November, 1944 



Bellrose: Duck Populations and Kill 



365 



to one or more small pens extending into by Uhler in Mason County and an ad- 



the pond Usually from 3 to 5 joining part of Tazewell County, there 



blinds made of corn stalks, leafy oak were probably 200 others in the vicinity 



branches, or rushes fastened to portable of the Illinois River. Leopold (1931) 



frames surround these ponds. Many reports that 4,000 ducks were killed in 



dry pens were also noted. These con- 60 days on one 40-acre commercial dry- 



Photo by Bob Becker 



A pen of live decoys in front of a blind, once a familiar scene in the Illinois River valley. 



sist of a pen of live decoys placed in 

 some remote field and surrounded with 

 long bands of shelled corn or corn on 

 the cob. The only water involved in 

 this set-up is placed in a trough or other 

 receptacle for the decoys to drink." 



Uhler reported that one of the most 

 successful commercial shooting places 

 fed at four field pens from 1,400 to 

 2,500 bushels of corn per season. He 

 estimated that 6,000,000 bushels of 

 corn were fed by Illinois clubs during the 

 1933 season. Sixty-seven clubs re- 

 ported feeding an average of 1,243 

 bushels of corn and other grains. 

 I What was the influence of baiting 

 and decoy pens on the kill of ducks in 

 Illinois? In addition to Uhler's 1933 

 report on the estimated duck kill and 

 populations in the Illinois River valley, 

 we have waterfowl kill records from the 

 iState Department of Conservation for 

 i2 years in which corn was put out for 

 iducks, 1933 and 1935. Through band 

 returns, we can roughly compare differ- 

 ences in mallard mortality during and 

 after the baiting period. 



Besides the 250 field pens enumerated 



land club. Uhler says that at one com- 

 mercial dry-land club in 1933 an average 

 of eight shooters per day were assured 

 the limit up to the time of his visit in 

 mid November. That would mean a 

 kill of about 2,400 ducks during the 

 first half of the season. These were 

 among the dry-land places at which the 

 highest kills were made. Reports of 

 local hunters familiar with the situation 

 indicate that an average of 500 ducks 

 were killed at each field pen. If there 

 were 450 field pens, the total annual kill 

 made by these dry-land clubs amounted 

 to about 225,000 ducks. 



Bottomland clubs were not affected 

 as greatly as upland field-pen clubs by 

 the outlawing of bait and live decoys. 

 However, many clubs in the Sangamon 

 River bottoms disbanded because of the 

 low duck kill resulting from the no- 

 bait, no-live-decoy law. With no bait 

 or live decoys, the kill at several of the 

 large Sangamon River clubs dropped 

 from 7,000 or more to less than 500 per 

 year. 



Some indication of the influence of 

 bait and live decoys on the duck kill in 



