Bad year

[Christopher Piercey]

Anyone else having a bad year for ducks? According to the migration reports they're still shooting wood ducks in New Hampshire all the birds around here are local birds, and even teal won't play the game WITH the addition of cork decoys

[MarketHunter]

I've barely been but some of the boys in Canada are having a fair season. Still lots of ducks around here. Though the friends I have in Southern Illinois and Tennessee are getting their share some days.

[10 bore]

Originally Posted by Christopher Piercey

Anyone else having a bad year for ducks? According to the migration reports they're still shooting wood ducks in New Hampshire all the birds around here are local birds, and even teal won't play the game WITH the addition of cork decoys

yes slow here in NH, this cold weather should get them back to the salt water/ scott

[Chris]

I was at Reelfoot Lake in TN for Thanksgiving, no ducks, wore a t-shirt in the blind...

[gman]

Our season is over here in vermont and we had a fair to good season. Love doing it but think I will now sleep for a month. We probably put about 60+ ducks on the strap. Although reports are for increased blue bill numbers and a raised limit of 4 vs. 2 this year I did not shoot or see any. Unusually large numbers of bufflehead here. Whistlers a little late and intermittent. It is hard to think that given the hundreds of eiders on our Maine hunt that they are not healthy in numbers but the truth you are not seeing thousands which has been the case in the past. The weather is troubling to me for many reasons.

[Mills]

Mine has been really bad so far, as I have not been out yet. We are supposed to get a good invitation in the next few weeks, so hopefully luck will change. The NH and Nice Shot are waiting

[Richard Flanders]

It was a strange season in Interior Alaska. The swans were leaving Sept 1, at least a full month early. Our shooting was pretty much over by late September when normally the very best shooting at the big mature northern birds is in mid October. I was figuring the birds knew something we didn't and it came true with a near record cold November and temps in the -40 and 50's in December.

[Dunnigun]

We are experiencing an odd year so far as the early ducks were plentiful and widely distributed. However, now that the big storms have had their run, birds are scarce and some have possibly gone back north. The remaining ones are concentrating on public and private refuges. Northern CA birds will reverse commute to Oregon and sometimes Washington if the fields are not yet covered with snow.....so I've been told by the biologists.

At this point, a very different year than normal with big early rains and not too many ducks killed (as reported by the local picking shed).

Hunters are an optimistic bunch...possibly even more so than real estate agents! We (both) wait in hope.
My wife is an agent (ret.)....no one was intentionally maligned while posting this report. Brian

[Christopher Piercey]

It's a very strange season nationwide, it would seem

[Craig Larter]

I hunt in central NY. The wigeon, teal and gadwall were thin this year. Hugh numbers of mallards came just before Thanksgiving and stayed until our season closed 12/9. Went out on our marsh yesterday and mallards have left---tons of geese and a few black ducks. We also had more wood ducks this year than ever and they stayed until early December.