Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations How many ducks are too many ducks?

The last few times I've been up to the pond, I've noticed more and more ducks flying off when I arrive. Yesterday morning there were about 20. It looks like they spend a fair amount of time there, as their droppings indicate.
We haven't had much rain in the last few month, so my water level is down about 2'. (23.5" to be exact). There's a lot of duck poop around the bank.
They look like wood ducks, but I'm a quail hunter, not a duck hunter. About a dozen came up out of the woods, I'm guessing they were up there eating acorns. I swam a fair amount yesterday. The water seems fine smell wise, but cold..
I will run them off, but the wife really likes seeing them. If they were geese, they'd be gone.
Just wondering how many before it may effect my water quality. With the water level drop I'm probably closer to 3/4 acre. Still 13-14' deep.
Thx

To me, more than couple of pairs would be too many. They can make things nasty quickly, if there is a big flock.

Doesn't take long

Any number equal to or greater than one....yeah I don't like waterfowl on my ponds.

That's a lot of ducks to be leaving that much poop. Looks like your season opens Nov 4th. You can shoot 3 woodies per day. You will need a HIP number, Federal Duck Stamp and I don't know what else Mo. requires. Plus you have to use steel or other non-toxic shot.

https://huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/downloads/Waterfowl%20Digest%202017.pdf

Woodies are good eating!

Woodies make a good Duck Gumbo I like to use 6 duck breast to the pot. And I once had a Pointer that would retrieve in the water, highly unusual for a pointer to do that. any of those Setters do that? Try using 4 shot instead of the 7&1/2 shot or my favorite, the High Brass 9's on those quail. Oh, I forgot to mention the woodies at my pond will make a bee line to the feeders when the go off, funny to watch them go from one feeder to the next. They must have learned that somewhere else, some other Pond Boss guy feeding fish.

I'll bet they are hitting my feeder. I'm going to have to wait a month and a half to hunt them? Crap..
my first two setters were fine with water, but the next three wouldn't have anything to do with it.
I'm totally dogless right now, first time in my life. It's an adjustment that's for sure.
I'm going to have to do something about this.
Thanks for the feedback. My wife is actually excited to see them. Two would be ok, 22, not so much.

Looking more closely at these ducks, I believe they are teal. The season opened up Sept 4th. Not sure when is closes..

6 is the daily bag limit. The info is in the link that I posted above.

Teal are my fav when it comes to hunting ducks. They are more active when in flight(lots of darting, or loop te loop type of flight) makes them more fun for shooting. I also prefer to cook them on the grill using hot pepper and a chunk of pineapple in the breast and then wrapped in bacon. Grilled till done. And Setterguy, I have been without a hunting dog or dogs for a few years now and I miss those days. I all most had a Labradoodle a few weeks back for teaching to hunt ( I had the dog for a week but did not work out) Wiffey was happy about that, me, not so much

Yep, my wife was the driving force to get me to "re-home" my Drathaar. He was a handful, and got bored easily. When bored, he'd dig or destroy. I fought the idea of just keeping him in a kennel. We have one out back, but it hadn't been used for years. We tried keeping him in it, but then he really got crazy. Took him over an hour to calm down when we let him out. I kept hoping he'd outgrow it and settle down, but the wife had had enough. I'll be sneaking up on those teal later this week. In the meantime, they are fertilizing the pond a little more than I like.

I'm with spark 1 duck is to many... Man the junk they can leave and put in your pond and the possible parasites and all and trash fish on there feet they bring to your pond... No thanks, If you like your pond at all I would take of that situation now!!

RC

IF you can see them from a distance its really easy to tell teal from wood ducks. If I remember right from pictures of your pond it is in or near timber right? My guess is you hit the nail on the head the first time with wood ducks. They love acorns which are really starting to fall around my place.

Here is a quick picture i.d. page with the species in question on it.
http://www.ducks.org/hunting/waterfowl-id/

One shot in midair those ducks will be gone forever. You can shoot without shooting to kill if you really want them gone!

You think so?? I don't know I've shot and shot near my GBH and it keeps coming back.....

It would be interesting to see if they do go away after one shot....

RC

I hope to be done with them Friday. I've seen ponds before, over south of Kansas City, that were solid with ducks. I don't want to get "that" started. I'm hoping with a scare, they stay away.

At the pond again this morning. Turns out they were woodies. Hopefully if I hang out enough, they'll stay away. I hunkered down in a blind near the pond and had three fly in. They hung out a while, and called to others, but I never saw any. After a while I was cleaning up, when I tested the fish feeder, seven more ducks came right in. I guess the fish feeder is bringing them in. They must have been hanging out in the trees? Or just happened to be flying over.. Not much additional duck poop along the banks. I'll be ready in November with licenses, if the woodies are still around.
I will say in the five years I've owned this place, this is by far, the most acorns I've ever seen. The ground is completely covered in places. The woodies head right up into the woods as soon as they land.
Might impact my deer hunting a bit.

Crap.. Came up last night to check game cameras etc.. Went to the pond, near dark. 100+ ducks, all woodies! They really like my pond. I can't be here all the time to keep them out. I have no idea on ways to keep them out.
I did turn off the fish feeder. I was afraid they were there just for the fish food..

Maybe try some kind of home made wind chimes that make a lot of unpleasant sound.

I've shot around them a few times now. Maybe that will help. When I went over yesterday morning there were only two swimming around. None up in the woods. The acorns are so thick this year, I make a crunching sound with every step. The ground is literally covered in places. Hickory and walnut both had banner year production too.

I would love to see 100 wood ducks. I would agree they would make a mess after some time.

They are pretty. I'm hoping they don't mess up the water too bad.

All this talk and just yesterday I went out and cleaned my wood duck house I built in hopes I might get to see one duck like last year!! Don't know what I would do with 100 ducks!!

I just read in Missouri Conservationist magazine last night, where they were using a rocket powered net to trap wood ducks to band them. They caught 300 on their first try. Not too bad. I guess I could have more.
They were baiting them with something. Not sure what they use. The article "surprisingly" didn't mention what the bait was.

One year I had probably 250 woodies roost in the flooded timber.... it was awesome to see. Put out corn around and in shallow water and draw them in. Just don't hunt over the baited area.... slightly illegal......