2019-2020 Season Log

[Ericdc]

Congrats on the black duck, hope u finish strong. Sunday should be fun in the sun.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Duck Engr]

Awesome! That’s a treat.

[Rick]

Tickled me, but didn't mean pecans to my Ohio guys who didn't know what it was until I told them and their rarity here and might still have ho-hummed if they did. (During my Mid Ohio Valley years, I often targeted the also relatively rare blacks living along the Ohio River while waiting for deep snow to push mallards our way.)

Kind of odd that another of our, now five, blacks was taken when Bruce, from Maryland where they're quite common, was my hunter.

[Bud]

Congrats on the Black Duck. I'd sit all day tomorrow or most any day for one.

[Rick]

Do they not migrate that far down the East Coast, Bud?

[Rick]

Date: 1/18 Sat

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: fogged in tight until nearly curfew

Wind Direction and Velocity: southerly moderate

Temperature: t-shirt

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Southerly winds brought teal to the marsh but they apparently stayed over watery routes and away from the mudhole. Blinds to our east all did well.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: whistled much more than not to little avail

Hunters: 2, Chicagoans, John and 88-yr-old Don

Guns: Thinking I'd be hunting with Steve and Ernie again, I took my Model 12.

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Easy morning

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: My guys spent their morning listening to everyone else shoot, and another of my poule d'eau decoys got plastered by a crippled bird water swat.

Kudos: Nice guys

Birds By Species: 1 gadwall, 3 gw teal and 1 shoveller

[Rick]

Date: 1/19 Sun

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: Ripping out of the NE

Temperature: 40s?

Moon phase: crescent waning

Special Notes: last day of ducks

Waterfowl Activity: Specks were crossing the marsh when we finally got to the blind after shooting time, and enough little ducks were still around that the blinds to our east hammered them and we got to clip a few teal. But new big ducks were conspicuously absent. Weren't even twinklers.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Broke a speck out of the flight and down to "see the tongue, shoot the tongue" range while still putting the boat away. And while the guys were asking to shoot it on the way in, no one shot when I gave the go-ahead...or until I begged "Someone please shoot!". Seems the younger was trying to defer to his elder, and I've no idea what he was doing. Do know we ended the mudhole's season without killing a goose. Grays and teal came to die.

Hunters: 2, 88-yr-old Don and much younger John again.

Guns: I took the Model 12 again

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Made a sweet retrieve on a chipped can that made it open water and I thought might well be lost.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Ed's people didn't show and I tried to talk my guys into going to his much better little duck blind, instead of mine, without success. Ed was done in a hurry, and everyone else banged and clanged until they filled or nearly so, and Don lamented about all that shooting time and again while we watched empty blue sky.

Kudos: John never shot a can, wanted one to mount, and the bug got one for him. That, and a lone drake gray practically hoovered against the wind front and center long enough for Don to finally spot and kill it.

Birds By Species: 1 bw teal, 1 canvasback, 2 gadwall and 4 gw teal

Photo Ops: The bug with our money bird:

022a.jpg

Lagniappe Feel like the cat that screwed a skunk: haven't had all I want, but have had all I can stand.

[Ducaholic]

Thanks Rick you make following you enjoyable even when things are not going so well!

[Bud]

Do they not migrate that far down the East Coast, Bud?

I've shot about twelve over the years and have two mounted. I know where some usually are, but they stopped us from hunting there. Expletive. Something like it was not educational and didn't serve as a herd management tool. I think DNR didn't want to fool with us any longer out there. Have seen them on really cold days and late season mainly. I just love tripping them up when possible. Harder to kill than our local mottleds most of the time. Killing a Black Duck was a prize...

As with yours and the Can. The wife laughed pretty good for the first time today about your skunk. I did not go this season even once. Thanks for the great season.

[Duck Engr]

Lagniappe Feel like the cat that screwed a skunk: haven't had all I want, but have had all I can stand.

First time I’ve heard that saying, and burst out laughing when I read it.

[Rick]

Harder to kill than our local mottleds most of the time.

