AR Dave
New member
I learned I've got a lot to learn about habitat management this year.
Never could get that Buckwheat to grow. Just not enough water or something - sent in some soil samples a few days ago. Staying with Millet, Rice, Corn, this year (duck plots). Maybe I'll experiment with Buckwheat some more. Clover, Oats, Rye (deer plots).
We planted too much corn in some of our flooded ponds haha. Ducks had no landing zones and we couldn't legally manipulate it during season. Also we're switching to a different corn - horse hair? Suppose to bend over and be easier for ducks.
With two dozen duck holes we learn some things by accident. We are cleaning a lot of banks back by 50 yds now. We have a 100 acre flooded duck field that's more like a management area. The banks were unintentionally clean. Ducks feel safer from predations and walk out on the clean shoreline to primp or whatever they do. This place had 10,000 ducks roosting in it at night - the sky would fill up 30 mins before sunset and they would dive in from everywhere. Being right off a highway, tourist would park and watch. We hunted it the last two days of season.
Also we had a few loads of gravel dumped in strategic places and ground clam shell grit.
We're at war with Coffee Bean Plants in one hole. My partner has poisoned and plowed them and vows to spray every week until they are eliminated.
Too much to do - not enough time. My passion is in the swamp though. I'm building a 12x5 foot Beaver Hut Blind. This is going to be a special hole, located right out in a fly zone where the ducks are funneled through tall Cypress Trees. I'll try to post pics. My next battle, when the water goes down, is to remove some of the water plant mat that covers the water surface. It's big time thick in the whole swamp. What's the best way to go about this - cutting and dragging? Is there a spray?
Never could get that Buckwheat to grow. Just not enough water or something - sent in some soil samples a few days ago. Staying with Millet, Rice, Corn, this year (duck plots). Maybe I'll experiment with Buckwheat some more. Clover, Oats, Rye (deer plots).
We planted too much corn in some of our flooded ponds haha. Ducks had no landing zones and we couldn't legally manipulate it during season. Also we're switching to a different corn - horse hair? Suppose to bend over and be easier for ducks.
With two dozen duck holes we learn some things by accident. We are cleaning a lot of banks back by 50 yds now. We have a 100 acre flooded duck field that's more like a management area. The banks were unintentionally clean. Ducks feel safer from predations and walk out on the clean shoreline to primp or whatever they do. This place had 10,000 ducks roosting in it at night - the sky would fill up 30 mins before sunset and they would dive in from everywhere. Being right off a highway, tourist would park and watch. We hunted it the last two days of season.
Also we had a few loads of gravel dumped in strategic places and ground clam shell grit.
We're at war with Coffee Bean Plants in one hole. My partner has poisoned and plowed them and vows to spray every week until they are eliminated.
Too much to do - not enough time. My passion is in the swamp though. I'm building a 12x5 foot Beaver Hut Blind. This is going to be a special hole, located right out in a fly zone where the ducks are funneled through tall Cypress Trees. I'll try to post pics. My next battle, when the water goes down, is to remove some of the water plant mat that covers the water surface. It's big time thick in the whole swamp. What's the best way to go about this - cutting and dragging? Is there a spray?
