INTRODUCTION
Even though it is still early in
the migration, quite a few ducks were observed on the November 7, 2001
flight over central/south Florida.
Habitat conditions look better than they have in the past several
years. Water levels on the
St. Johns are a bit high, but backwater areas look good, and if water
levels drop as the season progresses habitat conditions should only
improve. If we get cold
weather this season, we may see a good number of birds in Florida, and
actually be able to get to them.
ST.
JOHNS RIVER:
We
flew the area from Lake Harney south to Highway 60 in Indian River
County. Overall, the
habitat looked good. Areas
near the river looked quite deep, but many areas off the river were
shallow and holding some birds.
Bird were scattered in the backwater marshes with groups of 10-15 being
common. Blue-wing teal,
northern pintail, American wigeon, gadwall, northern shovelers, and
mottled ducks were observed in these areas.
Teal and mottled ducks made up the bulk of the birds seen.
A few areas where birds appeared to be more concentrated were the
Salt Lake area (200 teal), south end of Lake Winder (300 teal and a few
mottled ducks), marshes outside the T.M. Goodwin WMA (4000 teal and
other species), and marshes around Stick Marsh (several hundred
ring-necked ducks and teal).
SOUTH FLORIDA LAKES:
We
looked at several lakes including Istokpoga, Kissimmee, Marian, Marion,
Pierce, Hatchineha, Cypress, Alligator, Weohyakapka, and Tohopekaliga.
Only lakes Kissimmee and Toho looked promising, but don’t take my
word for it. Scouting may reveal birds not visible from the air.
Toho has hydrilla and we observed 3000 coots and 500 ring-necks on the
lake. Kissimmee has some
hydrilla in the east arm and behind the north island.
A few ring-necks and teal were observed.
LAKE OKEECHOBEE:
The
west-side marshes look very good.
Birds were scattered along the west shore in the open marsh from Indian
Prairie Canal to Moonshine Bay.
Over 1000 blue-winged teal, several hundred mottled ducks, and a
scattering of northern pintails, American wigeon, northern shovelers,
and ring-necked ducks were observed in this area.
Birds appeared to be concentrated in the open marsh pockets very
near the west shore of the lake.
More birds seemed to be using habitat on the southwest portion vs. the
northwest portion of the lake.
Scouting should pay off big on the lake this year.
CONCLUSION:
There
is a lot of good-looking habitat out there this year.
Many pasture ponds surrounding the areas noted above look good.
Many of these ponds were holding birds, some of them had hundreds
of birds. Because there is
so much habitat available to birds this year, scouting will be very
important. Get out and look
over the areas you want to hunt and find the shallow water with good
water and vegetation interspersion.
These areas seem to be holding the most birds.
Good luck!
