On the reservoirs, rising water levels swamped shoreline and shallow flats that had shriveled under the summer's long dry spell. East Texas waterfowlers live and die with mallards. Yes, the beaver ponds and flooded bottoms draw those wonderful wood ducks and some ringnecks, gadwall and greenwings. And the lakes see their share of scaup, ringnecks and the odd canvasback and wigeon. They're making it, this season.
Mallards are tough birds.
They'll winter as far north as they can find open water and something to eat. Over the past two weeks, East Texas duck hunters have seen some of the best flights of mallards they've witnessed in years. Friends just back from a week of hunting on the 25,000-acre White Oak Creek Wildlife Management Area in far northeast Texas said they took their daily limit of five greenheads apiece more mornings than not. And that made the icy, brutally cold conditions much easier to endure. Prospects for the remainder of the duck season in the timber appear outstanding.