Why the ducks didn't reach Louisiana.

[Dougie]

I didn't read all the posts above so the following may have been mentioned.

Ten years back or so, the University of Arkansas fitted 80 mallards with satellite tracking devices and gave each bird a name. Logging onto their website gave a map of the US and Canada showing the real-time location of the bird's transmitter.

Our group watched the website daily in anticipation to see how the birds moved around or migrated, and WHEN THEY WOULD ARRIVE, for we knew they would. It gave hope, but I remember one winter, that the farthermost south any of them made was for a hen who stopped just north of Monroe along the Mississippi River. She lived out the season there, moving around a few miles, before heading back north in the spring.

It was an eye opener to see so many of them spending the winter along the drainage patterns ABOVE Arkansas and in the mid-west all season.

It's too bad they no longer run the program but you can read about it here.
http://cast.uark.edu/home/research/g...-tracking.html

[simplepeddler]

There are just too many variables to adjust when talking "good season"........

this dialouge is great though........
I remember that tracking.....seems that year birds went back and fourth as well?? Is that correct?

Big birds would come down for the weather and move back north and then again south .....teal on the other hand seem to blow through......here today, Mexico tomorrow.....Mallards plot around.....

[Dougie]

Originally Posted by simplepeddler

There are just too many variables to adjust when talking "good season"........

this dialouge is great though........
I remember that tracking.....seems that year birds went back and fourth as well?? Is that correct?

Big birds would come down for the weather and move back north and then again south .....teal on the other hand seem to blow through......here today, Mexico tomorrow.....Mallards plot around.....

I think they were tagged in Arkansas for the most part in winter/spring, and they migrated north for the summer. Some went way up into Canada, and just didn't make it very far back for 'our season'. Watching where they moved each day, they sure seemed to be following waterways like highways, and didn't just bee-line across country. It would be great if they did all species of ducks.