BATON ROUGE – There were more ducks in southwest Louisiana this month than for every January since 2018, according to the aerial waterfowl survey conducted Jan. 6-8 by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

LDWF Waterfowl Program Manager Jason Olszak and his staff got up in the air in plenty of time to miss last week’s blizzard and deep freeze and counted an estimated 1.9 million ducks in this region, the most since 2.1 million ducks were counted in southwest Louisiana in January 2018.

Also, Olszak wrote in a prepared statement released Jan. 17, “It (2.1 million) is a 73 percent increase from December (1.1 million) and 168 percent higher than last January’s record low estimate (.76 million).”

The veteran waterfowl biologist also noted this month’s estimate is 53 percent and 42 percent above the most recent 5-year and 10-year averages, respectively, for the region.

Acadiana’s waterfowlers who are hunting the West Zone’s second split, which ends Friday, Jan. 31, probably are seeing more green-winged teal than any other species, based on the recent report that showed 665,000 of those ducks in the region – 34 percent of the total number of ducks in southwest Louisiana.

This region’s habitat conditions, vegetation, water level, beneficial submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) and nuisance plant species, remain above average, according to Olszak. Water levels on agricultural lands appeared “very good,” he wrote, noting many stretches were nearly 40 percent flooded, with much of the rice stubble prepped for crawfish pond farming.

Recent goose estimates for the southwestern region were 128,000 light geese and 11,000 white-fronted geese.

Overall, 2.25 million ducks were in the state when the waterfowl biologists conducted their monthly survey across Louisiana’s Gulf Coast and the Little River Basin, Olszak reported. That’s a 44 percent jump from December’s estimate of 1.56 million, he added.

What species accounted for increases from one month ago? Scaup (plus 509 percent); green-winged teal (plus 386 percent); wigeon (plus 166 percent); ring-necked duck (plus 101 percent); canvasbacks (plus 47 percent), and shoveler (plus 11 percent).

The most glaring decrease among migrating ducks? Pintails. Their numbers dropped from 233,000 in December to 72,000. A vast majority of the pintail population, 65,000, are overwintering this month in southwest Louisiana.

Olszak and his staff also noted record low estimates statewide for mallard, gadwall and mottled duck. The estimated number of mallards is at 17,000, with 14,000 of them in southwest Louisiana. The biologists also counted 260,000 gadwall while mottled duck numbers were at 15,000.

The duck count statewide checks in at a 53 percent increase from the record low January 2024 estimate of 1.46 million ducks, plus, it’s the highest January estimate since 2.3 million in 2020. The 2.25 million ducks are 16 percent and 7 percent higher than the most recent 5-year and 10-year January averages, respectively. However, the number is 9 percent below the most recent 20-year average and 24 percent under the long-term average of 2.95 million.

While this month’s estimates marked record lows for mallard, mottled duck and gadwall, significant increases were noted for shoveler (198 percent), ring-neck (196 percent), green-wing (160 percent) and scaup (9 percent) compared to January 2024.

Based on the recent survey, southeast Louisiana’s estimated duck population of 293,000 decreased 30 percent from December 2024 and 61 percent from the January 2024 estimate of 745,000. This month’s count is a record low for the region – 126,000 fewer than the previous low of 419,000 in January 2008.

However, Olszak pointed out in his report, “From December to January there was a large increase in scaup (14,000 to 40,000) and the canvasback estimate increased slightly, yet ring-necked ducks declined substantially (127,000 to 31,000). Large areas of freshwater marsh where ring-necks are typically counted in the southeast were mudflats during the survey, whether from tides, north winds, or a likely combination of both.”

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.