black- bellied whistling duck in sharkey county

[pit-n-the mud]

ive never heard of that particular species of duck. have you got any pics of it? i want to see what it actually looks like.

[eSJay]

[Wingman]

Just got an email from David Linden, biologist at Yazoo NWR, and he has found several BBWD nests there this year. Says the most BBWD's he's seen at one time on Yazoo was 23. Pretty neat.

[Po Monkey Lounger]

Rob, when these ducks nest locally in MS, will they later migrate away from MS like many of our locally grown wood ducks? OR are they more territorial to their nesting grounds? IS it possible to legally import some of these ducks to get them established in an area to improve hunting opportunities? Or even if legal, would these efforts be likely futile?

[gator]

AND, in one fail swoop our hero pomonkey corners the market on BBD's in mississippi......hunts offered via wooley swamp outfitters

-Gator

[Wingman]

Rob, when these ducks nest locally in MS, will they later migrate away from MS like many of our locally grown wood ducks? OR are they more territorial to their nesting grounds? IS it possible to legally import some of these ducks to get them established in an area to improve hunting opportunities? Or even if legal, would these efforts be likely futile?

Max, those questions are way over my head.

[Po Monkey Lounger]

AND, in one fail swoop our hero pomonkey corners the market on BBD's in mississippi......hunts offered via wooley swamp outfitters

Nah, just thinking about any potential to help a wild species of duck get established in an area or two to provide a little extra gunning on slower days. I'm always searching for a holy grail.

[bigwater]

po monk...

we should try and establish a colony somewhere along the vardman/houston delta.. its a region thats ripe for tree ducks... imo....

[Po Monkey Lounger]

No doubt Bigwater. The gunning and potential business opportunites that such a colony of these bbw ducks could provide could change duck hunting as we know it today --- much like the propagation of the ringneck and shoveler has changed MS duck hunting over the years.

[bigwater]

po monk//

i've got the inside track on a peice of property just east of vardman.. farmer will hip it up so it will hold water.. we can pump outta the creek if necessary... he's gonna leave at least 3 acs. of untouched sweet taters.. i'll take care of all of this if you see to getting the birds over here.. theres plenty of trees and forest around this field... so they should feel at home..

then once they get a taste of them flooded sweet taters.. schit.. fore you know it.. they'll be ducks all over the place// all the way to sharby creek....

[Po Monkey Lounger]

WE may not attract any ducks, but we'll for sure get a few lawyers, politicians and judges with those sweet potatoes.

[Wingman]

Little Eagle Lake, Humphreys County, this afternoon about 4PM.

bbwd.jpg

[bigwater]

did u take'em??

[Po Monkey Lounger]

I did not know what these ducks looked like until seeing this pic posted by Rob and the mount posted earlier. With both of these as points of reference, I am pretty certain that I saw and watched for a while one of these ducks at the Little Red River in AR a couple of weekends ago.

I had no idea what that thing was at the time. And although it looked similarily colored as the mount posted earlier here, I did not make the connection until Rob posted this pic showing the long legs of this duck.

The critter I saw looked just like that, and was wading around in the shallow water similar to how a crane would, but also was running/hopping along the ground on the bank as well, actually following our boat for a while.


No, I was not drunk.

[Wingman]

It has extremely long legs for a duck. They hang out behind his rudder when he flies. I was paddling along trying to get some pics of gators and I look up and see this long-legged thing standing in that snag. I knew immediately what it was. Makes the weirdest call when alarmed.

The information I have says they prefer agricultural areas, especially rice fields.

FYI, this is the first one I've ever seen. I didn't expect it to be on the east side of Humphreys, but I also got a report of 2 on Lakeview (Horn Lake) last weekend, so I imagine they could be anywhere in the state.

Looks like they are here to stay.