We went in September/October to a pond that we hunt that holds lots of wood ducks. We jumped 40 off of it then. We hunted it this past week for the first time and saw ZERO wood ducks. Had 3 gadwalls come in and that was it. It was VERY hot the morning we hunted, but I don't know if that matters. I figured they would hang around. At least some of them? Any ideas?

Yeah, they are Migratory Birds.

It was my understanding that most wood ducks are permanent residents, and they don't migrate often?

I have had the same thing happen, a big front pushed them out last year. Haven't seen more than 10 this year and we have always had woods ducks in the river bottoms.

what time of the day did you jump the 40 off the pond

This pond pretty deep? hardly go dry? lots of rain and flood water since then.. they got all their secret pot holes in the middle of no were to feed in now... prolly somewere with lots of acorns

Jumped them at about 8am. There are 2 ponds that hold ducks on the place. This one is bout 3 ft deep and about an acre. Lots of vegetation below the surface and floating on top. That's the one we hunted. The other larger pond is about 5 acres and probably 8-9 ft at the deepest. It floods into a very small strip of oaks. It also holds ducks. Neither pond had a wood duck on it.

Here's us at the bigger pond after we had jumped those off the small one.

All my WD's moved to the flooded creek bottoms. They love them nuts. While we do have a good resident population it has to be a wet summer for them to build in numbers here. We went from flood to drought back to flood again. They push out after a real cold front however. With all the water everywhere its doubtful I will see to many in my normal spots.

Shot a banded woody last year in east Texas that hatched last year in Illinois