Eastern Mallard/Blackduck DNA

Thanks for sharing! Hunting the coast in southern NJ makes the black duck a staple for me. I have started looking more closely for signs of hybridization in recent years. Partially from curiosity and partially because a hybrid does not count towards my black duck bag limit.
 
Most interesting article. I learned something new, that being a long history of released mallards in the eastern US. I was under the impression that was a relatively new thing, like the past 30 years. I wonder how this squares up with proponents and opponents of mallard release programs. On the one hand the released mallard DNA can get into the wild on a large scale, but on the other hand they do survive to reproduce. Thanks for sharing.

Eric
 
What is a surprise is that the DNA shows low hybrid breeding with black ducks. We always thought it wouldn't be that way, but learn something new... Also didn't know that farm raised eastern mallards were from Europe. My grandfather was involved in early efforts at stocking mallards in the northeast, in the 40's-50's I believe. When I was a kid in the 60's a "gray duck" i.e. mallard, was a trophy. I think we recognized our first hybrid in the mid-late 70's, by the 80's they were no longer remarkable.

Now "black ducks" are more often than not hybrids early in the CT season, resulting in lots of interesting identification discussion at the ramp. First they were all blacks, then they were mallards with any white below the speculum, now they're all blacks again. [huh]

Good to hear that black ducks resist mating with mallards, we've been dreading the loss of blacks due to cross breeding for a long time. Nothing beats a big ol' redlegs late in the season.
 
Yes, I found the results surprising also. When we first moved to the Eastern Shore in '87, the state of Maryland was still operating their mallard release program. The released birds were quite common in the bag and wore "Md Duck Stamp" bands. The state stopped the program a few years after that. We called those birds "scrunchers" because they would just scrunch down on the marsh bank when you ran-by in the boat.

Matt
 
Hybridization of the mallard with the mottled duck is a constant discussion on Florida forums, mostly from hunters trying to justify taking another mottled duck (the limit is 1). The ways south Florida hunters try to justify that the bird they shot was a hybrid border on insane...thickness of the stripe on the wing and other such nonsense. I trapped and banded mottled ducks with a Florida biologist about 10 years ago when they were doing hybrid studies and he said that to claim a hybrid in the field there must be very obvious markers , like green on the head or a tail curl. Very few mallards migrate to South or Central Florida. Thirty nine seasons shooting mottled ducks and I have never seen one that looked anything like a hybrid, except for one night grabbing them off the water from an air boat with the biologist. I caught one hybrid out of the 98 mottled ducks we caught.

When in OCMD in December I saw more that a few blacks that wore obvious mallard markers.


View attachment OCMD 2.jpg
 
When they use to release those State of Md. Mallards first thing they would do was try to find human activity due to being raised and fed by man. Couple places within a mile of my house where they use to turn them loose. Now I live about 250 yds off a creek that dumps into river where they were released. Shortly after a late summer release I looked down street and here comes 50 mallards walking from creek. Of course I had to feed them a little for pic time. Kids got a kick from all the ducks in front yd. Come duck season probably some of same birds ended up in my freezer. They weren,t exactly the smartest when it came to association with man.
 
Not sure what to say. Release of hand-reared mallards in Maryland has been around for a long time and known to be a bad thing for an equally long time. Thankfully most other states have prohibited it for a long time as well. But the eastern shore shooting clubs are too close to DC and the powerbrokers there, so the agencies have been unable to eliminate the practice for more than 30 years. The majority or states and flyway councils have opposed the practice but even so it has been perpetuated.
 
Brad Bortner said:
Not sure what to say. Release of hand-reared mallards in Maryland has been around for a long time and known to be a bad thing for an equally long time. Thankfully most other states have prohibited it for a long time as well. But the eastern shore shooting clubs are too close to DC and the powerbrokers there, so the agencies have been unable to eliminate the practice for more than 30 years. The majority or states and flyway councils have opposed the practice but even so it has been perpetuated.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately it still happens in jersey too.
 
Very interesting article.
I wonder if they will look into if the hybrids are mainly back breeding with mallards, are not being re-productively successful or both?

I had no idea the release of European "domestic" mallards was a thing on the east coast.
Makes you wonder if the long term drop in eastern flyway mallards is a natural process?
Maybe a good news/bad news situation??
Would black duck populations recover even more if the eastern flyway mallard population went back to a more "natural/ pre-introduction/pre-release" level???
 
They,re also still being released by property owners in Md. In past 4 years a new riverfront property owner in my area has been turning out about a hundred each fall. Keeps them fed up a little crk. by property. Unfortunately these birds sit in middle of river overnite and draw every flying bird to them first thing in morning. AKA live decoys. I run past them going up river in dark and birds just sit in a huddle till daylight then they swim over to their feed area.
 
Carl said:
Very interesting article.
I wonder if they will look into if the hybrids are mainly back breeding with mallards, are not being re-productively successful or both?

I had no idea the release of European "domestic" mallards was a thing on the east coast.
Makes you wonder if the long term drop in eastern flyway mallards is a natural process?
Maybe a good news/bad news situation??
Would black duck populations recover even more if the eastern flyway mallard population went back to a more "natural/ pre-introduction/pre-release" level???
Click to expand...

