After a year without many contests, the World Goose Calling Championship Contest was back on in Maryland this past November. With it, the event crowned a new Champion in Lee Williams.
The river runs through it, for hundreds of miles finally depositing past Venice, Louisiana into the Gulf of Mexico. A football field of marsh is lost every 100 minutes and duck hunters won’t be haunted by the waters like Norman Maclean, but by the loss of the wintering habitat, the waters are taking away.
Texas is wondering where they are; Arkansas and Louisiana are wondering what they are doing there. Long has the on-the-ground reports around the coffee pot and in the pit blinds have hunters expressed observation of populations and wintering grounds move. The current studies being worked on by the Osborne Lab will underscore what is being witnessed.
Something strange is brewing in Nebraska with bag limits- a new daily limit program with restructured tiered options for what and how many waterfowl can be taken. Will it work? Will it become more common in other states? Time will tell. Read more to get a pulse on this new system.
Migration patterns, changing land uses, and multiple jurisdictions make managing difficult to do and understand. Birds are left in the lurch when Mother Nature throws out droughts or poorly timed rains. The different management practices in the U.S. and Canada compound the issue. How does it impact species like pintails, and what can be done better?
Recent information from agencies suggests that production numbers of waterfowl in the prairie pothole regions down over 25%. That 4 pack of mallards is now 3. The 8 pack of teal is now 6. Waterfowl news from Split Reed.
CWA Egg Salvage program rescues duck nests and eggs from fields before the fields are harvested, allowing 1500-2000 ducks to survive each year heading into the waterfowl season, which may have been destroyed in modern agricultural practices. As CA wheat grows and ducks are nesting in it right now, learn about the program in this article.
