant opener out there. It should be fun!

[FOOT]

I always open in MN and spend as much time in the swamp as possible even if the ducks are down. It's just nice to be out but something does have to be done to help the MN duck population.

As I've said in other posts, 7 of us bought a house in ND a few years ago and I've been going to ND for over 25 years. Even during the dry years we had good luck.

It's too bad MN does not have the potholes and farm ponds that ND has. They hold ducks and provide tremendous habitat for raising young.

I'll open in Battle Lake this year, hunt Reno the next weekend, then head to ND for 5 days, take the next Sunday off to placate the wife, hit MN for 3 days, then back to ND for 7 days. By then it will be deer hunting back in Battle Lake and after that pheasant and goose with a few hours spent on local streams jumping the ducks.

At least that my plan if the wife agrees I think I'll be happy this year.

[WALLEYENUTZ]

I don't see how we(MN waterfowlers) can put that much credit to a report that is fisnished prior to a second hatch. I've seen alot of new chicks in the last week or so. Most DNR reports don't hold that much water to me.

I will hunt as much as I can, which will be less than last year do to my new twin boys .

my 2 cents

[waltinader]

They said last year there was no ducks and me and my freinds went out every weekend and limited out about half of them. I am planing to do that agian this year. Key thing fin little pot holes that no one hunt. Last year we went out west but still in minnesota and I have never seen so many ducks in my life. By the first 15 min there had to be 10 thousand ducks on this little pond and they didnt stop coming all day straight. When there is that many comming in its fun to just watch them. This fall should be the same way people say there is no ducks but there always are spots where they all go to.

[bigbucks]

I'll still go opening weekend & maybe a couple other outings, but I likely won't see many birds. I know I could get more if I wanted to drive further & spend a lot of time scouting, but I'd rather bowhunt. As my son gets old enough if it turns out to be something he really likes then maybe I'll get back into it more again.

I agree there's always birds somewhere, but the overall population has to be down, as there's a lot of water that hasn't changed much that just doesn't hold the birds it used to, at least in my area.

[WalleyeWeasel]

Speaking of new baby ducks in the last few weeks........My father, had a hen, hatch 15 little ones in a planter in the front yard, earlier this spring. When they hatched and left the nest the hen returned eleven days later with no chicks......she layed 9 more eggs and hatched them. And all 9 are doing just fine..what happened to the first 15..?? Who knows, i'm thinkin all the early spring rain killed them.And it is the same mallard hen, she has layed eggs in the same planter for 4 years now....same duck her name is Lucy.

[ironman]

I'm not sure how accurate the doom and gloom forecasts are either. I can only report on what I see...was fishing on Pelican Lake last weekend and there are a lot of mallards with lots of babies behind. I've never noticed these before but I did see a few white wing scoters too. I think I'm going to plan a fall fishing/duck hunting extended weekend for opener at Pelican....oh btw..it's the Pelican in Orr.

[island guy]

A lot of you guys are more optimistic than I am. That's a good thing. Where I live in Western Mn, once a waterfowl hot bed, There are pockets of ducks. One slough can have lots and a 1/2 mile away you can hunt all day and never see much. I'll still go out as shooting is only part of the game for me. I'll also continue to be politically involved in the cause.

Lots of changes in the 45 years I've been going out. Most not for the best I'm afraid.

[mwktrapper]

Minnesota reports are down and were done at a bad time. They postponed the counts because of the rain and ended up missing a lot of birds that moved through. The DNR even states that these counts are only an estimate and not accurate enough to determine a fall count. The numbers in Canada are way up for nearly every species and all waterfowl as a whole. As the season moves on, those are the birds I'm mostly worried about anyways as they move through MN.

[Mark Christianson]

I've seen posts about people mentioning "second hatches".

Just in case anyone thinks that ducks produce a brood, raises them, and then goes to nest again; that is false.

Ducks do not nest and raise multiple broods the same year.

If you are seeing small ducklings now, its due to the mother losing her other brood(s).

It would be pretty nice if they would raise multiple broods in one year, but its not the case.

PS - the above info is provided by a friend in the USFWS if you question the validity of it.

Now as far as ducks go this fall. Its for sure disappointing to see the reports regardless if they are accurate or not.

One thing is for sure. We(people) are our own worst enemy.

Until someone can convince developers to quit paving over the countryside, we are gonna have our hands full trying to improve the mess we have now.

Lets see. A developer wants a prime piece of land and so does a conservancy group...

Who is gonna win in the vast majority of cases?

I am not saying developers are the cause of our issues, but they sure won't make it easy to fix things as the years go by.

People like living on water whether its puddles or lakes.

What a frickin puzzle to figure out, fix, and continue to maintain/improve as time goes by.

I don't have an answer.

[Benny]

I saw a news clip not long ago that Minnesota passed a new law that gave those cruel developers and city hatchet people the right to take any land they want by eminant domain clause.

I thought that was already in place but the new law just made it stronger.

Now I don't have any thing to show this is the actual case , just remember seeing something about it last month.

It is a sad world when some one can take your land away from you just to devlope a cono strip or a mall.

