. Bulletin. Natural history; Natural history. November, 1944 Bellrose: Duck Populations and Kill 357 940, it was not long until the mallards i^ere flying to the cornfields before day- ireak and leaving 15 to 30 minutes ater for the rest lakes. Where formerly nassed thousands of ducks could be een streaming back to the lakes in he bright light after sunrise, now en- ire cornfields appeared to rise into the ,ir as tens of thousands of ducks left /ith the first streaks of dawn. In 1942, waterfowl shooting hours vere extended from 4 until sunset, rhe result was that mallards, after the irst f
. Bulletin. Natural history; Natural history. November, 1944 Bellrose: Duck Populations and Kill 357 940, it was not long until the mallards i^ere flying to the cornfields before day- ireak and leaving 15 to 30 minutes ater for the rest lakes. Where formerly nassed thousands of ducks could be een streaming back to the lakes in he bright light after sunrise, now en- ire cornfields appeared to rise into the ,ir as tens of thousands of ducks left /ith the first streaks of dawn. In 1942, waterfowl shooting hours vere extended from 4 until sunset, rhe result was that mallards, after the irst few days, would not alight or at- empt to alight in cornfields until sun- et or shortly thereafter. Consequent- y, their feeding activities occurred later han under the 4 closing hour. During cold, blustery weather, when the hermometer was below freezing, mal- ards forsook their morning and evening outine, feeding throughout the day in ields close to their rest lakes. In 1943, shooting hours were further ixtended, the legal starting time being )laced at one-half hour before sunrise. This change served no useful purpose to most hunters in Illinois; in fact, it was detrimental to duck hunting in many places. Disturbances caused by hunt- ers in going to their shooting stands at an hour when the ducks were commenc- ing to feed resulted in considerable avoidance of those areas by mallards. Field observations in 1943 revealed that, because of hunting disturbance during the early morning hours, mal- lards fed very little in cornfields close to the Illinois and Mississippi rivers until after the end of the open season. The bulk of the population obtained food in the mechanically picked corn- fields 20 to 40 miles from the rest lakes. In this vast territory, mallards were able to find fields where there was little hunting disturbance. Because of the distance they traveled for food, mallards frequently returned from the morning feeding to their rest lakes as late as 10 Central
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Keywords: ., booka, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectnaturalhistory
