Above average temps from Montana to the Gulf Coast, and here in Texas water is freaking ever where!!!!!

Yep, even mild till jan 27th

Hey Hope haven't been on here in a a while, probably a couple of years or so. I decided I'd check in just to see if the bird traffic was a slow as it is here at Cooper. I guess it's slow everywhere, I've read wear the Arkansas numbers are way off. We haven't had birds here in probably going on 4 years or better compared to what I was seeing when we first started hunting on the WMA about a decade ago. I watched a hunting show filmed down at Eagle Lake, Texas a couple of weeks ago, and may have gotten at least a partial explanation as to why our bird traffic has been off. Even though Eagle Lake is hundreds of miles from here we'd be right in the flight path of that area as they come down from the north to go there. The Eagle Lake area WAS home to thousands and thousands of acres of rice farms that they said were attracting millions of waterfowl. A few years back drought and lack of water access killed most of the rice farming and the birds stopped coming. They still do some rice farming down there but nothing like the used to and they say that only attracts a few thousand birds now. I've actually seen this before in north Louisiana where I grew up back in the 70's. They did a lot of rice farming south of Monroe and it eventually stopped. We had birds there in numbers that would turn the sky black in some area, but when the rice farming stopped the birds quit coming; at least in those massive numbers. I got up this morning at LST just to boom scout here at the WMA and listen for quiet a while if it weren't so cold CRICKETS...………...

My question is where in the heck are all those birds going if they aren't in that general area(Southwest of Houston). I remember you could drive through there and seemed like every field on each side of the county road was white with birds. I moved from the area about 20 years ago(gosh I feel old saying that and I'm not that old). Our family property used to get pass shooting chances all the time in Kendleton b/c there was about 1000 acres of rice near it, and that's nothing compared to what's in Eagle Lake. I sure miss those days.

I think most moved to eastern Arkansas.....along the Mississippi

I think there is a mix of flyway issues and local (Texas) issues.

Large:

1) agricultural practices have changed, as you said, but the biggest difference is in the northern part of the flyway. Food is available longer north of us.
2) there hasn’t been a prolonged, deep freeze and snow up north this year - one that takes away their food source and open water, which forces them to migrate.
3) I hear a lot of hunters complaining about landowners up north using devices to keep their ponds from freezing when it does get cold enough to freeze, keeping water open.
4) I don’t know if this is a true issue or not, but I see it mentioned by hunters in other parts of the country, so I’ll add it with that caveat - motion decoys, like mojos, are incredibly effective in shooting juvenile ducks, which impacts populations and ducks that don’t get shot over them learn to avoid them. I don’t use mojos, but I hunt with someone who refuses to not use them, and I typically do better when either he doesn’t hunt with me or he forgets to charge the batteries. Whether that’s true or not, I don’t know, but it’s mentioned quite a bit when this topic comes up on another forum I’m a member of.

Local:

1) we have a ton of water in Texas this year. What ducks have migrated can spread out significantly.
2) the amount of private land in Texas (which I’m in favor of, by the way) impacts our access to where a lot of birds are in this state. Lease prices have sky rocketed, too.

I think there is something to your theory on bird numbers on your WMA, but I think the bigger picture is more of an issue for the entire flyaway (and other flyaways are struggling, too).

It’s not just the rice.

We used to grow tons of peanuts in Texas.

Now, Texas is the #1 or #2 producer of cotton in the US. Ducks don’t eat cotton.

One more thought:

The "good ole days" that you fondly remember here in Texas really were not that good everywhere else.
There was a time (60s,70s,80s) when agricultural practices and wildfowl management practices between Texas and Canada weren't so good (understatement).
When birds left Canada, the best stop for many was on the Texas costal prairies.

Then came the conservation movements, states investing in habitat for hunters and a little organization called Ducks Unlimited.
The later two realized that they are financially dependent on hunters being successful in all states, not just Texas.
DU didn't get to where they are now with only Texas members.

Just Google "wetland project" for any state between Texas and Canada. Look under "images" to see the maps of all the projects.

There are water retention projects, native flooded grass projects, even state management areas featuring flooded grain crops.

These now number by the hundreds in every state. They weren't there in the "good ole days".

Things may not be what they were here once upon a time but on average up and down the length of the flyway, I would say things are much better.

There is an entire FB page dedicated to complaining about DU and how they keep ducks north by providing tons of unharvested food for waterfowl keeping them from migrating south...

My BIL ranch is surrounded by peanut fields....the ONLY geese we see are Specks(and tons of them!)....absolutely zero flocks of snows/blues...any idea how that is? He's about an hour south of San Antonio.

Talked with a buddy of mine that has contacts in KS. By Thanksgiving of 2017 KS was covered in snow. About a foot of it on the ground and remained there.

This year, by Thanksgiving, the average high in KS was 60.

First the first time this season we had gotten a real cold front that dropped their temps below freezing for a couple of days and stayed there. Was really hoping some more fronts were going to come and keep them frozen up.

When the news reported above average temps for 6 days, it just made me feel like the rest of the 2018 season is going to be the same.

The birds we have are far and few between, and with the volume of water everywhere they'll just remain scattered.

Frustrated is an understatement. And I'd be lying to say I wish I had never gotten this addiction.

This will be one for the books.

The guys that have the means and have been doing this for sometime are getting on birds, but not like in seasons past.

Hopedale...it's alright some days your gonna get them and some days they are gonna get you? You're talking like one of the participation era folks. It happens, you deal with it or hang it up...my dog is 9 and we hunted a couple times this season. I'm starting to evaluate if it's even worth replacing her no more ducks than TX gets.

Rice fields at the coast have become condos and apartments, and the largest peanut farms here in Texas sold over the years. One of the biggest ones became a huge gravel mining pit about 5 years ago.

Well, I was all set to go this morning but looking at the weather I wasn't really all that optimistic. I woke up from a crazy dream an hour before my alarm went off. In that dream I had forgotten to put the plug in the boat and I sank it on the ramp in about 2 seconds. I dragged it up the ramp and it was stripped clean. Battery boxes, gas tank, all my gear... gone. Even the dekes didn't float somehow.

I took it as a sign. Turned off my alarm and slept in.

It has definitely been warmer than usual and there is water everywhere. That being said, me and my couple hunting buddies are having one of our best years; almost all big ducks all on public water. I thought yesterday would be a crappy hunt with no wind, but we still managed 13 greys in about 3 hours between the 3 of us.
I see quite a bit of people complaining every year about not enough water, too much water, ducks stayed in {insert any state north of Texas}, DU did something, etc. It's got to be guys that hunt private only. With the amount of public land all over the place, you can find ducks if you really look.
I'm by no means an expert hunter, but we still manage to shoot ducks. Last year was my worst year which I chalked up to Hurricane Harvey, but really it was probably because we had just moved cities and I didn't get out much pre-season to scout. This year has been above average for me though.