Minnesota Waterfowl Hunting

So my buddy in Illinois says a biologist who has hunted their club says some interesting things on field feeding ducks. He claims they only feed 45 minutes max and are done. So if that's the case then why do they say they feed all night? Second point is he says they can only eat corn for ten days straight or they get sick after that if they continue to keep eating corn.Curious if anyone else ever heard of stuff like this. The feeding thing sort of makes since but not the corn thing.

There's a name for the disease/sickness/illness they get from eating corn but I don't remember it anymore. Deer that don't grow up on corn country get it, or something similar to it if people bait/feed them corn outside of the corn belt. As for feeding all night, sounds as though it's more like feeding at night. It wouldnt take a mallard long to get full on corn. I've never really paid attention to that though, I don't bother with fields (mainly so I don't have to talk to farmers) so I've never been affected by nocturnal ducks.

I believe they can only feed for 45 min till full. I am sure many of you have shot ducks with corn absolutely packed in a mallard.would make sense they feed till full. Haven't heard they can only eat corn 10 days in a row.

I think the feeding all night doesn't necessarily mean the same birds. Birds leave roosts in waves...flying back and forth from roost to field. So feeding all night refers to birds flying back and forth all night in groups feeding...not necessarily a bird staying in a field for 8 hrs.

Do birds really feed all night or is this just something that was started as an excuse for not shooting birds has become a fact. Has anybody actually observed birds feeding in a field all night?

mulefarm wrote:Do birds really feed all night or is this just something that was started as an excuse for not shooting birds has become a fact. Has anybody actually observed birds feeding in a field all night?

I tried, but the sun wouldn't cooperate so I could see

mulefarm wrote:Do birds really feed all night or is this just something that was started as an excuse for not shooting birds has become a fact. Has anybody actually observed birds feeding in a field all night?

They do feed at night. In a dry field...very unlikely. They may go into them at very first or last light, and occasionally on very bright moons. So, not enough to be concerned with.

Night feeding isn't something ducks are new to, and it's not always a result of hunting pressure.

I think a lot of the feeding times/flying times of waterfowl is regionally based. I've never hunted in Arkansas but I believe it is birds feeding in rice in the very early morning/dark and returning to flooded timber to roost during the day that makes for great flooding timber hunting. Also, I have had guides from Southern IL tell me the Canada geese do not fly in the snow down there, but get snow in Rochester, MN and the Canada's fly early and often, feed all day, etc.

I know mallards will head out to feed in cornfields late, often after sunset, when pressured or with a full-moon but I don't believe they feed all night.

Coots migrate at night, that is why one hardly sees them flying.

Majority of waterfowl migrate at night