WaterfowlForum.Net

I have been burned so many times by letting them go on that very shootable pass that we know we better position ourselves to shoot now

I will let specks go because I have confidence I can get them back at least once at the same height,but blues,we’ll be saying that was our chance,we should have shot

Pintails do the same thing in our field. Used to land in decoys in marsh,but the farm,nope

Johnc wrote:Really good mouth callers do seem to make them respond,good callers I mean. Like they know how to bend that high bark

Don't know the first thing about bending a bark, but know the response I managed was well above what turned out to be the study's average. Got pretty puffed up for a bit after receiving my copy of the data, but it didn't take all that long for the birds to burst that bubble, as white-spreading was by then well into its nose dive.

Re: pintails, my experience has been the opposite of yours, as I've found them much easier to put front and center in the rice than marsh. Though I suspect that more a case of their preference for open spaces over potholes than rice vs marsh.

Rick wrote:

Johnc wrote:Really good mouth callers do seem to make them respond,good callers I mean. Like they know how to bend that high bark

Don't know the first thing about bending a bark, but know the response I managed was well above what turned out to be the study's average. Got pretty puffed up for a bit after receiving my copy of the data, but it didn't take all that long for the birds to burst that bubble, as white-spreading was by then well into its nose dive.

Re: pintails, my experience has been the opposite of yours, as I've found them much easier to put front and center in the rice than marsh. Though I suspect that more a case of their preference for open spaces over potholes than rice vs marsh.

It’s been that way with pintails on our farm for generations long before me. Just the farm for some reason

Over Klondike yesterday:


And a sweet cool breeze this morning. Time's coming...

got reports this am from guides at sportsmans charters in Gueydan--john saucier's operation

Jack cousin saw both blues and specks

so things got in motion

I couldn't keep myself from running out toward Thornwell and playing with some specks this morning (even added a brown sweatshirt to my man-with-a-dog "spread" for the occasion), but didn't see or hear a blue during the relatively little time we were out there. The bug was good enough to be still while birds worked, but fired up enough to cut several ruts tight enough around me when released that I feared for my mending knee. He's READY for the season to start up again.

Dave texted while we were in the field to say it was "a wonderful morning in the marsh," as well.

Johnc wrote:got reports this am from guides at sportsmans charters in Gueydan--john saucier's operation

Jack cousin saw both blues and specks

so things got in motion

can 2nd that from a short clip I saw from one of sportsman guides. Met him at mcneese, fun guy to hunt with


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Today's edition of the "Don't Get Old Chronicles" began with the awareness that I'd left my favorite little belt holster camera at the house and not finding its back-up in its usual place in the truck's tool bag when I reached for it there before embarking on a hike with the bug to a blind I wanted to check out. Though only a little after 7, there were already several hundred specks on the place to prompt a circuitous course to avoid running them off.

But it wasn't long before they blew up, anyway, and i turned to find a mature eagle slipping and dipping and for all appearances playing its way across the barren field between us and the spooked geese, as if either they didn't exist or it just didn't care. Sure would have been neat to film the eagle's antics in the rising sun with all those geese swirling in the background. But no camera.

Despite being out there for over an hour, we saw but one little flight of specks that hadn't already been on our piece or the neighbors, where they shifted away from the eagle. But the birds' return to our piece was plenty enough show, even if we'd not occasionally taken a knee to pull a few strings across their intended field and overhead. Again, though, no camera.

Accordingly, my first order of business back at the house was to go get the spare from the office, where I "remembered" having charged after a previous use - only it wasn't there. Went back out to the truck to dig through the tool bag for it - and the first thing I saw upon opening the truck door was the camera sitting on the seat, where I'd put it en route to the field, so I wouldn't forget it.

Don't get old.

Was still mighty sweet to have spent so much of the morning within ready earshot of so many birds.

Thanks for taking us along Rick, even sans pictures. That has to warm your waterfowler soul to see something like that.

Rick wrote:Today's edition of the "Don't Get Old Chronicles" began with the awareness that I'd left my favorite little belt holster camera at the house and not finding its back-up in its usual place in the truck's tool bag when I reached for it there before embarking on a hike with the bug to a blind I wanted to check out. Though only a little after 7, there were already several hundred specks on the place to prompt a circuitous course to avoid running them off.

