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Puddle Duck Finder checks a map against set criteria and shares waypoints where the habitat is most likely to offer a chance to see puddle ducks. It reads the land and water only, not whether animals are there today. A spot is not permission to hunt, fish, enter or cross any land.
For duck hunters, birders and wildlife photographers alike. Search an address or tap My location. With a free account, the blue shading (duck habitat) and the dots (listed public boat launches) show around your search point: 2.5 miles on Free, 5 on Starter, 30 on Pro. A free account gets 5 searches, each showing up to 3 spots on listed public land; Starter makes searches unlimited and adds weather, tide and solunar; Pro shows every spot within 5 miles, private land when you switch it on, with routes, Guide me and listed parking where there's a public way in. My places keeps your own blinds, launches and paddle routes.
Covers New York, Vermont and New Hampshire (Vermont and New Hampshire are new and not yet checked against sightings). Whether ducks are there today depends on migration, weather, tide, ice and pressure. It maps habitat, not property rights or legal access: check who owns the spot and that land's rules. Viewing may be allowed where hunting is not.
Puddle Duck Finder checks a map against set criteria and shares waypoints where the habitat is most likely to offer a chance to see puddle ducks. It reads the land and water only, not whether animals are there today. A spot is not permission to hunt, fish, enter or cross any land. More
Your own map: mark blinds, decoy spreads, launches and anything worth coming back to, and record the route you paddle or walk in on so you can follow it back to the launch in the dark. Free, and private to you.
Recording only works with the screen on and Puddle Duck Finder open: a locked phone stops GPS in a web app. Keep the phone in a dry bag and a battery pack handy.
Drop a pin wherever you see ducks working, flush birds, take a photo or hunt, and where you looked and saw none. If the map works, most of your birds land in the shaded habitat.
Pins are saved on this phone.
Puddle Duck Finder checks a map against set criteria and shares waypoints where the habitat is most likely to offer a chance to see puddle ducks. It reads the land and water only, not whether animals are there today. A spot is not permission to hunt, fish, enter or cross any land.
It's for anyone who wants to see puddle ducks: hunters, birders and wildlife photographers. A good morning doesn't have to end in a full strap. This app reads habitat. It finds the places puddle ducks (black ducks, mallards, teal, wigeon, gadwall and wood ducks) like to feed and rest in fall and winter: shallow marsh mixed with open water, salt marsh cut by creeks, tidal mudflats, beaver flowages and impoundments, quiet ponds, with bigger water nearby to roost on. It does not detect or count birds.
Whether ducks are there on a given day depends on things no map can see: migration, cold fronts, wind, tide, ice, food that year and hunting pressure. Use the spots to decide where to scout, and let the birds you see decide where you go.
For every patch of ground and water it scores food (marsh, flats and aquatic plants), the mix of open water and cover ducks prefer, how close bigger water is for resting, how much wetland surrounds it, and how far it is from buildings and development. Checked against about 15,000 places across New York where ducks were reported in fall and winter, it does best in marsh country and weakest on big rivers, open bays and in cities. Use it to pick where to scout.
Every spot is checked against land listed as public by NYS DEC, NYS Parks and USGS PAD-US (federal, state and local government land), and labelled "Public per [source], as of [date]". Anything not listed, or only partly listed, is treated as private. Town or county land on Long Island, and public land with restricted access, is marked "Permit needed". Tidal marsh and bay bottoms that aren't listed (many Long Island bay bottoms belong to the town trustees) are treated as private. Routes, Guide me and parking (Pro) are shown only where every step of the way in is on listed public land or a public road (NYSDOT road inventory), and parking only at lots listed by NYS DEC or the National Park Service. A spot on private land never shows a route, parking, directions or Guide me.
You're responsible for learning and following the laws, seasons and land rules wherever you go. Puddle Duck Finder covers only the states listed here, and never applies one state's rule in another.
New York: NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Safety zone: no firearm discharge within 500 feet of an occupied dwelling, school, church or similar building without consent; a shotgun may be fired over water at migratory game birds only when no building, livestock or person is within 500 feet in the line of discharge (N.Y. ECL §11-0931(4)(a)(2) and (4)(b)(4)). Regulations.
If you hunt in New York you also need a hunting license, HIP registration, a federal duck stamp, nontoxic shot and a plugged shotgun, and many towns (especially on Long Island) require permits for bay bottoms and town wetlands. Seasons and bag limits differ by waterfowl zone. Each spot shows the nearest building. A spot on this map is not permission to hunt, fish, enter or cross any land.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Wetlands Inventory, National Land Cover Database 2021, FEMA USA Structures, USGS PAD-US 4.1, NYS DEC Lands, parking areas and boat launch list, NYS Parks boundaries and launches, NYSDOT road inventory, NPS public parking lots, U.S. Census TIGER roads, USGS National Map imagery. Weather and alerts from the National Weather Service, tides from NOAA; solunar times are worked out on your phone. Address search by the U.S. Census geocoder and OpenStreetMap Nominatim.
Puddle Duck Finder is one of the Finder apps from Northwoods Investment LLC. Each one is sold on its own.