Species log...

[Rick]

2016 September Teal Species Log: 271 bluewing teal (no greenwings or bands)

[DukMan]

2016 September Teal Species Log: 271 bluewing teal (no greenwings or bands)

Damn you boys are spoiled down there in LA... you get all the teal in Sept. and all the plumed out ducks in January... up here in WI we're lucky to see teal during our week long early season as they blast through down to you guys and most of our ducks are eclipse nothing really nice until the last week of Nov. when the northern stragglers make it down...

Can't wait to see the season total!

[aunt betty]

But it's 1000 times harder down there. Hell all I do is wear my wife's blue with yellow polka dot dress along with the big floppy beach hat. Take a bag of popcorn from rural king to the pond over by Lowes and shoot a limit hasty quick before the mall cop shows up.

[Rick]

Damn you boys are spoiled down there in LA...

No question we're spoiled.

[Deltaman]

2016 September Teal Species Log: 271 bluewing teal (no greenwings or bands)

Very nice!!!!

[Rick]

Rick - we killed our first and only greenwing on Sunday.

Can't say I've even seen one I could pick out as such.

[Rick]

2016-2017 First Split Species Log:

BW Teal - 22

Gadwall - 27

GW Teal - 80

Mallard - 48

Mottled - 9

Pintail - 12

Ringneck - 64

Shoveler - 22

Wigeon - 3

Wood Duck - 27

Speckle-bellied Goose - 6

First Split Totals: 314 ducks and 6 specklebellies

[Rick]

Interesting no tree ducks this go around

I've yet to see a black-belly from our leases, but the guys on the east end of our marsh shot quite a few fulvous this past week. We had one come by Saturday and suck right in to the herding dog whistle, drawing a mallard pair with him. Planned to kill all three, but one of the, er..."anxious souls" with me tried to pop a passing jack, just as the trio swung around my end. Grrr...

[Rick]

Or Mexican Mallards,although that may come later

Have it in my head that when one does show, it's second split.

[Ericdc]

Thanks to the last 2 days we clipped you by 1 on the shoveler count. Hoping gads and mallards take back the top 2 slots in the 2nd split. The spoons usually get very hard to trick in the 2nd split for us.


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[Rick]

Frequently enjoy eating them at the camp, but still find myself giving them a pass on what I expect to be good mornings - and sometimes regretting it. Might be interesting to know what their, and the jacks', count would be if we always took them as they came...

[SpinnerMan]

Rick, do you keep count of how many hunters hunt with you? It seemed that you had a lot of you and one other guy days this year than in the past. More guns would mean more ducks in most cases.

Well at least where you hunt. Where I hunt you can only kill that one single once

[Rick]

I'm much too lazy to tally and track hunter numbers. And more faces might well mean fewer birds. Know it was a dang sight easier kill six big ducks with Bobby yesterday than with the three guys before him then and Saturday morning...

[Rick]

2016-2017 Second Split Species Log:

Black Duck - 1

Black-bellied Whistling Duck - 5

BW Teal - 25

Gadwall - 54

GW Teal - 254

Mallards - 136

Mottled Duck - 1

Pintails -13

Redheads - 1

Ringnecks - 36

Shovelers - 28

Wigeon - 8

Wood Ducks - 12

Speckle-bellied Geese - 9 (those from after 2nd duck split not included)

Second Split Totals: 574 ducks and 9 geese

[Rick]

2016-2017 Regular Season Species Totals:

Black Duck - 1

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks - 5

Blue-winged Teal - 47

Gadwall - 81

Green-winged Teal - 334

Mallards - 184

Mottled Ducks - 10

Pintails - 25

Redheads - 1

Ringnecks - 100

Shovelers - 50

Wigeon - 11

Wood Ducks - 39

Speckle-bellied Geese - 17 (only 2 from after duck closed)

Regular Season Totals: 888 ducks and 17 geese

All Inclusive (IE: plus September teal): 1,176 birds (no bands)

[Rick]

We shot very nearly twice the mallards as last year, though not so much because this year was particularly good as that 2015-2016 was a pee poor mallard year. 2014-2015's mallard total and this season's were virtually identical, with those probably being close to "par".

Knew we were enjoying a banner wood duck year for the marsh, but was surprised we did as well as we did on both ringnecks and, especially, green-wings. Seldom seems more than the very lost ringnecks come our way, and there were so many days when greenwings didn't that it felt like we were suffering a particularly weak year for them, rather than such a strong one. Might attribute the increase in ringneck ops to high water edging their favored flight paths closer to the Mudhole for more of the season(?), but don't know how so many green-wings slipped in unnoticed.

(Bruce, maybe your improved teal marksmanship tipped that scale.)

[Rick]

Could be I just feel teal impoverished because of all those mornings that we sit and listen to the blinds to our east bang away at little ducks. Would like to think I've finally learned not to give our high teal flights a pass when we see those, but noted while transcribing the log to Word that desperation led me to discover many "too high" flights could be broken down and around to the guns during the September season, then was surprised to learn as much again near the end of the regular season. Not much of a memory: what's left of mine.

[aunt betty]

Sigh. I could put y'all on the teal during teal season at a place nobody hunts BUT you need to bring your snake bite kit. If you're up to tangling with the cottonmouths I'd consider doing it once but we're not using my dog.

[Rick]

If you're up to tangling with the cottonmouths...

They're under (and over) foot much of the year in our part of the world:


Albeit, some are more impressive:


than others:


But it would be pretty crazy to leave here in search of teal elsewhere - unless we're talking cinnamon...

[Ericdc]

We shot very nearly twice the mallards as last year, though not so much because this year was particularly good as that 2015-2016 was a pee poor mallard year. 2014-2015's mallard total and this season's were virtually identical, with those probably being close to "par".

Knew we were enjoying a banner wood duck year for the marsh, but was surprised we did as well as we did on both ringnecks and, especially, green-wings. Seldom seems more than the very lost ringnecks come our way, and there were so many days when greenwings didn't that it felt like we were suffering a particularly weak year for them, rather than such a strong one. Might attribute the increase in ringneck ops to high water edging their favored flight paths closer to the Mudhole for more of the season(?), but don't know how so many green-wings slipped in unnoticed.

(Bruce, maybe your improved teal marksmanship tipped that scale.)

Our numbers were real similar to 2014-15 as far as ducks go as well.


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[aunt betty]

Rick it's not legal to kill a cottonmouth in Arkansas. Allegedly I may have accidentally shot a snake or two in self-defense.
Those 6-footers will get your heart going.

[Deltaman]

"it's not legal to kill a cottonmouth in Arkansas."..............guess that is the only reason Hillary is still alive