Originally Posted by Remington270
Originally Posted by YellaLineHunter
Was eye opening hearing how far the ducks actually move and how weather just stirs the pot. Can’t argue with the data though. I’d be interested in seeing multiple data sets from each flyway over a couple years. Pressure is pressures and nature wants to survive.


Except these ducks are partially not wild. I was blown away by a podcast I heard recently (on MeatEater I think) where they genetically tested ducks killed in the wild and a huge percentage are from captive breeding stock. Think city park ducks.

These ducks don’t even know to migrate south, they’ll just tear off in random directions. It’s all because these huge hunting clubs release ducks and then they breed in the wild.

The birds had actually even physically adapted to compete for grain (from a farmer’s bag) versus wild forage. In terms of beak appearance etc.

Yall should listen to that episode. I was amazed at the information.



Back in the mid 90s I looked at releasing mallards and even asked another farmer so our ducks would trade back and forth. The amount of money required got to be substantial and nixed that plan. Come to find out there were numerous others doing the same but simply thru-out 2-3000 ducklings without protection and just a little food. I see these leftover ducks around the shoals year around now. They’re on the lakes and rivers and even the creeks. They’re like those resident geese that were released back in the early 90s.

They don’t leave.

There was a hen mallard at Byers farm with a gps tracker. She’d leave out at daylight and fly to place to spend her days. Returning after shooting hours and feeding at night.

At the club in arkie there’s a pit that is close to the refuge. Ducks come in hard after shooting time and spend the night. When we’d come in the next morning thousands upon thousands would leave out for the refuge. We had a flooded cornfield a few years back and it was an afternoon place. Ducks would leave out at first light. We would kill ducks in the afternoon in the last hour of shooting time.

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