Carl,

I had the same though about the Eastern mallard decline and asked a friend who is a retired Maryland waterfowl biologist. His reply:
"Age ratio information from federal Parts Collection Survey does not suggest a decline in eastern mallard productivity." So, I guess that means, if one accepts the Fed's premise that productivity is not declining, that the population decline is due to other (unknown?) variables.
 
Brad Bortner said:
Not sure what to say. Release of hand-reared mallards in Maryland has been around for a long time and known to be a bad thing for an equally long time. Thankfully most other states have prohibited it for a long time as well. But the eastern shore shooting clubs are too close to DC and the powerbrokers there, so the agencies have been unable to eliminate the practice for more than 30 years. The majority or states and flyway councils have opposed the practice but even so it has been perpetuated.
Click to expand...

Yes, RSAs are popular and controversial here. In addition to the subject of genetic dilution due to RSA releases, the popular construction of shallow impoundments that are manipulated to attract native waterfowl is also somewhat controversial. Many of us feel that traditional marshland hunting has been adversly affected by these nearby "candy stores".

Matt
 

We have had this discussion before, but it is very good that many more people are aware of it.


Many of us older hunters remember the mallard stockings by state agencies to "improve" duck hunting. (I have one of the few old photos of the PA Duck Farm).

We also recall the outcry, when the stockings were curtailed by the Feds, and rightly so. The theme was SAVE THE BLACK DUCK, and made sense to me.

For many years large populations of those stocked mallards, and their offspring were the bread (pun if ya want) & butter ducks for Atlantic Flyway waterfowlers.


Also in the mix back then were the many "shooting preserves", that hosted large, and small shoots for pen raised mallards.

As stated prior I worked at such a place. The mallards that were not culled by the shooters went elsewhere to live.

In today's world, those public shooting preserves have been replaced, in large part by private membership preserves.


Bottom line, the mallard population in our area of the Atlantic Flyway was not natural, and very much taken for granted.

So when I read all the hoopla about the decline of the mallard population in the Atlantic Flyway, it made me scratch my head.

Folks don't recall/know how the population came about?


Many folks on this forum hunt many places, and in different flyways.

I'm willing to bet they can tell a North American Mallard from a East Coast mallard, especially in hand. The real deal is one helluva good duck.

That said, I was never a big fan of Mallards, until I went west, and saw the difference for myself. Still not a big fan, but they do get my respect more than before.


Black Ducks have always been my favorite large puddle duck.

First rig I ever carved is Black Ducks, and I still like carving and making them.

Have carved Mallards as well, but only a small rig for myself.


The old LL Bean mallard decoys seemed well suited for East Coast mallards. So they still work here. Mr. Soule knew what he was doing.

If ya wanna learn about the birds in your flyway, study the decoy history. It's a shortcut (and maybe more interesting) packed with knowledge IMO.


Makes me smile that the Black Duck is still around and doing OK.


VP
 
Cape Coral , Fort Myers area. Can't say I ever saw a Mallard here.
Many Mottled ducks look like Blacks. Blue Wing Teal I see.
What's the best way to tell a Black from a Mottled?
Thanks
Ken
 
Start with the assumption that you shot a mottled duck and you will be right nearly 100% of the time. Blacks are very rare in Florida. The first photo is 2 drakes and one hen Mottled. Notice the black around the base of the bill on the . It is referred to as a "tobacco smile"...like chewing tobacco juice on his bill (silly,right?) the black duck does not have that. The body of a black is much darker See the second photo take of a black I took in MD last December. Big difference.Don't count on getting a correct ID from an FWC officer. I had one at Lake Okeechobee try to write me up for shooting 2 mottled ducks. We had to call in a second officer to help the first officer correctly identify my second "mottled" as the hen pintail that it was. Occasionally you will come across a Florida hunter that sees "Hybrid markers" in every mottled duck they shoot so they can increase their bag for the day...and they pull it of with check station attendants and FWC officers. Don't get caught up in that nonsense. Eventually they will get checked by someone that knows ducks and the ensuing fine will force them to stop seeing "hybrid" on every bird in hand.
View attachment mott.jpgView attachment Black.jpg
 
Last edited:
Ron

Great picture of the three mottled ducks. I don't recall ever hearing the "tobacco smile" analogy before but I like it.

Eric
 
Yup, the chewin tobacco smile is how I learned initially to separate mottled ducks from a hen mallard (in Jacksonville we had lots of feral mallards)

Ken, compare Ron's black duck image with this image of a mottled duck sitting on the water...you can see very, very different coloring and the "smile" even shows up.

60291281-480px.jpg


I know that black ducks and mallards used to be reliable in the panhandle though they aren't anymore in the numbers that used to be seen. Really not TONS of them but Steve and others in this area have told stories about when Lake Seminole was really good that mallards and blacks were not a surprise to shoot. Down here at the St. Marks NWR the ponds regularly get black ducks in the winter. Not in great numbers but they are reliable. I imagine that along the coastal ponds one could shoot a black duck from time to time, or while you were out hunting redheads along the coast.

Here is a study that looked at mottled duck and mallard hybridization here in FL. I know they were trying to figure out if there was a key that game wardens and biologists could use at check stations to check hunters and their so called hybrids. I don't think they were able to conclusively come up with a key but maybe it is still in the works.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305678705_Is_it_a_mottled_duck_The_key_is_in_the_feathers_Plumage_Key_Mottled_Duck

Dani
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top