This years opening day was really good for us. We had several birds in our area. According to the TN Waterfowl counts we kinda expected a good opener. If you are not familiar with these counts you should be. The state of Tennessee performs bi-weekly waterfowl counts from all of our refuges in the area. https://www.tn.gov/twra/pdfs/wfbimonthly.pdf
The second ingredient in the areas success is the availability of “hot food” for ducks in the weeks prior to season. We had unseasonal cold weather and when it gets really cold the ducks love corn. Corn is considered to be a “hot food”. I recently ran accross some great info on duck food. “Hot Food crops such as corn, millet, buckwheat, and milo can provide this niche habitat during cold periods.” http://5oakswildlifeservices.com/?page_id=2#waterfowl
The third ingredient is the plethora of duck weed. Most of the wetlands in West TN that have water year round have a ton of duck weed. Check this little interest fact out. “Duckweed is an important high-protein food source for waterfowl and also is eaten by humans in some parts of Southeast Asia. As it contains more protein than soybeans, ” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemnoideae
***We still have Dec 20-21 and Dec 27-28 available.