Missouri waterfowl numbers tailing off

Missouri waterfowl numbers tailing off

After big populations late last year, fewer ducks sight- ed in the Show Me State

By Randy Zellers

AGFC Communications Missouri, which according to biologists has held a massive number of ducks during the waterfowl season, saw temperatures drop into the 20s in the northern half of the state last weekend, but it received only slight freezing precipitation with temps returning to the low 40s during daytime. Duck count numbers from Missouri’s three conservations areas closest to Arkansas — Duck Creek, Otter Slough and Ten Mile Pond, all in the southeastern portion of the state — showed much lower totals than in early December. Ten Mile Pond CA had a duck count of 35,000 on Tuesday, which was 11,000 less than the first week in December, but that was much higher than what was seen at Duck Creek, where totals of 36,000-plus in early December had dropped to an estimated 8,100 ducks on Jan. l.Also, Otter Slough’s total on Jan. 1 had been nearly halved from December’s 37,500 estimated ducks, with 18,500 counted.

Missouri’s biggest counts during early December had come from the northern half of the state along with good numbers from its southwest conservation areas (located in its middle zone; Missouri breaks its waterfowl hunting and seasons into three zones).

Montrose Conservation Area in southwest Missouri, which had seen an estimate of 54,000 ducks in mid-December, had tumbled all the way to 2,700 ducks by Dec. 29.

Meanwhile, Fountain Grove Conservation Area, a North Zone CA that had a count of 267,000 ducks in early December, was reportedly holding 70,000 in late December. Ted Shanks CA, which is off the Mississippi River in the northern half of the state, was holding an estimated 109,000 ducks on Jan. 1, up more than 30,000 from most of December. Missouri’s north zone waterfowl season closed Jan. 1, while its middle zone hunters finish up Jan. 6. The south zone concludes along with Arkansas’s season, on Jan.

27.

In early December, dud populations in Arkansas’ neighbor to the north were reported high. A month later Missouri’s numbers have dropped significantly.

Photos courtesy of AGFC