2017-2018 Season Log

[Ericdc]

Sounds like you put the duck out of it’s misery.


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[Rick]

Here's a comment on the sphere I found in that BW. (With Permission) Larry Reynolds has been keeping me informed as he's being copied on emails.

I'm going with a urate stone.

The spherical calcification would indicate “walling off” of a foreign body by the duck. Perhaps it is a piece of shot. Lead shot is typically non-reactive in the tissues but steel shot can be quite irritating and can be walled off in calcium or fibrous scar tissue. Depending where it was in the posterior abdomen and what “skin” it was under it could also be a urate stone from a blocked or damaged ureter.

If you wish, we can have it radiographed, analyze the mineral content, and have it decalcified for histopathology.
Just let me know.
Cheers.
Jim
James M. LaCour DVM
State Wildlife Veterinarian
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries

My first thought when you posted about it was of this fellow who'd stuck a piece of stick in his head:
A Review of the Problem of Lead Poisoning in Waterfowl

The embedded portion of the stick was encapsulated in a thick, hard crust of the same color.

[DComeaux]

That is ugly. Poor thing.

[Deltaman]

Maybe magnalite?

Magnalite is a brand of cast aluminum cookware, and that's what it looks like...

That's it Rick, Thanks! I typically use cast iron skillets and Dutch ovens for browning, roasting and frying, but those two dishes (crabs and pork roast) Dave shows in this thread, flat made me hungry, and I was wondering what the benefit might be. Used Johnny Google to see, and may have to make an investment!

Dave, I usually boil, grill or saute crabs almost every weekend of the summer and into fall, and have heard mention of crabs cooked in a roux by a gal that lives in the Bayou, but have never tried it. Can you share your cooking method?

That was my grandmothers magnalite. It's had chicken feet, crows, and lord knows what else cooked up in that thing.

Deltaman, I start with melting a stick of butter, or oil if butter isn't available. I sweat onions and bell pepper until translucent and very tender, adding water as needed. I then dump in the roux and add water until it's well mixed,loose, but still thick. I then add tomato sauce and paste and mix that well.
I'll add a little water and stir frequently and allow this to simmer for as long as I can. I'll go an hour or more if possible. I like the color of the sauce to look burnt orange. You'll want this sauce thick before adding the crabs and shrimp, they will add water to the sauce as they cook.

In that pot I had two heaping table spoons of roux, and a half. one medium can of tomato sauce and one can of paste. I don't have set ingredient amounts, I just wing it and adjust to the size of the pot.

Thanks Dave I've gotta give this a try, looks delicious!!!!!!

[DComeaux]

I see there's no shot hole in the bird, so whatever it is must have killed him. Might want to let Blake have that one...

That bird had a slight odor and infection in the area of the embedded object. We didn't chance it......and that's what I like about the #6 or #7 low brass. I don't know if the pellets can penetrate the feathers out at some yardages.

Broken wings and head shots, but some fold pretty with the same clean breast. Almost like shooting woodcock, which I think some of those fall from a heart attack.

[DComeaux]

The little gal had seen some countryside.

20171005_214030.png

[Rick]

Neat how they come with little geography lessons. A band once led me to the discovery of a whole new Territory I'd never heard of.

[aunt betty]

Every single one of my bands has come from northern Illinois or Wisconsin.
That's a huge clue on why I never see huge numbers like in NEAR.
(which is actually pretty FAR)

Tells me I should have been born further west. Somewhere like Canton or Havana. (IL)

[DComeaux]

Teal Season wrap up

6 hunts total, 3 hunts 2 men, 3 hunts 3 men
28 total birds - 21 BW 7 GW

[Darren]

A full 25% of your teal season birds were of the green flavor, seems awfully high. Hope that means you'll be wrapped up in the green wings next month

[Ericdc]

A full 25% of your teal season birds were of the green flavor, seems awfully high. Hope that means you'll be wrapped up in the green wings next month

Think it means we opened the season too late, and it should have started on the 9th.

Granted, I know some ag land that did really well all 16 days but that was the cream of the crop. I think we blew the birds out opening weekend and missed the migration by delaying season.

Funny how popular opinion works for teal season, but when popular opinion wanted 3 specks and 74 days instead of 88 and 2... it wasn’t heeded.


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[Rick]

Quit your damn whining. We're sorry you lost a day of hunting, but If not for a freakishly early Sept front no one could have predicted, most everyone else would have enjoyed a fine season.

[Darren]

So are you actually claiming we missed the mass of the BW migration by opening that one week later? Im seeing hunt reports from Nebraska and they are lighting up blue wings, I can't fathom that we "missed" them

[DComeaux]

I hope we have blue wing during the regular season like we did last year.