But it wasn't long before they blew up, anyway, and i turned to find a mature eagle slipping and dipping and for all appearances playing its way across the barren field between us and the spooked geese, as if either they didn't exist or it just didn't care. Sure would have been neat to film the eagle's antics in the rising sun with all those geese swirling in the background. But no camera.

Despite being out there for over an hour, we saw but one little flight of specks that hadn't already been on our piece or the neighbors, where they shifted away from the eagle. But the birds' return to our piece was plenty enough show, even if we'd not occasionally taken a knee to pull a few strings across their intended field and overhead. Again, though, no camera.

Accordingly, my first order of business back at the house was to go get the spare from the office, where I "remembered" having charged after a previous use - only it wasn't there. Went back out to the truck to dig through the tool bag for it - and the first thing I saw upon opening the truck door was the camera sitting on the seat, where I'd put it en route to the field, so I wouldn't forget it.

Don't get old.

Was still mighty sweet to have spent so much of the morning within ready earshot of so many birds.

I may be a fair bit younger, but I think the fallibility is the same......I find things exactly where I'd intentionally left them (but couldn't find) all the time. Little too prepared on occasion, too much forethought.



Alas your morning has uncovered that it is the eagles! The eagles and their increasing numbers across The Boot are what's responsible for the rebounding effect of La specks bouncing back northward.

P.S. Your group of birds pictured over Klondike would appear the same group I saw over S. Bunkie yesterday

Darren wrote:Alas your morning has uncovered that it is the eagles! The eagles and their increasing numbers across The Boot are what's responsible for the rebounding effect of La specks bouncing back northward.

That one did, in fact, send them north about a mile...before their return.

Running mighty low on birdy things to do while waiting out the humidity for a below 50% afternoon (with the only hope currently in sight forecast for next Tuesday) to clear-coat last year's speck and this summer's duck decoy repaints, and wall-climbing ain't cutting it.

Doubt it will be meaningful to anyone who doesn't hard-wire a spinner to their blind, but to avoid recurrence of a corroded splice between two extension cords, I purchased the only 120' outdoor cord I could find online. Had no choice but BRIGHT light green, and having spray painted orange ones in the past, assumed it would be easy enough to spray paint the end sections that might be visible to approaching birds. Wrongo, Froggy. Something in or on the cord's insulation kept the painted portions from drying beyond tacky after several days' time. Moral being: if you're going to paint extension cord, it might be wise to test a small spot first.

My solution was first removing the mess I'd made with acetone and then following up with another acetone wipe-down of the bare insulation (which did remove a trace of light green something) before painting. Time will tell if more of whatever the problem was will seep from the insulation, find its way into that second paint job and make a mess of it, too, but "so far, so good".

My most serious fear being: that the insulation is some sort of soy-based polymer that will prove particularly attractive to rodents. Again, I guess, "we'll see..."

Lllaawwwddd that's a lot of doing on seemingly a small issue, you must have plenty time indeed! Hope the acetone turns the trick for next coat of paint

Two good fronts on tap next week, maybe speck day is near

Rick - if you need to splice electrical connections in the future, I use liquid electrical tape to seal my connections - it has worked well for me in the past when used in under water applications. I put 3 coats on the connected area.

MARSH BEAR wrote:Rick - if you need to splice electrical connections in the future, I use liquid electrical tape to seal my connections - it has worked well for me in the past when used in under water applications. I put 3 coats on the connected area.

Know that's what I used on the one that's lasted 14 seasons, but the can was dry when I did last year's new one, and whatever I subbed with probably let water in and (along with the wad electrical tape covering the splice and knot wire supporting it) held it in long enough once out of the water for corrosion to set in. Didn't bother to examine the spice once certain it was the cord that lacked continuity and there were no rodent of prop cuts in it.

Rick, any more chatter in your circles around town of birds? Saw a video earlier this week of a good many birds on a farm that was said to be Klondike area, mostly teal with some pins

Was typing as you posted, Darren. Seeing a few teal, pins and spoons, but not many of anything.

