Im gonna open this can of worms one more time

[mississippi_duc_htr]

Ok I was at a wedding yesterday of which I was the best man. I friend of mine that does duck hunt said that 2 mississippi conservation officers came into his place of business Thursday and of couse he ask them whats up with the ducks. They told him that they were told by the powers that be that the states up north of us were in fact dry feeding the ducks and geese. They also told him that they were told that this had been going on for the last 2 years. The conservation officers also told him that the info they were getting said that due to this unatural intervention(i.e. hand feeding them) was putting the migration time futher back and that they were migrating later,pairing later, nesting later, and that alot of fledglings had died due to the fact that they were not mature enough to handle the cold. I think myself and several others agreed on this. Mess with mother nature and your bound to mess up.

[NOHERE]

DAMN YANKEES!!!

WE SHOULD CHARGE'EM ABOUT 300 DOLLARS FOR A SMALL GAME LIC. FOR ARKANSAS OR MISSISSIPPI.

[judge jb]

if there is any thing good to come out of these ducks holding up north is that the early ducks back up north have a better hatch rate than the latter ducks...{not worth a dang next year if they don't come back} but weather will be in our favor sooner or later..
warm weather and ample food source up north gives them big ducks an excuse to not come our way... who blames them, after all us Ms. boys has built a reputation for bustin ducks....

judge jb

[NOHERE]

I talked with a friend of mine today from
Louisville Ky. They hunt the rivers up that way and he told me that they ducks never came down to them!
He had a coulple of hunts in Wisconson early in the year and said they had a exceptional season up there all winter long...and in most places they hunted, the water is still open and the birds are still there as of today.Said the old timers up there have made statements that" they had never seen so many birds in that area this late in January." This makes me feel somewhat better about the birds not being here...just some!!

[WNE Driver]

So now this is 3rd hand info...

I believe that your friend told you that MDH...

But it is curious that the ducks are "dry feeding"....That is what most of the ducks in migrating through the grainbelt do...They use the refuges for water and some feed, then as it gets colder they switch to dry feeding corn (higher starch/energy content) in the picked fields.

Sounds to me like someone might be stretchin' the truth...

Maybe you could get your friend to ask the CO's who is payin' the bill for feeding the waterfowl?

Here is a little FYI for everyone...

36 million ducks in the spring census.

10% of that is 3.6 million ducks.

If an attempt was made to "short stop" just this 10% of the population for 60 days by feeding them an average of 1 cup of corn per day, the following numbers can be arrived at -

It would require 1.44 million bushels of corn.

It would cost ~$2.9 million.

The corn would fill 27+ barges and make a 3 wide push 1/2 mile long on the river.

It would fill 410+ jumbo hopper rail cars and make train 5 miles long.

It would fill 1600+ semi trailers and driving down the interstate with 150' between trucks the convoy would be 70 miles long.

Now for the facts -

This is based on a bushel of corn weighing 56 #'s and being equivelent to 150 cups of corn.

A barge will hold 52,500 bushels.

A jumbo hopper will hold 3,500 bushels.

A semi trailer will hold 875 bushels.

Or better yet MDH, have the CO's explain how operation requiring the above could occur without someone being able to provide some real proof - eye witness accounts with dates/locations, photos, etc.

The only corn I have seen dumped in Illinois, came from a cow....

[Jack]

WNE, YOU HAVE TOO MUCH TIME ON YOUR HANDS! How long did it take you to conjure up that crap?

[JackHass]

Damn Yankees!

[damnyankee]

I can't kill limit in 45 minutes everyday...waahh...waaahhh...
It was 65 degrees in Central,IL today, they have not had a snow that stuck for more than 48 hours in Il or MO all season.
I believe it's the golf course Yankee ducks that have been breeding with the southern ducks and they won't come down ever again.
It's over move North!!

[torch]

They used to only hand feed after a bad snow. but the last couple of years in souhtern Il. they have fed them on the refuges. You and I pay taxes just like everyone else and the Federal gov't should stay out of this one. Let the ducks fend for themselves.

[crow]

Guys, they don't have to feed them! There's more food for the ducks in the prairie and midwestern states than you can obviously imagine! We can't hold a candle to how much grain is grown there! I don't care what moon is in what seventh house and how the stars align or that Jupitor aligns with Mars...(make a dang good song wouldn't it)... or how short the days get. A duck will only move as far as he has to to find food to eat and water to sit on! Minneapolis(?), MN had a low temperature of 34 and a high of 50 yesterday! And there still is no snow cover. I'm sure somebody somewhere has fed some ducks! That won't/can't stop millions of ducks when the weather is right!

