do they return ?

[monkeyboots]

just a question i was talking to a friend last night about shooting etc and the subject came up about shooting flightponds and flooded fields my friend reckons that say if 20 ducks came to your pond in diferent pairs etc and you fired at all 20 ducks the 1s that are missed never return to that same pond/flooded field and the ducks that are there the next time you go to shoot the same place are new ducks that have come into the aera or are ducks that have been fired at on a different pond , is he correct? ive seen teal shot at in a pond then fly a few hundred yards and land in a river/splash for sumone to make there way to where the teal landed fired at them and the teal return to the 1st place they had been shot at

Edited October 18, 2012 by monkeyboots

[.philmypower.]

Don't quote me on it but I believe he's wrong, if the pond is over shot they will go else where but we give ours a few weeks break between shooting. No way of telling if its the same duck though, that's just how I understand it

[anser2]

I think this is a difficult question to answer.

Certainly I have seen mallards ( X breeds ) with distinctive plumage return to the same pond thought the season even when a pond has been shot several times. But for other species its almost impossible to know , however I used to ring 1000s of wild duck of all species and found that some such as tufted duck and wigeon would be recaught in the same trap several times in a season and often for a number of years ( one wigeon was recaught in the same trap on a number of occasions each year for 9 years. On the other hand it was very rare to retrap teal or pochard and I never retrapped any teal in following seasons despite ringing several thousand.

In the case of wild geese if they are over shot they may never return to the same field again. A mate had 3 goes at Canada’s killing about 50 birds. This field had regularly produced Canada’s for the past 20 years when it had stubbles. 10 years on from the last time he shot there no Canada’s have ever returned

[Grandalf]

In days of old...

White mallard in these parts were called 'call ducks'.

If you had them on your flight pond you never shot them. They called the others in.

Some must have lived on the same ponds for years and years.

We have a trio on a farm pond on my shoot. Two of them have been around for five years.

They fly out - bang, bang, bang. They're never shot because the lady owner likes them about.

(She feeds the pond every day for me).

Couple of days later - or the next morning - they'll be back with a lot of others that we don't recognise.

[silver pigeon 3]

I have shot at Mallards coming in to a splash dropped 1 from the pack and called the others around to take another from the same lot. We have released duck onto our flight pond this year and they are ringed with red rings, we shot it for the first time 2 weeks ago and they all flew off with the first few shots, over the next couple of days they drifted back in and are quite content staying there at the moment.

[wildfowlingmad]

At the start of the season they seem to return more easily, they are not stupid though if they keep getting shot at in the same place they will avoid it if they can. Thats why you must not over shoot a spot, they will learn where they are safe very quickly.