Word from Larry Reynolds at the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is that there are now more ducks in the state than in the last 17 years.
His aerial survey in the month of December estimated 3.61 million ducks, 1.8 million in Southwest Louisiana.
He said the survey showed an increase of 18 percent from the November survey and 37 percent higher than the December survey of last year.
“It is the highest December estimate since 1999 when nearly five million ducks were estimated from this survey,” Reynolds said.
He added that below-freezing temperatures and snowfall in the upper Midwest states have sent more ducks south. The survey noted an increase of mallards in the state to 190,000 and canvasbacks to 300,000 ,while there was a decline of blue-wing teal to 95,000.
“Ducks continue to be fairly evenly distributed between (the) southwest and southeast survey regions but with far more diving ducks in Southeast Louisiana and far more dabbling ducks in Southwest Louisiana. There was a notable redistribution of ducks in Southwest Louisiana since the November survey when the major concentrations of ducks were seen in the coastal marsh at southern ends of transects. In December the largest concentrations of ducks were noted in the agricultural habitats north of the marsh, particularly north of Lacassine NWR (National Wildlife Refuge), near Cherry Ridge, and southwest of Gueydan between the Intracoastal Waterway and Highway 14.”
The breakdown of ducks in Southwest Louisiana, according to the December survey, is as follows: mallard (191,000), mottled (14,000), gadwall (551,000), wigeon (2,000), green-wing teal (715,000), blue-wing teal (45,000), shoveler (140,000), pintail (60,000), scaup (3,000) and ring-necked (160,000).
Area hunters both in the marsh and in the fields have lately reported a mixture of success. The recent warm weather we had didn’t help any but the cool front that came through Friday morning just may set things off.
The second split began the middle of December and will continue until Jan. 22 for the west and the coastal zones and until Jan. 29 for the east zone.
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