That said, when Canada goose numbers hit its low point in the seventies on the east coast, the more northern states did alter the migration pattern by shortstopping them with feed. But, you were talking only a couple of hundred thousand, all totaled. The geese have never resumed their southernmost migration now that the numbers of wild migratory Canadas has increased. Hope this weather doesnt get the ducks into some bad habits.

[MSDuckmen]

WHAT? You have got to be kidding, You can't really believe that we didn't have birds because the northern states are feeding them.
GEWHAHAHAHAHA Man your killing me.
Have you ever heard it is best not to say anything less you show your IQ.

This is a no brainer, NO SNOW - NO DUCKS.

Why would they fly all the way down here when the freeze line is still north of the United States. They have more food than they need and the season is closed with no pressure.

Some of you guys crack me up. hehehe

[SoftCall]

MDH - I am just as disgusted as the next guy about a crappy season. I have done some research on this one too. I will not come up with the BS that WNE does, but I think it's next to impossible to stop the birds. I think that if someone was feeding them right next door to you or in about a 75 mile radius it would be an issue.

WNE - don't you have a walleye to go catch or something?

[WNE Driver]

Bull -

What crap conjuring are you refering to?

The fact that corn is 56#/bushel?
The fact that corn is ~$2.00/bushel?

If you want the source of the rest of my info, here it is -
http://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/navdata/tr-comp.htm

As for feeding any waterfowl, the only evidence I have found that mentions feeding is this -

Rusch, D. H.: Craven, S. R.: Trost, R. E.: Cary, J. R.: Drieslein, R. L.: Ellis, J. W.: Wetzel, J. 1985. Evaluation of efforts to redistribute Canada geese. Trans. North American Wildlife Natural Resource Conference 50:506-524.

In which it states -

Evaluation of efforts to redistribute Canada geese - Transactions of the North American Wildlife Natural Resources Conference 50:506-524.

"Fall Canada goose (Branta canadensis) counts at Horicon National Wildlife Refuge reached 100,000 in the early 1960s and were increasing annually.

Management agencies dumped 467.5 tons (475,003 kg) of shelled corn to hold Canada geese on the refuge in 1965, but crop depredations were high nevertheless.

In 1966, an effort was made to disperse Canada geese with aircraft, but the program failed due to lack of cooperation. In late October a helicopter operated only over the refuge flushed geese from adjacent private lands up to 2 km (1.24 mi) distant.

Airboats were effective and versatile for hazing Canada geese because they could be operated after dark. While Canada geese were highly sensitive to helicopters flying low, they could not be used after dark.

Although Canada geese loafed in uplands during the day, thousands returned during the 2-hours after sunset in 1966. Disruption of night roosting was achieved with airboats in 1976-78. Propane exploders were largely ineffective, but frequent use of airboats for exploder maintenance provided a major disturbance."


According to this, feeding occured on Horicon Marsh, Wisconsin, 37 years ago and the next twelve years (1966-1978) the geese were hazed with aircraft, airboats and propane cannons.

The only crap I have seen so far are the rumors that some folks spread.

[ January 29, 2002: Message edited by: WNE Driver ]

[ January 29, 2002: Message edited by: WNE Driver ]

[mississippi_duc_htr]

Well guys I was just repeating what the Officers told my friend and what they told him was happing with the migration time and the nesting situtation and the feeding. Being that they were C.O's and one of them is over the northern area's of the Tenn -Tom waterway I figure they outta know or @ least have access to that kinda info...... believe what u want that's the way I look @ it. [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[WNE Driver]

MDH -

Like I said before, I believe what you, your friend and even the CO's said and heard. I can imagine that the CO's heard -

"the ducks are staying up north and they're dry feeding in the fields"

This is true. They (the waterfowl) are dry feeding in the fields.

What is not true is they (USFWS, State DNR's, DU, etc) are not feeding the waterfowl in the fields.

I honestly think someone along the line mistook/misunderstood what was being said.

As to what was said about feeding causing poor health amoung the duck population, consider the snow goose problem we have now. One of the contributing factors to the overpopulation is the increase of agriculture in the central flyway the past 30 years. Particularly in Southern Texas. This has supplied more feed in the form of waste grain and has in effect "short stopped" them from reaching the S. Texas coast as they did 30 years ago.

I don't think anyone will question the "health" of the snow goose population.