Benny

[WALLEYENUTZ]

I agree that developers are not doing there part in conservation but, it's a small portion of our problem. Agriculture is the (in my eyes) biggest problem we face.

[BLACKJACK]

biglake is correct, some of the small birds like bluebirds will raise two batches of young birds per year, but ducks and pheasants, once they've hatched, even if they all die the next day, will not renest. Its only when the nest is detroyed before hatching that they will renest.

[WalleyeWeasel]

Well i can assure you that Lucy the duck DID hatch two broods of ducklings!!.........only the second batch survived

[jblabsnduck]

I also have to disagree, we had a hen nest on the side of our house two years ago and she 7 little ones until the neighbors cat found them and one day she was all alone with the drake showing up every now and then. About 3 or 4 weeks after that she was back on her nest and she had eggs there which turned out 5 new little ones. it was the same hen because she had a little white spot on the top of her head so I know for a fact it was the same one.

After the SECOND hatch I asked the neighbors to keep the cat in the house for a while and they did because they knew how much I love the ducks. I did tell them what happened to the first hatch and she felt so bad.

Maybe it is a freak of nature for this to happen but to say it never happens is wrong.

[Mark Christianson]

My point was that a duck will not raise a brood to maturity, and then go nest again in the same season.

Some people do think that when they see the small ducklings now and even later into the summer.

[lawdog]

You are way off Benny. What happened was the Supreme Court ruled that eminent domain could be used to take a person's private property as part of a development or redevelopment issue, even though the end result would be a different private person owning it and not the governement. Essentially they said encouraging economic development is a public purpose. This ruling really didn't have much to do with new development, it was actually more of a redevelopment issue given how those cases have usually come up, and the ruling is consistent with how the law has been in MN for quite some time anyway.

In short, your post is both factually wrong AND has little or nothing to do with the topic either...

[jblabsnduck]

OK, I will agree with you on that Biglake.

yes, they have to tend to there littles ones if they make it that far and will not re-nest if they even have one left from the first hatch.

Some may disagree but you never know I guess.

[loc9fisher]

sounds like its going to be a tough season with all the negative reports.

but i have an idea, you guys sit this year out. if its going to be that bad why waste your time. i'll bite the bullet and buy a license and let you guys know when and if it starts to pick up. that way all we'll get are good hunting reports.

now for those of you who will be bothered by the above, lighten up. its a joke. for those of you who get the joke, agree with me............loc9

[carpshooterdeluxe]

the new issue of ducks unlimited magazine showed a promising forcast for conditions in the dakotas/minnesota and the prarie regions of canada. anybody wants to see ducks take a drive up I-29 from US 12 exit to the north dakota border. lots of water and ducks on all the ponds. western minnesota where i grew up seems to have average numbers of local ducks on the various ponds and sloughs that i drive by all the time; one thing i have seen is that in a large public wildlife near my home farm there is more teal there than i have ever seen during the summer. i think i will have to pick up a box of #6 steel and go for fat blue wings on opener! oh and dont bother coming out to western minnesota for early goose opener..there are none around no doves either....

[icecold]

I love duck hunting as much as the next guy but we have to be realistic My inlaws live on the west side of north dakota, when we go visit I ofton take different routes across the state just to look at the great duck habitat the state of ND offers, There is no way in he-- that we are ever going to get wetlands like that in MN Why should the ducks ever come through minnesota when they have all the food and water needed The flyway is never going to shift over to minnesota, The Dnr needs to quit dreaming, that minnesota is going to be a great waterfowl state again , In the late 70s and early 80s when i first started waterfowl hunting with my dad we had great hunting,thats when there was alot of ducks but know the pop ulation just isnt there anymore, Thanks to Progress, fill in the potholes and build houses, Drain the wetlands so the farmers can get a bigger farm subsidy check, Everybody wants the world to speed up be fast paced, look what this world is turning into , People are rude inconsiderate, Not much left in terms of hunting ethics, Im sure glad that I still am able to shoot some ducks and still enjoythe outdoors, even though its going down the tubes fast.

[Riverratpete]

yeah brother..right on, couldn't agree with you more with the flyway shifting and the loss of habitat in Minnesota. have hunted ducks many years in this state and every year gets a little worse. Now that I have all the gear I could possibly need for duck hunting getting tired of too much work for too little shooting. Starting to think I should stick to fall fishing and grouse hunting and skip the every wknd of standing in the marsh with a million other people hoping to get a shot a lost teal.

[jblabsnduck]

I am not saying you guys don't know how to hunt but we hunt in SW MN and pound on them just about every time we go out there. I get tired of hearing "there are no ducks here in MN". No ducks on a WMA that is hunted by a millon guys that like to sky bust birds and dumb stuff like that.

We go find the birds and the places we find them, we don't see another person all season. O'Ya the places we hunt are ALL public. We don't hunt the places that have 10 other rigs parked at the landing.

[JEV]

Same goes for me. I've been hearing a lot of people saying last year was a poor year for ducks. I for one, didn't think it was that bad. Can't say I didn't have to work for them though. I venture out on public lands also, but I go where the pressure is limited. I have a hard time getting my buddies to go with just because they know I do a lot of walking through some pretty tough terrain to get to those potholes. But, it all pays off by the end of the day...

JEV