Guns: This category brings nothing of note to mind except that I took the 16ga Model 12 on a couple duck hunts and did quite well with it. But I've yet to develop any real confidence in it for geese beyond ranges where my 20s would be fine. Hoping that's simply lack of familiarizing opportunities on specks - shot at just five: ground one up, knocked two others down, one of which a very long fall and had two (one thought to be hard hit) fly from sight carrying shot.
Malfunctions: Seemed to be quite a few plainly op-error malfunctions, but don't recall any clear equipment breakdowns other than the Mallard Machine's motor crapping out.
Dog(s): Found myself shushing Marsh for whining a time or two as birds worked during regular season, which is something we usually put behind us during September teal, when active gator water temps force him to watch birds downed on the pond without being allowed to retrieve them. Likely due to how slow the gunning was, but will try to be extra vigilant about it next year, just in case. Otherwise, the bug was blessing befitting his breeding and experience.
Special Equipment: Believe by far the most significant change was my marsh-scaping and addition of a second spinner, so one can be directed at each of the two highest little duck traffic locations within view of the mudhole, as we experienced a dramatic increase in our teal take relative to our marsh's previously much better teal blinds. (Didn't, however, do pecans for our ringneck odds.) Another change I hoped would bear fruit was painting my four brands of speck decoys of differing hues to a more uniform color scheme:
But we didn't get to work remotely enough specks to draw even preliminary suspicion as to their effect on our chances beyond probably not hurting. And finally in this category, I wore a face mask virtually every hunt, whether my guests had them or not, so I'll be curious to see what effect, if any, that has on how many show up next season.
Curses: Had the usual outbreaks of chimes ringing, but it was at least a too rare season without a single loose round or other potentially deadly act. And I can always bitch about the lack of respect so many guests show for the birds' vision. But the inescapable and completely inescapable curse of this season was the lack of true winter to our north and resulting abysmal show of game and number of guests I disappointed. A long anticipated trip to duck camp just isn't supposed to go as most did.
Kudos: Still, most folks at least put on a good face and appeared to take it well, and we still managed to have generally enjoyable mornings despite the poor hunting.
Birds By Species: We took 374 September teal (3 banded) but only 506 regular season ducks (1 mallard banded) and 5 specks (all shot by me on play hunts), making the regular season likely the poorest for my parties since the late '80s. Thankfully, the blue-wings stuck around throughout the regular season to become that period's top species in the bag for the first time ever, surpassing our usual top-spot green-wings and more rarely top-spot mallards, as well as the others that usually quickly surpass them once the regular season is underway.
Photo Ops: I really fell down in this regard, and can only claim that it just didn't seem right to be fooling with a camera on my guests' time when the hunting was so weak. Or maybe I just didn't feel like it. Anyway, here's to the anticipation of better seasons to come:
Lagniappe: Last year I loaded this section up with plans for the mudhole's future, at least some of which worked out pretty well. This year...well, I'm still licking my wounds and maybe feeling too sorry for me and mine to envision ways to improve our lot that are within my power. Hopefully, some will eventually surface, as a waterfowler without schemes for improvement isn't having nearly as much fun as those who have them.