# South Dakota



## recker (Oct 12, 2003)

I got this off an Iowa site but also saw another guy post it on another site. I was in that area two weeks ago and most of the ducks were west in flooded fields. Buddy the other day said lots of mallards still in flooded fields. I would think if it was really this thick my buddy would have said it was like nothing he has ever seen before the other day. Can anyone confirm?

Word is there is, 1/3 of the continental population of mallards is in a 50 sq mile area of the XXXXXX area in So Dak. Thats 3 million mallards if you didn't know the population of mallards this fall. 60,000 mallards per sq. mile!!!!!! Can you imagine what that sight looks like??? Need a snow storm or a big blow in the next 10 days to see any of them before the season is over. Man I'm glad Guy recommended an early season And good thing all the NRC commishes agreed with him


----------



## jpallen14 (Nov 28, 2005)

What? There is alot of birds in the area but really? I live 20 miles from XXXXXX. I guess 3mil is overestimated.


----------



## T Shot (Oct 4, 2002)

jpallen14 said:


> What? There is alot of birds in the area but really? I live 20 miles from XXXXX. I guess 3mil is overestimated.


Agreed, just a bit inflated estimate.


----------



## drakedill (Sep 4, 2006)

Was just in SoDak for 10 days.... Go enjoy the last litle bit while you can. Hunted around XXXXXX.... There are just ducks and little canadas everywhere. Go Get Em!


----------



## duckp (Mar 13, 2008)

XXXXXXX?
The 'word' is BS.I can see the lake from one of my deer stands.Total BS.


----------



## T Shot (Oct 4, 2002)

What's with all the name dropping? I know it isn't ND, but don't the rules apply elsewhere?


----------



## drakedill (Sep 4, 2006)

Oops sorry if I mentioned too much.... but Im pretty sure the licenses are used up and season is almost over. but my bad.


----------



## Traxion (Apr 16, 2004)

They are wrong. There are actually 3,102,076 mallards in a 50 sq. mile area. I counted them myself yesterday.

LOL, all joking aside, I believe their counts are a bit off. Lots of ducks in NE SD, but what do you expect for late Nov and early Dec. I think the really interesting question is what is left in Canada. My limited sources are telling me a lot are still there!


----------



## USAlx50 (Nov 30, 2004)

I'm skeptical about a lot of birds being in canada still.


----------



## Traxion (Apr 16, 2004)

I've got a friend working in Winnipeg and the locals are telling him they have never had the # of mallards around this late that they have now. He says they are used to shooting lots of big Canadas into December but never mallards like now. For whatever it is worth, that was right before Thanksgiving.


----------



## steveandzoom (Sep 8, 2004)

I would say that 3 million is high, but certainly 500,000 or more could be accurate. I was one of the lucky hunters who was in "that" area during the first week of November. Every square mile was flooded to some degree and there were ducks everywhere. My estimate was a low of 1,500 to a high of 5,000 birds per sqaure mile, primarily mallards and pintails. I drove and hunted in an area only about 2 miles wide and 8 miles long and there were always thousands of birds in the flooded fields, but very difficult to see. My estimate is based on the number of birds that flushed. How many more were in the vegetation and unseen is anyone's guess. How many more came in since I was there is another unknown. Since conditions for feeding and roosting were near perfect, I wouldn't doubt if the number increased to more than 500,000.

I have never seen anything like it in my life, including the times I hunted in Saskatchewan and Mantioba in the 60s and 70s. One local indicated that this phenomena has occurred only 3 or 4 times in the past 40-50 years, but this year it was an event that surpassed other years. Even he was amazed. The interesting thing is that the hunting pressure was practically nonexistent. As of November 7th when I left, I saw three other groups of hunters in that area.

No doubt those birds are somehwere in MO and AR tonight.


----------



## $Sodak$ (Jul 8, 2009)

well for what it is all worth. i live right on the XXXXX and we had twelve guys Sunday Dec. 6 and shot 60 greenheads in about an hour


----------



## jpallen14 (Nov 28, 2005)

o yea, we had 14 and limited in 45 mins, so there. nice


----------



## Franchi 9-12 (Oct 16, 2008)

for what it is worth now, I was hunting up there on Nov 12-15 and saw way more birds up there then normal, I walked out into a flood field and saw wave after wave of ducks fly out. I thinking up 10,000 birds got up. With all that flooded water up there I don't doubt that there was that many up there.


----------

