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Waterfowl

Beentown

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
15,740
154
Sunbury, OH
What are there general behaviors?

Feed during the morning, twice a day? Roost pond the rest of the day and night, repeat?

What else should a newb know about general behavior?
 

jagermeister

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
18,060
223
Ohio
What are there general behaviors?

Feed during the morning, twice a day? Roost pond the rest of the day and night, repeat?

What else should a newb know about general behavior?

Lots of variables that affect waterfowl behavior, much like the behavior of any other game animal. If the weather is decent, most of the time there are two main feeding periods... morning and afternoon, while loafing somewhere during the middle of the day. Keep in mind the birds will probably be feeding at the loafing area too, just not as heavily as morning or evening. They'll usually roost overnight on big water or in flooded willows. A lot of the time, the roosting and loafing areas are not the same. Now, if it gets REALLY cold the birds will often-times spend the entire day on the food source... feeding and loafing in the same general spot. By not flying back and forth, the birds are able to save precious calories. If there is a really bright full moon, the birds may also feed throughout the night instead of fly to the roost.

Another thing to note... If it's windy, most puddle ducks are going to shy away from rough water, and seek out sheltered areas to spend the day. This is why back home we always prayed for a hard north wind. Rough water would push the thousands of loafing ducks off of Muddy Creek Bay and into the surrounding marshes. A lot of my best hunts back home occurred during a stiff north wind.

Something else I thought of.... If you're going after early season Teal, look for areas with very shallow water and open mud flats. Macroinvertebrates are a big part of any waterfowl's diet, but teal especially. Hunting in water that's less than 8" deep with some good mud on the bottom can result in a killer teal hunt.
 
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matt hougan

Junior Member
338
0
Dayton area
Normally birds will feed on crop grain twice a day given non critical weather conditions. When temps are good birds will fly as far as 50 miles to feed. When temps start to drop birds will look for shorter flight times. Also during colder weather birds will feed as long as they can, stuffing themselves with as many calories as possible. In extreme cases I have seen geese sit on a frozen lake for days burning as little energy as they can. They'll wait out the bad weather flying out when the qeather brakes. Birds key on three things during their mirgation shelter, food, soft water (as in, not frozen). Birds that arent lunar migrators, that is, those that dont migrate due to changes in the length of days will migrate when food gets covered with snow and or their water freezes up. Look for ponds or lakes tucked in the woods that may have acorns near by, beaver ponds, access to rivers hopefully with an island you can wade to, or grain feilds that tend to hold some sheet water. Many birds are lunar migrators and the heaviest migration around here seems to be around Thanksgiving time. Still many other birds resist migrating until they cant take the bad weather. On clear nights with bright moons I will be hitting beaver ponds and small streams in the morning. On dark nights I'll be in the fields. Later in the seasonI'll be looking for concentrations of birds on gravel pits, large lakes, and rivers.
 

JOHNROHIO

Participation Trophy Winner
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I'm still a cutting my teeth in on the waterfowl. And digging what Matt and jbrown are posting it's filling the gaps that I'm missing. Here in my short 3 year season on birds I have always seemed to do the best in the last goose season and it just clicked with what you said Matt with the cold bad weather in the late. We have 3 big lakes and two rivers close by. At that point it just becomes hunting the x, now if I can get the rest down. Just another never ending quest.