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Was in the delta this past Friday through Sunday and saw a bunch of dead ducks and geese. Some were on catfish ponds folded up dead, some were in the road dead with blood running out of their bills, and others looked to be frozen in the ice in various states of distress. I find it hard to believe that a duck can freeze but it sure looked like the dead ducks and geese I saw had frozen to death. Maybe I just saw survival of the fittest in action? Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

i saw two different ducks fly into power lines around fish ponds this past weekend.

sounds to me as if they wandered into a cormorant poisoning

Yes ducks can freeze.... I got a freezer full of them...

They cant freeze to death but can be frozen in place and starve to death over time.. But i do not think they will just die from freezing temps.. just my .02

I counted a couple dozen dead on our ponds on the ice.

Wingman wrote:I counted a couple dozen dead on our ponds on the ice.

Well, did you check for bands?

Wingman wrote:I counted a couple dozen dead on our ponds on the ice.

Did you pick em up????

citizen's arREST citizen's arREST

dchughes wrote:They cant freeze to death but can be frozen in place and starve to death over time.. But i do not think they will just die from freezing temps.. just my .02

That's interesting. My son and his bud told me they found several ducks with their feet frozen in they ice this past Saturday afternoon. I thought they may be pulling my leg. They said they broke the ice around their feet and threw them in the air but the ice on their feet weighted them down so they left them where they were. I accused them of bull $#!+ because i had never seen it happen before. They said some ducks were dead and frozen in the ice. Has anybody ever seen this before.
We have shot several limits of ducks since friday and i have noticed that many are very light and their breast are very bony. Shot a few gads and mallards today and they were nothing but feathers and bones. They looked like they were starving. Anybody else seeing this? Sorry for the hi jack.

Wingman wrote:I counted a couple dozen dead on our ponds on the ice.

at least someones killing ducks!

yes we have been seeing it here at the head of the pearl river to Have a friend who talked to a warden about it and he was told that they are starving to death bc all there food sources are frozen or depleated

Now that someone has mentioned it most all the ducks that we shot this weekend had nothin in there crawl. Only one or two had a few acorns, we shot them in timber so that makes since. But no grain to speak of.

Puddle ducks can and will feed on dry land. Divers may have a harder time when everything is locked up. I have chopped ice to free ducks' feet in years past. The ducks I saw this past week were too far across the pond for me to recover but feather piles tell me something is putting them to good use.

Saw big groups of ducks trying to feed in fields on Friday,Sat,&Sunday.

I shot some Friday morning early, by the time I got back to camp they were frozen solid... Never heard of live ducks freezing to death, but I guess it could happen.