Delta duck season declines: The case of missing mallards - The Oxford Eagle

Delta duck season declines: The case of missing mallards - The Oxford Eagle

Each winter, hunters across the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (or “The Delta” as many of us call it) from Mississippi to eastern Arkansas and northeast Louisiana ask the same question: Where are the mallards? More than two decades ago, waterfowl biologists were sounding the alarm over declining mid-winter counts despite healthy breeding populations. The basic message remains, but our understanding has sharpened. Mallards are down continent-w…