[Ericdc]

So are you actually claiming we missed the mass of the BW migration by opening that one week later? Im seeing hunt reports from Nebraska and they are lighting up blue wings, I can't fathom that we "missed" them

No, we missed most of the best week of September to hunt, which would have been September 9th through the 16th.

We had a ton of birds show up before September 9th on front and full moon.

I think it would have been good to be hunting as the birds got here, but my main complaint was that the season opened on a Friday instead of a Saturday, which is unfair for people who work Monday through Friday jobs.

Larry assured us this probably wouldn’t happen again though because next year the 15th falls on a Saturday.

If I came across as whining about the Friday opener, I apologize, didn’t mean to derail DC’s season log. I didn’t miss a day of hunting that I normally would have hunted because I took that Friday off, just would have preferred not to. Figure there were lots of folks who couldn’t take the day off either, and missed opening day.








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[Ericdc]

I think we missed the first "wave" that provides much of our typical success due to that front the first week of September. Louisiana opening a week earlier wouldn't have done any better based on my observations in alabama.


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Don’t know if u can compare Louisiana and Alabama as far as waterfowling, much less college football this year haha.


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[Ericdc]

I hope we have blue wing during the regular season like we did last year.

Opening day of 2015 duck season we killed a lonely blue wing way up here in my corner of the state.


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[aunt betty]

It's that time of year again..

[Rick]

No one "knows" how it might have played out this year, but my guess is that those that came early would have taken more pressure before bugging out if the shooting started before they were rested and able to push on. But who the heck knew there'd be a front to move so many in earlier than normal. The last however-many seasons, September 30th's been "too early".

And if we'd opened earlier, we might have enjoyed a few more weekdays of good gunning that first week (while Eric was stuck at work), might even have kinda sorta held up for the second weekend, but that final full weekend would little doubt have been as flat-lined as the weather.

All speculation, of course. It went how it went.

[Ericdc]

No one "knows" how it might have played out this year, but my guess is that those that came early would have taken more pressure before bugging out if the shooting started before they were rested and able to push on. But who the heck knew there'd be a front to move so many in earlier than normal. The last however-many seasons, September 30th's been "too early".

And if we'd opened earlier, we might have enjoyed a few more weekdays of good gunning that first week (while Eric was stuck at work), might even have kinda sorta held up for the second weekend, but that final full weekend would little doubt have been as flat-lined as the weather.

All speculation, of course. It went how it went.

We pretty much agree then, I was looking out for everybody haha, not just me.

Love reading about good hunting from your logs during the week. Makes me anticipate the weekend that much more.

I won’t be stuck at work during regular season when the fronts hit, have saved up enough vacation to hopefully not miss any of the “great days”.


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[Rick]

Opening day of 2015 duck season we killed a lonely blue wing way up here in my corner of the state.

We shot 92 bluewings during the 2015 big duck season.

[Rick]

No one "knows" how it might have played out this year, but my guess is that those that came early would have taken more pressure before bugging out if the shooting started before they were rested and able to push on. But who the heck knew there'd be a front to move so many in earlier than normal. The last however-many seasons, September 30th's been "too early".

And if we'd opened earlier, we might have enjoyed a few more weekdays of good gunning that first week (while Eric was stuck at work), might even have kinda sorta held up for the second weekend, but that final full weekend would little doubt have been as flat-lined as the weather.

All speculation, of course. It went how it went.

We pretty much agree then, I was looking out for everybody haha, not just me.

Weeeell, I guess that's one way to read it. Would that the Commission was blessed with 20/20 hindsight in advance, maybe.

[Ericdc]

Opening day of 2015 duck season we killed a lonely blue wing way up here in my corner of the state.

We shot 92 bluewings during the 2015 big duck season.

Yea a rarity up here to see any during duck season.


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[aunt betty]

Has it occurred to y'all that the NFL kneeling woes could affect college, high school, and even pee wee football programs?
The fighting illini will be fine. They suck no matter what.

[DComeaux]

10/11/2017 Opening day regular season
Temp low 50's - light north wind

Bill, Blake, Bennett and me

Birds- 24 - 19 GW 2 BW 1 Gadwall 1 Red Head Female 1 scaup (collateral damage)

Fast and furious is how I describe the hunt. The last bird fell at 6:38, only because we had to stop shooting to help Ellie gather the birds for a count. We then proceeded to finish off the limit at a much slower, controlled pace. Crab traps produced well...crab boil tonight.

Just a quick tailgate shot.

42136.jpeg

[DComeaux]

30 something minutes is fast! That’s awesome, and I’m glad ya got the green wings . Where’d all the gadwall go?


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Not sure, but we did see a few. The shooting was intense for a while so we didn't try for those. Pretty much useless.