2023 waterfowl.

[retrieverman]

Well that stinks, haha. Makes sense if there’s no water though. And while I haven’t recently done near the waterfowl hunting that I’ve done in the past, bird numbers have seemed to be a lot lower the last 3-5 years. That might have something to do with the lack of water though. It Used to be a waterfowler’s paradise…

Okie4570 is right about the competition from the feedlots. There are THOUSANDS of ducks daily on the feedlot across the county road from my house. I accidentally found a spot on the river last year and was able to kill a couple ducks, but they definitely don’t hit it like they used to. There’s a 25 acre wheat field north of the river and 3/4 mile east of my place that used to draw a bunch of geese, but the last few years I’ve seen very few and have never seen a crane on it. Even the green fields on the refuge along Hwy 11 don’t draw the geese like they used to.

 

[Okie4570]

Well that stinks, haha. Makes sense if there’s no water though. And while I haven’t recently done near the waterfowl hunting that I’ve done in the past, bird numbers have seemed to be a lot lower the last 3-5 years. That might have something to do with the lack of water though. It Used to be a waterfowler’s paradise…

Like you said, about 4y ago it's like someone flipped a switch in Garfield, Major, Alfalfa, Grant, Noble and Kay counties. Not near the birds and 100x the guides.

 

[AER244]

Like you said, about 4y ago it's like someone flipped a switch in Garfield, Major, Alfalfa, Grant, Noble and Kay counties. Not near the birds and 100x the guides.

Are folks thinking the flyway has shifted one way or the other? Or has there just been really poor recruitment and populations are down?

And the friggin guides are everywhere. And they’re from everywhere. Met a few from arkansas and Louisiana. I wish they had stayed in arkansas and Louisiana. I have a pretty visible flock of turkeys. No idea how many guide/outfitter calls we got about those.

 

[Okie4570]

Are folks thinking the flyway has shifted one way or the other? Or has there just been really poor recruitment and populations are down?

And the friggin guides are everywhere. And they’re from everywhere. Met a few from arkansas and Louisiana. I wish they had stayed in arkansas and Louisiana. I have a pretty visible flock of turkeys. No idea how many guide/outfitter calls we got about those.

At first we thought it was just a couple of warmer than usual winters up north and they just didn't have any reason to fly south if they had open water up there. Then it froze solid up north and they still didn't come....but they were killing the crap out of them in every other corner of the state. We also had less water than I've ever seen in the last 30y. Other than stock tanks for cattle or spring fed ponds, everything was dry, or so shallow that the slightest freeze it would freeze solid. Our 17a pond that's usually a goose roost, hasn't been the last 3y. Shot a handful of ducks over all I think we've hunted it 5 times in 3y and I check it at least once a week for birds. Have other ponds in other counties that were either dry or no birds. Have lots of cut corn and milo to hunt every year also, but no birds. We went from killing several hundred birds a season to two or three dozen lol. We killed 11 on 2 hunts last year, that was the only 2 times we found birds on us out of dozens of places to hunt. Waterfowl guides have also started guiding turkeys, all while turkeys are at an all time low. They're just about extinct around here. Where once I could take you at any time of the day and show you 11 flocks of birds within 10 miles of my house, now there's one and may or may not be seen when we get there. It's bad.

 

[AER244]

That really stinks about the lack of birds. And all the guides. i haven’t hunted waterfowl in two years, sounds like I haven’t missed much. But it sure is fun when the hunting is good! Nothing quite like getting pooped on by 10000 very loud birds that wanna land on top of your layout blind.

And I hear you on the turkeys. We have less than an 1/8 of the turkeys we used to. Im fortunate in that I still have some, but the whole situation and their decline is worrisome.

 

[retrieverman]

 

[retrieverman]

 

[Hangfire]

 

[Hangfire]

 

[Hangfire]

2023 Waterfowl Survey.