Generally been easier here. I used to be fond of saying that if a mottled worked like a mallard, it was apt to be a black. This last one, though, was part of a pair that acted just like late season mottleds and had to be tripped into coming close enough (that both should have died), rather than front and center. "Knew" they were mottleds and even told my guys the one that fell was our 23rd.

Up home on the Ohio, where they were longer term residents, they'd not come to my seven dozen mallards, pins and teal but sometimes land well above it and drift close enough with the current to sometimes inspire hope before moving off or away, as though they'd been examining the spread and found it questionable of flat deficient. Could sometimes kill one by taking three mallard hens and hugging natural cover, that or over goose decoys in corn stubble. But don't recall ever killing one over my big duck spread. Sly bastages.

[Rick]

Lagniappe Feel like the cat that screwed a skunk: haven't had all I want, but have had all I can stand.

First time I’ve heard that saying, and burst out laughing when I read it.

Came to me from an Alabama banker who was such a fine example of Southern gentleman that hearing it from his lips made it all the funnier.

Couldn't think of a better summation of my day - and Marsh's.

The log makes no note of it, but I've been wearing industrial ear muffs when running the boat and had put them around its grab rail behind Don's seat, so they'd be handy when we were ready go. Only when we'd managed to get everyone aboard and I'd push-poled the boat off, gotten it turned into the miserably stiff wind, and was ready to crank the engine, the muffs were gone. And rather than go through that hassle again, I said screw 'em and took off without.

Didn't know if the muffs had somehow been kicked off during the process of getting the 88-year-old aboard in high winds or if he'd thought them brush and tossed them. Just know I decided to go back and try to find them after brunch and took the bug and a gun in hope of being able to end the season by shooting a bird when and where it should be done.

Found the muffs bobbing under the dog stand, where they more likely had to be tossed than kicked, and then sat and watched empty sky for the hour or so it took Marsh to start prodding me with his nose. He was bone dry, vested and aired a good while at boat house before we set out, so his apparent discomfort wasn't physical. Pretty sure he was trying to tell me he'd had enough, as had I, so we called it a season.

[Deltaman]

Rick,
Thank You again, for including us in your Mudhole duck season reports! They are something I look forward to reading daily, and have been healing ointment for the wound created by our bare skies locally. We still have a week left, and maybe, just maybe, this hard front will actually bring a few new arrivals.

[Darren]

That speck getting out certainly stung, but hopefully keeps the fire going for this fall to come. At least yall shot a few to close it out.....I didn't, but at least had two good ones fri and Sat. I had indeed noticed you wearing the ear muffs on our trip and thought it a smart addition given how much running you do.

[DComeaux]

...... and then sat and watched empty sky for the hour or so it took Marsh to start prodding me with his nose. He was bone dry, vested and aired a good while at boat house before we set out, so his apparent discomfort wasn't physical. Pretty sure he was trying to tell me he'd had enough, as had I, so we called it a season.

Yesterday was a blessing for poor Ellie. She had to endure many, many hours of nothing. She'd get excited when watching roseate spoonbills and cormorants go by and then would look at me like WHY DIDN'T YOU SHOOT! She did well on stuff neither Blake or I were sure of yesterday, so I let her do her thing and she didn't disappoint. Her marking skills amazes me at times. With the wind as strong as it was yesterday the drift in the air, especially with teal was long. When you'd pull off of a hit bird for the next you'd lose track of that first bird. She took care of that.

[Rick]

Rick,
Thank You again, for including us in your Mudhole duck season reports! They are something I look forward to reading daily, and have been healing ointment for the wound created by our bare skies locally. We still have a week left, and maybe, just maybe, this hard front will actually bring a few new arrivals.

Hope so.

[Rick]

Her marking skills amazes me at times.

They're so, so much better at it than we are.

[Rick]

Spent the day picking up, cleaning up and buttoning up the mudhole under beautifully clear skies and in the strong NE post-front winds I generally associate with big duck traffic, but saw just one pair of locals.

