Waterfowl 2022-2023 season

[BilletHead]

  Might as well get something started. September 10th Is the teal opener. Seen four today on a pond. There were four big ducks too. Didn't have the binoculars to see species but we have some frivolous whistling ducks hanging around this summer. Could be some of those. 

  Good luck to all the teal hunters .

 

[wily]

We were dove hunting at the farm yesterday and drove thru 4rivers.  Not much water yet but crops looked better than last year.

 

[BilletHead]

3 hours ago, wily said:

We were dove hunting at the farm yesterday and drove thru 4rivers.  Not much water yet but crops looked better than last year.

 

         Thanks for doing that. I need to go for a drive too and see some of the places. Not that I will be there on weekends though. hoping there is water in 3 and 4.

[wily]

3 is good...will be like the Wild West this weekend.

boat lanes don’t have water in 4 I heard

[BilletHead]

         A report from this morning,

   Still fighting low water in the ponds and small lakes close to home.  Getting a few ducks here and there but not like most years. Our Area is still in the severe drought area.  In the high wind Monday Pat and I got five mallards but could see large flights of ducks coming from South of us. Geese out the wazoo and I knew where they were working. We drove by one pond that was covered after our hunt and seen geese dropping on another close pond we couldn't see from the road.  I tried the same place we did Monday yesterday. Nothing came in but I seen some good duck flights again but not as many as Monday.  I took a walk to the pond we could not see from the road to see this. There were as many around the pond as you can see in the air that had already took flight and left. The ones you see in the air are the geese from pond. I then panned the water and those are ducks.

 

 

     I decided to set up there this morning for the ducks and geese coming back. Well, it was too still with not a breeze. Decoys were lifeless. Only movement was a pulsator duck butt.

 

 

          Mallards were the first to show and some liked what they seen but there were some that did not. Birds were coming from the East and there are two roost places I leave alone both low and way less water than normal. Three mallard drakes were taken in those early hours. chances for hens but they got a free pass today. Then geese began to fly again just like the ducks nothing like the two previous days. the larger flocks I did see had places to go but a single came in and I shot it. A bit later a pair started working and pitched in both were taken. Well done with Canada geese maybe my other duck will show. More geese around I did not even try to call those. I was hiding really well. Had the layout grassed nicely.

   I finally gave in and picked up the last two geese looking for a band on the first, Bingo! So, fingers crossed there are times when you get one there is another banded bird with it, BINGO again. Two banded birds  .

We have done this four times in the past. Getting more than one goose band on a hunt. This makes us 15 goose bands to date and only one duck band.

     Checked the bands in and both were banded on August 2nd when too young to fly. Near Churchill Manitoba, Canada. Some of our previous bands are from there. This place is way up on Hudson Bay. 

   I like it when a plan comes together like it did today. 

 

[netboy]

Looks like a good hunt. Duck hunting is the one thing I miss about living in south Texas. 

 

[Gavin]

Looks like a great hunt! Have been done since the big freeze before Christmas.  

[Quillback]

That's pretty neat that those geese were banded that far north.  

[Johnsfolly]

Great hunt Marty and congrats again on the new set of bands. Always neat to hear about where they have been. Helps the science when they get reported as well.

[BilletHead]

14 minutes ago, Quillback said:

That's pretty neat that those geese were banded that far north.  

            It is neat. We have shot some banded right here in our county, Minnesota and Iowa also. There used to be a map deal of banded birds of all types you could see where they were banded and recovered. The recovered areas were in general and not spot on. I have tried to find that map again because it is interesting. I think it was done away with.