Flight Pond

mallards

We dug a flight pond a few weeks ago with the intention of shooting some ducks later this season. My question is, does anyone have a simialar experience with one as ours and did you use a released call duck to bring in the wild ones and also how long did it take for them to find your pond?
The pond is in hilly country, about ten miles from Lough Neagh with another quite large lough about one mile further on. It's spring fed and the water level is now up near the grass line on the island. It's been fed whole wheat from an autofeeder on the edge of the island starting last weekend and get's a handfull of wheat spread around the edge mid week and hopefully every week. The soil has been sown with grass seed now around it and its very isolated and the area kept free from livestock. Our shoot has a few small streams on it but this is the only pond in a one mile radius. I don't think anyone releases ducks in a ten mile radius at least. The only time i've encountered ducks quite near the area the pond is in was late a couple of seasons ago when I spotted a pair of teal crossing my ground from the direction of Lough Neagh heading to the other Lough close by. Another time we had a small area of field flood due to prolonged heavy rain and there were quite a few mallard feathers there the next morning. But by the time I could arrange an evening flight the splash had dried and the ducks had moved on.
Sorry for all the detail, it's just, I'm wondering if I should try and find some mallard to release on it for shooting at the end of the year or will only the very odd wild bird find it before then?

Cheers,

Mallards.

highduck

I ran a labs in a trail ground in cavan where they have a few ponds with released duck. Ive also worked my dogs on an estate that had ponds for driven ducks.

My experience is that if want you can do one of 3 things.

one just feed it and hope to pull in wild duck.could be hard if there is not a lot of duck traffic passing in your area.

two you could rear some duck on the pond and hold them with feeding every day.they will hopefully pull in some wild bird that will wait coming in for the feed.

Or like the estates you could put out a load of ducks and have them for shooting all season.(I think for this option you would need more than one pond or another water source close by that when the fly they can fly to)You would be surprised that if you whistle train them(blow a referees whistle b4 feeding)that they will home for feeding when ever they hear the whistle.We often called duck back in to be fed a couple of hours after the ponds being shot.When fired at they would make for the nearby lake but when the whistle was blown you could see them get up and fly back to the pond.


hope this gives you some ideas-

;)PS id go for option 2.Also you need to wipe out vermin around the pond if you want to rear birds.

Best of luck.Great to see someone so proactive about their shooting

mallards

Cheers Highduck. I like option 2 as well but I'm probably a bit late this year to source any and also I was told reared duck would drive wild duck off the pond?
I'm kind of thinking the large Lough near the pond isn't shot and won't be and it could hold a heck of a lot of duck during the day and they could come to me in the evenings for a feed.
There's also numerous small hill loughs beyond that large lough for miles.
If I could tease some duck all the way from Lough Neagh out to my patch they might bring their friends when they suddenly discover food this year.
Has anyone else drawn duck this distance from an established duck area to their pond?
I do try and work hard on the predators on the shoot and even more so around the pond as I have nesting curlew relatively near to that area, as well as my pheasants and partridges!!

Cheers,

Mallards

terminator2

we have a small pond on our patch similar in size , and ive seen 50 mallard lift off it , but at the moment its almost dry , only about 1 ft of water in it , it can be hit and miss

Hunter21

terminator2 wrote: »

we have a small pond on our patch similar in size , and ive seen 50 mallard lift off it , but at the moment its almost dry , only about 1 ft of water in it , it can be hit and miss

Ive a pond thats slightly bigger then the one above, but seen nothing coming into it lately, few it every week up to the middle of june.
How far away is your pond from the nearest river terminator?

terminator2

about half a mile , have to say our pond is slightly bigger as well , a lot of marginal growth , you wont believe this there was a pair of coots nesting on it

wildfowler94

I would sdo a few things here!!;)
Id plant a few furze trees on the island!! mallard love yo nest under them!a few willow trees will ad cover and maybe a Spanish chestnut tree, great for feed and cover!
id feed it a small bit in the hope of getting a few wild duck on it! but as soon as the breeding season starts id be looking for a couple of adult pairs to breed on it! always worked for me!;) oh and serious vermin control!

WF