Got home, unhooked the boat and had just sat down to a plate lunch supper when word came of a banding/transmitter attempt this evening, so off I went to that. And wouldn't you know it was my third "DNS" (did not shoot) in a week's time - only this time because there were way the hey too many mallards on the bait for our small party to handle. You read that right "too many mallards," as in hundreds apt to be caught by the net, and never mind all those beyond its short reach.

So we're putting out the call for more volunteers and hoping to have enough on hand to get another good lick in on the coastal mallard study tomorrow evening.

[Darren]

"no ducks in Louisiana"

but "too many mallards"


We are so confused down here

[DComeaux]

"no ducks in Louisiana"

but "too many mallards"


We are so confused down here

Stop......

[Rick]

Now we know the secret to tolling what's left: just pour the feed to 'em in a place with zero pressure of any sort.

[DComeaux]

Now we know the secret to tolling what's left: just pour the feed to 'em in a place with zero pressure of any sort.

Really not a secret. Mix up a 55 gallon drum of horse and mule sweet feed with molasses and corn and pour it along the edges of your pond. All you'd need is a dip net, so I'm told.

[SpinnerMan]

Now we know the secret to tolling what's left: just pour the feed to 'em in a place with zero pressure of any sort.

Really not a secret. Mix up a 55 gallon drum of horse and mule sweet feed with molasses and corn and pour it along the edges of your pond. All you'd need is a dip net, so I'm told.

They can smell it all the way from their flooded cornfield in Missouri

Sorry couldn't resist

[Rick]

Really not a secret. Mix up a 55 gallon drum of horse and mule sweet feed with molasses and corn and pour it along the edges of your pond. All you'd need is a dip net, so I'm told.

Not too many years back, a Thornwell friend lamented about the birds ignoring a September teal pond he had behind his place, while being thick on a neighboring leased pond, and I joked "Horse and Mule." Then, a few days later, a cousin who farms that neighboring land showed up at his shop wondering how the heck a couple of empty Horse and Mule sacks ended up in one of his fields.

Horse and Mule, of course, has its own molasses, but a local fellow who entertained corporate clients at his camp decide to up the ante by having one of his guides pour five five-gallon buckets of molasses in the flooded rice field he hunted, That guide was of a kind that happily complied with his instructions, but he wasn't so happy about having to hunt the spot after a hard northern blew in that night, "Looked just like a root beer float."

(Sure wish I could type that the way he said it.)

Re: the band and transmitter party, we generated the most help I've ever seen at one, Paul fired the net before it might be too loaded, and we finished up in a much timelier manner than the last catch. I seem to have a knack for pulling banded "recaptures" and had my third for this fall's four efforts to date. Heard it was one of two this time but neither confirmed that or asked if it was one of ours.

Didn't ask what our total was, either, but doubt it beat the last venture's 154(?). No geese of any sort this time, but a fair number of miscellaneous ducks, with wigeon leading that count, a few pins (only one hen to transmitter), spoons and grays, and (I think) single mottled, green-wing and ringneck ducks. Pretty sure everyone but me photographed the banded spoons.

They're all drying and warming out of the weather in a shed with heaters, and I'll soon be off to help load and release them when the sun comes up.

[Deltaman]

Really not a secret. Mix up a 55 gallon drum of horse and mule sweet feed with molasses and corn and pour it along the edges of your pond. All you'd need is a dip net, so I'm told.

Not too many years back, a Thornwell friend lamented about the birds ignoring a September teal pond he had behind his place, while being thick on a neighboring leased pond, and I joked "Horse and Mule." Then, a few days later, a cousin who farms that neighboring land showed up at his shop wondering how the heck a couple of empty Horse and Mule sacks ended up in one of his fields.

Horse and Mule, of course, has its own molasses, but a local fellow who entertained corporate clients at his camp decide to up the ante by having one of his guides pour five five-gallon buckets of molasses in the flooded rice field he hunted, That guide was of a kind that happily complied with his instructions, but he wasn't so happy about having to hunt the spot after a hard northern blew in that night, "Looked just like a root beer float."