The bug and I spent a couple hours walking (well, I walked and he hunted rails and such) the farm with our specklebelly stash this morning, again trying to avoid running them out. Wasn't entirely successful in that regard, as we inadvertently pushed some from a new, to my knowledge, spot and used that opportunity to shoot a little speck sights and sounds clip:


Also glad to have remembered the camera when we spotted some new arrivals:


which a bit closer approach and the sergeant major in the midst of them revealed were Ross, rather than blues (click on photo to enlarge),

but the first of their kind I've seen to date, as well.

At coffee this morning, a Klondike farmer friend said he'd seen his first specks there yesterday, and two others farming or living between the above piece and Thornwell proper have seen very few. The later of which might help explain why I saw exactly two new to the farm specks fly onto it, despite being out there before 7:00 and staying a couple hours.

The mystery to me is that our and a neighboring piece again had several hundred on the ground already when I got there. So much for specks generally being late risers...

Ross's geese

Some beautiful specks on the ground there, barred up and such. Thanks for sharing

Rick does the grandson go to Gueydan high? Saw where one our local piney woods towns were hosting Gueydan for homecoming football game. Didn’t realize they had a football team in the first place


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Currently one at South Cameron, which is now, post Rita and Ike, too small to field a football team, and one at Lake Arthur. None in Gueydan.

Darren wrote:Rick, any more chatter in your circles around town of birds? Saw a video earlier this week of a good many birds on a farm that was said to be Klondike area, mostly teal with some pins

Ed and I returned a boat that had been out for maintenance to the marsh and gave it a test run throughout this morning. Didn't move a bird until we got to the back blind, where there were three blue-wings, one of which couldn't fly. And that was that.

Still nice to ride in the marsh on a cool enough morning to warrant a sweat shirt.

Some northeast Louisiana specks flying northeast

https://youtu.be/D6YDBBnf1nY


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Spent the first two hours of the last two mornings in the same place deer wishing in Klondike and did not so much as hear a speck yesterday, but saw a string headed NW, a pair due west and two little Vs going north this morning. All at what I think of as trafficking, rather than traveling, altitude, still more than the bug and I have seen on his runs in that area to date.

We saw very few ducks (all teal, spoons or woodies) over the two mornings, but a "duck farming" friend with a lot more indigo than they hunt in a spot just across the ICW from AMOCO told me "around 5,000 mostly green-wings just showed up" on the two big cuts they have flooded. So there's that.

Couldn't help but think of shooting these while deer hunting at this time a couple years ago, albeit a half mile or so from this year's wishing. October 22, 2017:






Damned ol' flooded corn must have 'em all penned up. Come to think of it, I killed a couple deer from the same spot I "shot" those birds, so the deer must all be in the corn now, too.

Corn, it's not just for deer hunting any longer.

I like to read that the GW are here. They've been all we've had the last two years.

DComeaux wrote: I like to read that the GW are here. They've been all we've had the last two years.

Shoot, we killed more blue-wings during the big duck season than green-wings. They're my favorite gunning by far, and I sorely missed them.

My buddies in southeast Arkansas killed more green wings than anything else last year. The mallards didn’t make it to them either.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ta-da... Finally finished clear-coating all the decoys I felt/hope it will help thanks to a second sub 50% humidity day - which may very well be the last such before the season.

Ta-damnit... Went by the shop to insure progress on my Go-Devil and was told he'd start on it tomorrow. Thought we were clear that it wasn't just going to sit there until the last possible minute, but should have known better than to have waited this long to check on it.

Ya win some ya lose some.

Rick wrote:Ta-damnit... Went by the shop to insure progress on my Go-Devil and was told he'd start on it tomorrow. Thought we were clear that it wasn't just going to sit there until the last possible minute, but should have known better than to have waited this long to check on it.

What kind of issues you having?

Won't die when you turn the key off - unless I ground the kill circuit connections on the inside of the cowling insulator against the metal cowling. Have changed switch twice and replaced all connections outside the cowling. Had it working for a short while by recrimping the interior connection, but that didn't last. If there's something else goobered between there and coil, someone with a flywheel puller and more smarts than me needs to find it.