Plantation Duck Club 2020-2021

[paulito]

That last pics is what its all about. Makes all the hard work worth it don't it?

 

[Mexican Squealer]

 

[Mexican Squealer]

Sun is setting on a fun teal season. Had birds decoy on every hunt and managed to kill a few here and there...didn’t hunt this am. Spent it shooting milk jugs and cans with my 8 yr old daughter. We saw plenty of teal messing around on the farm but watching her work the lever on that Red Ryder was about as good as it gets.

 

[Mexican Squealer]

Thursday sunrise...

 

[Mexican Squealer]

This season I decided to leave water on 3 ponds all year in hopes of getting some desirable aquatic plants going for the ducks. It’s good to see results as I now have solid stands of Southern Naiad and Duck Weed. Hopefully this will add more diversity to the buffet I’m trying to set. My next step is going to be to stock 40,000 scuds per acre in these ponds come around March (think Sea Monkeys for those old enough to remember them?). Scuds are fresh water shrimp and add a big source of invertebrate protein to the project. Their success will depend on PH and a few other factors. I look forward to seeing benefits in having year round food/water plus the moist soil units that will flood each October.

 

[Mexican Squealer]

Southern Naiad

 

[Mexican Squealer]

Common Duck Weed

 

[Mexican Squealer]

Had first grey ducks of the year mixed in with bwts, few mallards, wood ducks and whistlers this weekend. Checked moist soil and everything is mature and ready to roll. Smartweed and barnyard grass look great....tons of yellow nut sedge absolutely loaded with chufa nuts in my experimental plots. Club work day next weekend to brush blinds and mow food...flooding will start just before Halloween. Got several holes with water and aquatic food sources ready for the early birds.

 

[mizzippi jb]

Sounds good man! Hate we're gonna miss each other this weekend..... I'm actually gonna be down Friday mid day to catch a good tide. Put in a good word for me and the boys with the hostess at the fish camp

 

[Mexican Squealer]

Me too JB! My good word doesn’t go far down there unfortunately ?....hope y’all slay ‘em buddy.

 

[Mexican Squealer]

Great work day at the club Saturday. Blinds are brushed and mowing food has begun. Whistling ducks are gone now. Nice bunch of blue wings this am.

 

[Mexican Squealer]

 

[Mexican Squealer]

 

[Mexican Squealer]

 

[Mexican Squealer]

Prime time to harvest and transplant/store smartweed is when the seeds look like this...

 

[Mexican Squealer]

 

[deermaster13]

Great thread and thanks for sharing.

 

[Mexican Squealer]

Continued experimenting with soil disturbance and timing has been interesting. I decided to harrow up some strips and a couple of acres of plots at the first of September to see what would be released. My expectations were that that the hot soil would produce undesirables such a coffee weed or sesbania. It was a cool surprise to see the majority of the experiment come up in awesome stands of yellow nut sedge...they are loaded with Chufa nuts and will hopefully look like bream beds once the ducks find ‘em...

 

[jdgator]

Love it! I’ve learned more about waterfowl habitat management in this thread than 20 years of reading ducks unlimited.

 

[Mexican Squealer]

Thanks JD, there are so many relatively easy ways to improve waterfowl habitat here in the south. We will always be weather dependent as far as the migration down here but we can have the plate set when they get here. I get a lot of pms asking for ideas on different management techniques and I appreciate every one of ‘em. It would be really awesome to see more and more wet spots and barren beaver ponds turned into aquatic food or moist soil units.Good luck to all this season.