Ducks of the Year...Year 2009

[jeremy]

Took a dump in the river?   I usually do that in the morning before I leave the house.LOL

 LOL..... yep it gave a new meaning to Blue..... ahhhh never mind

[phutch30]

Went out for a quickie this morning on a spring creek. Not much happing for the first hour. Then i saw a few birds moving so I set out a few dekes.  I had a pair come in right away and I dropped the drake. About 20 min later I had a another pair come in and I dumped the drake. However this time while the hen was pumping for the sky I thought I saw a band, but wasnt sure. I hit her with a hail call and she swung around and dropped right in with her feet down. This time I was sure I saw one and picked up my first intentional hen mallard in the last 4 years and my second band of the year. After this it was just too cold for the dog so we went home.

[byrdman]

Took a dump in the river?   I usually do that in the morning before I leave the house.LOL  Our season opens back up on Sat. and my buddy just brought a brand new boat.  The 2 weeks the season has been closed we have had about 5 major cold fronts.  Hopefully we got a bunch of new birds.  Pics to come, I hope.
field decoys work better on ice than "floaters" jeremy

[jeremy]

Well ive been out several times since the last post, but its been to cold and wet to mess with pictures of boring dead ducks....LOL..... BUT TODAY is a different story...  

 I was going to try to get back out on the Columbia River but they had closed down the freeway due to freezing rain, so i went to a old local standbye place. Shot a couple of mallards and was gonna call it a day when here comes a group of Wegion, they were on a line and i pulled up on a drake only to realize that one of the others appeared to have a red shine to his head, so i quickly pulled over to him and dropped it, 2 others were downed also a hen and a drake also. When the dust setteled I went over to where he was back behind some rocks and ....Yahoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooo It was what i thought it was........   . he is fully mature with a great Baldbate and no pins or eclipsed plumage, Not to mention I also got one of the nicest Bull drake American wegions Ive ever harvested out of the same flock, not sure i could shoot a better Drake American wegion...... So 4 meat ducks and 2 trophy ducks...... Ohhhhh what a day, its like Christmas come early......  

[That_Skinnin_kid]

The last day of michigan goose season,  I had been scouting the collared goose for awhile, I actually have  a blurry cell phone pic of him from last season.  and i think it was the same one i was watching last year.  Finally located the field he was feeding in and got permission to hunt it.  Im sad to see the season go but I am headed to northeast arkansas any reports on how the season is looking down there?

[Hoss.]

That Eurasian is Kick @ss!!!

[Brandon Zahn]

Finally decided to take the camera along on a guided hunt.....Thirty geese and five pintails.... mixture of canadas, specks, snows, blues, and ten ross geese.  Should have killed double that but the shooting needed to tighten up.  Just hard to keep the hunters from shooting before you call the shot.  Never figured out why some guys pay for a guided hunt, but don't listen to the guide.  Still turned into one heck of a shoot for this year seeing as how there are not many young birds and well, the (conservation hunting) has made these old snows practically unkillabe without a fog or the right weather. 

[Brandon Zahn]

Also managed to get two buffleheads yesterday evening which put me on cloud nine(only my third and fourth buffie to ever kill). They are some neat looking ducks.  I guess just something different then my everyday bags that we normally kill.

[Pat Bradburn]

JEREMY!!!!! That is cool! I need one of those guys. I've seen a few around this year. I think its time to get serious and start scanning the wigeon a little closer. Great trophy!

[Pat Bradburn]

I hunted Sunday here in the permit zone again for geese expecting to decoy in some various subspecies of canada geese. That never really happened right, but I did get a surprise visit from a group of five snow geese that decoyed perfectly. Very rare for here. I killed two, reloaded, called them back around and killed two more for a white goose limit. I've never even heard of anyone else doing that here in the permit zone. I was pretty happy...


Then I went back out to the fields for an hour this morning after dropping my girls off at preschool to see if the puddle ducks were working as the rains flood. They were working pretty good. Six birds in an hour. Should have had my limit, but didn't connect on every opportunity...

[jeremy]

Great Job Pat! Looks like some prime Gaddys there, and way to connect on the Snows..... I guess we could call that a quadruple?

Waterfowler looks like you had some serious fun out there, good job! Those Buffies are great ducks, the hens make a great addition to the decoy spread since they are so trusting, we love to let them swim with the dekes untill they suck in the drakes.... 

[Jordanlybeck]

Way to go Jeremy!!!! I see a few every year but I have yet to connect with one maybe this year will be my year.

[Didgeridoo]

Nicely done. Some great birds you guys!

[phutch30]

hey jeremy that other drake widg looks like he has a little eurasion in him to boot. Thats Sweet!


Got permission on a new property yesterday next to a grain field being hammered by ducks and geese. Did a 1 1/2 hour exploritory hunt this morning and I think I like it. The wind switched on me at about 8:15 and changed the flight path making the last greenhead really tough to get. Loads of birds dumping into the field. sunny 40 degrees. I was way over dressed. LOL

[Pat Bradburn]

Not as good as the last hunt. This one took a little longer than I wanted and I gave up on trophy hunting. Just a meat gathering day...