Moving targets

Duck season is on its final leg.  It closes Sunday, January 27 in the East Zone of the state, which encompasses most of our area. It’s been a good season, but not a great one according to most hunters. There are still plenty of birds in north Louisiana, but they have become scattered because we have more water than earlier. The final waterfowl count is in from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Here’s a snapshot of the results of their aerial surveys:

* The December survey showed an estimated 271,500 ducks in northeast Louisiana. That includes the

Mixed bags like this one including mallards, gadwalls, woodies, teal and geese have been common for groups of hunters the past week.

area around D’Arbonne east to the Mississippi River. Of those ducks, the largest numbers (in order) were mallards, gadwalls, greenwing teal and pintails.

* The survey showed the areas with the most ducks being the Bonita/Mer Rouge area, Mollicy Farms, Wham Brake and miscellaneous flooded ag lands across the entire region.

* There are an estimated 200,559 geese in our region.

* Of those, 90 percent are Snow Geese and white-fronted geese.

* The largest number of ducks in the state are still in the swamps and marshes of southwest area parishes around Lake Charles and Lafayette.

* Of course, this all comes with a disclaimer. Weather fronts such as that one we had earlier this week can send massive numbers of ducks further south. Or it can bring even more ducks this way because of more freezing weather to the north. It’s a moving target, kind of like a big mallard drake buzzing the decoys.

* As a reminder, the daily bag limit on ducks is six and may include no more than four mallards (no more than two of which may be females), two pintails, one canvasback, one mottled duck, one black duck, three wood ducks, four scaup and two redheads. The daily bag limit on coots is 15. The daily bag limit for mergansers is five, of which only two may be hooded mergansers. The merganser limits are in addition to the daily bag limit for ducks. The possession limit on ducks, coots and mergansers is twice the daily bag limit.

If you are a duck hunter, ALWAYS double check regulations and rules surrounding what/when/how you are hunting. Make sure of season dates and zone boundaries. And remember, while most good duck hunting areas are leased or private, there is some great hunting available on public lands. Check it out. And be safe!