Why no ducks on my pond?

[N80]

I have a 10-12 acre pond about 150 yards down below my log cabin. I've had this place for over 15 years. The pond is fed by a creek that is dry about half the year. On the other end is a very large dam built by the Corps of Engineers in the 50's as a watershed project. The valve for raising and lowering the water level rusted solid years before I bought the place.

For some reason there are never ducks on this pond. I have a few wood duck boxes and there are usually a couple of pairs of them around. Occasionally there will be a few ring necks out in the middle. Very rarely, like every few years I'll see a stray big duck or two, sometimes a Ruddy duck. Teal maybe once.

So why no ducks? The local cow ponds get more ducks than I do. I'd love to hunt ducks. I used to love duck hunting but haven't pursued it in 30 years. I've got a jon boat. Got decoys. Got a Labrador.

In fact, I put a dozen decoys in the end of the pond a few weeks ago. Nothing.

I'd love to do something (legal) to attract more but can't lower the water level and even if I could there is no way to plant because that whole end of the pond is too boggy and wet even in the dry times.

 

[tractorshopper]

George,

I dug my own small pond in my yard several years ago. It's fed with runoff only and it's level comes and goes with the drought status here.

The first year I dug it, I bought 6 ducklings with my chicks in the spring and brooded them together (did not clip wings or anything). Then introduced the ducklings to the pond as they were growing. When nearly full grown, I let them go in the pond. They have been thinned by predation and have procreated on their own and at this point, all the originals are gone, but their offspring remain to this day. Less than a 1/4 mile is a very large farm pond. I don't know if any of my ducks are there or not, but I know these that are raised on my pond seem to stay because it's home I guess.

My ducks rule the neighborhood. The one neighbors dog tries to get them, but never catches them when he's loose. He even swims in the pond with them, but can't catch them. He's tied up most of the day each day and my ducks roam the neighborhood freely at various times of the day, but always come back to my pond. I've seen my ducks as far as a third of a mile from my house.

Sometimes the neighbors come over and throw them bread, but this hatch has never been handled by humans.

My best advice, start raising some up on your own. Each time one of the hens has a clutch, they average between 12 to 14 ducklings each. I'm actually glad for predation because when there are so many of them running around, they sure can make a mess on my concrete areas. I'd also stock the pond with bait fish, etc if not already established.

 

[Snobdds]

No food for ducks in the pond = no ducks. Get some aquatic life going and the ducks will come...

 

[PJSprog]

Migratory birds will avoid a body of water for a couple of reasons:
1) No food, as noted by Snobdds, and
2) No other birds there. Gives the impression that there may be predator issues and it isn't safe. I watched this happen with our small pond (and 10-12 acres seems more of a "lake" than a "pond") when my Wife's Grandmother wanted us to eliminate the domestic geese several years ago. We did, and now nothing ever stops there anymore. Put some ducks or geese out there, and your "pond" will come to life.

 

[oosik]

I have a ten acre pond just off the front porch. Its got four acres of cattails on the far end and about half an acre on this end. I get all types native to this area throughout the year when its not iced over.

As Snobdds indicated - no food - no ducks. They are always socializing when on my pond but about 90% of the time they are feeding their faces.



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[KennyG]

I have a little pond, less than 1/2 acre. Every year I get one or two nesting duck pairs. Every year the snapping turtles get the hatchlings. Still they come back. :confused3:

 

[the old grind]

Channel cats were getting most of the little ducks until I thinned them heavily. I do constant battle with muskrats to keep cattails for baitfish and dense nesting cover/access along the the shallower shores. Having a small island means a dominant nesting pair will drive other geese from settling-in.

All manner of fowl check in briefly on the way North, various mergansers, small grebes (divers that linger & feed-up), buffies, teal, etc and there's nearly always a heron wading the shallower edges all summer. Once in a while I'll spot a green heron treed or onshore in mid-summer, suggesting they nest nearby. There are several small ponds like mine locally but no large bodies of water, so when I see an osprey diving in June I wonder what it's doing in my township.

Shallow water with 'accessible' weeds and nearby Ag provide plenty of food around my shallow ~4 ac of water, and except for woodies the nesting ducks and geese will bring their clutches up onto the lawn by the house until the yellow fuzz fades. Sucks when a family you've watched for a week or more is broken up well before the young could have fledged, though, and over the years I can see excess fertility becoming a problem.