(Sure wish I could type that the way he said it.)

Re: the band and transmitter party, we generated the most help I've ever seen at one, Paul fired the net before it might be too loaded, and we finished up in a much timelier manner than the last catch. I seem to have a knack for pulling banded "recaptures" and had my third for this fall's four efforts to date. Heard it was one of two this time but neither confirmed that or asked if it was one of ours.

Didn't ask what our total was, either, but doubt it beat the last venture's 154(?). No geese of any sort this time, but a fair number of miscellaneous ducks, with wigeon leading that count, a few pins (only one hen to transmitter), spoons and grays, and (I think) single mottled, green-wing and ringneck ducks. Pretty sure everyone but me photographed the banded spoons.

They're all drying and warming out of the weather in a shed with heaters, and I'll soon be off to help load and release them when the sun comes up.

Good on you for giving back Rick

[Darren]

Very cool, and nice to hear about wigeon being prevalent in the mix. Few were killed on my end this season, seemed like more than recent years. And banded spoons........well.......what's more trophy than that?

[DComeaux]

Really not a secret. Mix up a 55 gallon drum of horse and mule sweet feed with molasses and corn and pour it along the edges of your pond. All you'd need is a dip net, so I'm told.

Not too many years back, a Thornwell friend lamented about the birds ignoring a September teal pond he had behind his place, while being thick on a neighboring leased pond, and I joked "Horse and Mule." Then, a few days later, a cousin who farms that neighboring land showed up at his shop wondering how the heck a couple of empty Horse and Mule sacks ended up in one of his fields.

Horse and Mule, of course, has its own molasses, but a local fellow who entertained corporate clients at his camp decide to up the ante by having one of his guides pour five five-gallon buckets of molasses in the flooded rice field he hunted, That guide was of a kind that happily complied with his instructions, but he wasn't so happy about having to hunt the spot after a hard northern blew in that night, "Looked just like a root beer float."

(Sure wish I could type that the way he said it.)

I can see the froth. Years back I heard of many fowl taking to a certain sugarcane bagasse pit near a mill. I'm sure it's the same today.

Re: the band and transmitter party, we generated the most help I've ever seen at one, Paul fired the net before it might be too loaded, and we finished up in a much timelier manner than the last catch. I seem to have a knack for pulling banded "recaptures" and had my third for this fall's four efforts to date. Heard it was one of two this time but neither confirmed that or asked if it was one of ours.

Didn't ask what our total was, either, but doubt it beat the last venture's 154(?). No geese of any sort this time, but a fair number of miscellaneous ducks, with wigeon leading that count, a few pins (only one hen to transmitter), spoons and grays, and (I think) single mottled, green-wing and ringneck ducks. Pretty sure everyone but me photographed the banded spoons.

They're all drying and warming out of the weather in a shed with heaters, and I'll soon be off to help load and release them when the sun comes up.

I sure wish I had the time to do this.

[DComeaux]

Now we know the secret to tolling what's left: just pour the feed to 'em in a place with zero pressure of any sort.

Really not a secret. Mix up a 55 gallon drum of horse and mule sweet feed with molasses and corn and pour it along the edges of your pond. All you'd need is a dip net, so I'm told.

They can smell it all the way from their flooded cornfield in Missouri

Sorry couldn't resist

It's just a type of "habitat".

[Rick]

Good on you for giving back Rick

Naw, it's a selfish thing. Get to do something birdy at times when there's not much else birdy to do. And watching them released is something of a rush, so it's a "feel good" thing, too.

[Rick]

Years back I heard of many fowl taking to a certain sugarcane bagasse pit near a mill. I'm sure it's the same today.

Don't know about the legality of hunting a mill's runoff, but might have heard of such - allegedly.

Suspect I found myself hunting a baited ag field once in the "way back when...", judging by how the birds acted. Had pay hunters with me and didn't want to voice my suspicion, but couldn't wait for quitting time and never hunted there again. Too chicken to be a good outlaw. And where's the fun in it?