The home of Southern Waterfowlers Guide Service and the Rebel Yell Forums.   Book an Arkansas duck hunt with our guide service, or just sit back and enjoy the Southern humor in the forums!  Everyone is welcome to register for the forums.   Your hosts Brent and Tim Reaves are veteran guides that have a passion for waterfowling.   Get to know us in the forums, or use the Contact Us link at the top of the page for more contact information.  Thanks again for visiting our site.  We look forward to hearing from you!

The boreal forest has always been a bastion for waterfowl, but dramatic changes in land use and climate now threaten this region’s fragile wetlands.

Where do the ducks come from?” Throughout history, hunters have asked this question as they ponder the origins of waterfowl that arrive each autumn on the north winds. While many hunters are aware of the huge contribution the prairies make to the fall flight, they might be surprised to know how many of the birds they hunt are actually raised farther north—in the vast boreal forest of Canada and Alaska.
 
This immense region’s countless glacial lakes, bogs, beaver ponds, and other wetlands produce almost as many waterfowl as the prairies, earning the boreal forest the well-deserved nickname, “the other duck factory.” Read Full Report

The fourth highest Canadian pond count on record propelled the breeding populations of three duck species—northern shovelers, redheads and canvasbacks-to all-time highs and pushed the green-winged teal population to its second-highest level on record. Blue-winged teal took advantage of improved water conditions on both sides of the border to achieve their third highest breeding population ever. 

The total-duck breeding population climbed 14 percent to 41 million birds and mallards rose 10 percent to just over 8 million. May ponds across the surveyed area were at 7 million, a 15 percent increase from 2006 and 44 percent higher than the long-term average. Read Full Report