'Coon, fox (both), mink, weasel, and coyotes are seen or heard here all year long, and it's nice to spot hens herding young turkeys that have grown big enough to flap their way from danger. I attribute losses to convenient access to all game and few fences in the variously dense surrounding woods, fields, and neighborhoods.

You can invite birds in to stay, but do expect occasional big losses when/where predators are afoot and hungry for eggs or young.

 

[N80]

Geese nest on my pond fairly frequently but the water level can vary dramatically. Heavy rains will raise the water level easily a foot or two which washes the goose nests away. Herons and kingfishers are always present. Wood ducks nest there often in the boxes. Some largemouth bass can eat the duckling but I don't think that is a real issue. We see osprey frequently but they do not nest on the pond.

So it sounds like my problem is food. But what? No way to plant millet or corn. What sort of aquatic plants could I plant and how? For several years we had some sort of invasive sea weed (for lack of a better term). This stuff was bad in the summer and did nothing to attract ducks. I put some non breeding grass carp in there and it seemed to help.

 

[murphy1244]

I get a couple dozen mallards and a few wood ducks in. Seams after we started to aerate the pond a lot more wildlife seams to be there. I could do without the Geese though.

 

[N80]

I hate the geese. They brought them to SC a few decades ago to establish SC as a breeding ground. Well, it worked. And as usual it turns out that "it's not nice to fool mother nature" as they have become a huge pest problem all over the state. They destroy peoples' lawns, cover them with small-dog sized poop. They are aggressive when nesting. We have a nice city garden a block from my home downtown (not the cabin). The park has several ponds and the geese will nest there an attack people if the even come down the sidewalks. Plus, the ones I've tried to eat were disgusting (but I love wild duck) so I don't even want to shoot them. I'm certainly not going to get all the migratory bird stamps and such just to shoot them.

 

[wjmst]

I get a couple dozen mallards and a few wood ducks in. Seams after we started to aerate the pond a lot more wildlife seams to be there. I could do without the Geese though.

What type of aeration setup do you have?

 

[the old grind]

What I learned about aeration was late in my own game. I never thought a thriving pond would benefit much, until ... the last two winters taught me that if ice is 'sealed' tightly for months noxious gasses released from decomposition will poison fish, and yes that out-gassing continues all year long in any climate/region.

So what are the options? Electric will cost to run. I know a guy who has a windmill aerator that has worked well for >15yrs w/no maintenance. He attached a line to pull/replace the air-stone/diffuser annually and painted the tower to match his 'Gator'. IIRC it was a then-current version of this one:

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200380037_200380037

 

[N80]

I think mine is too big to aerate.

 

[the old grind]

On 'too big', I've noticed that when adding dye (1 gal for 15-20 ac/ft) the dispersion is a good indicator of circulation. Surprising how quickly half a dozen 'blobs' scattered over my shallow & semi-weedy ~4 ac turns to a uniform blue in so few hours with little wind or sunlight helping to stir things up.

Note that aquarium 'bubblers' don't actually aerate as much as they circulate and mix, with 02 absorbed on the surface at a slower rate than bubbles rise. I gotta think this is a sit where some is better than none regardless of scale, and that maintaining open water is as important as any aspect. Anyone agree so far?

 

[murphy1244]

What type of aeration setup do you have?

I have 1 windmill air pump which I put close to the shore to keep the ice from forming so the wildlife can drink. 1 electric pump with 2 air stones that I run from April through November I got from Jones Fish.Jones Fish Hatcheries & Distributors, Inc.

 

[N80]

I gotta think this is a sit where some is better than none regardless of scale, and that maintaining open water is as important as any aspect. Anyone agree so far?

I agree that some is better than none, but would say that it is a matter of scale. A single device on 12 acres of pond might be better but unlikely to produce any meaningful results. And my pond is a very dynamic thing. It has a large surface area so the wind aerates it pretty sufficiently I'd guess. It has a basic level that it stays at most of the time but in a 6 month period it can go from a foot below normal to 15 feet above normal. That's not a typo. I've seen it 8-10 feet above normal at least once or twice a year. But then again, that is what it was made for (watershed control) and that is why the dam is so massive (150 yards long, 30 yards wide at least, 30 feet above normal pond level. When we had our big "1000 year flood" in October of 2015 the water was within 10 feet of the top of the dam and starting to go around the spillway. All of this is just to say that this one is sort of hard to "manage".

I have also been told that these watershed systems were made to silt in. And that is what is happening. The creek end has an ever enlarging sandbar which is growing trees and brush on it and most of the lake is quite shallow (6-10') other than the old creek channel and down toward the base of the dam which is quite deep.