2020-2021 Season Log

[Rick]

Date: 1/3/21 Sun

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear to partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: dead calm to light southerly

Temperature: frost to nice

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Slow, slow...

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Great aside from mottleds and a very few apparent veteran teal.

Hunters: 2, Dave and Steve

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Easy morning

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: Just the lack of game.

Kudos: Only one missed shooting op at green-wings off their end, everything else that came died.

Birds By Species: 2 gadwall, 3 gw teal and 1 mallard

Photo Ops: Hard as it may be to believe these day's, there's a green head down there somewhere:

031a.jpg

[Rick]

Date: 1/4/21 Mon

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: flat calm to extremely light southerly

Temperature: comfortably cool

Moon phase: 'bout half

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Saw a few little bunches of teal right at first light and got hopeful, but most of what teal were shot, maybe a dozen between two blinds, were east of us. Next to no big ducks.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Had one bunch of pintails, of the three or four seen, work like we wish they all would, and a pair of mallard drakes, of the maybe six seen, did likewise.

Hunters: 2, father and grown son, Larry and Camron

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): easy morning with just one hunt

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: no birds

Kudos: guys were from Florida and tickled with mounting sprig and Camron's first mallard

Birds By Species: 1 bw teal, 1 gw teal, 2 mallards and 2 pintails

[Darren]

Kudos: guys were from Florida and tickled with mounting sprig and Camron's first mallard

heck of a silver lining, job well done with what was there to work with!

[Duck Engr]

Rick what are the reports from Cherry ridge and those surrounding you? Just as poor as yours?

[Rick]

CR is struggling right along with us, despite holding what appears a bazillion birds (albeit mostly black-bellies) when someone runs through their unofficial refuge. What birds are here simply aren't moving. Least not in daylight...

[Johnc]

3F73BDB6-E017-4154-9B7D-9CC972B374D3.jpeg

1964 magnum 1100. Got it one today

[Rick]

What did the "magnum" mean?

[Johnc]

What did the "magnum" mean?

3 “ capability

[Duck Engr]

Very nice John. My Dad still shoots an 1100 that was new to him in the 70s, though I don’t know the year of manufacture. 30” fixed full for turkeys. 28” fixed mod for ducks. His isn’t as nice as yours. Rattle can camo paint job after he got tired of gun socks for turkeys.

[Rick]

Date: 1/5 Tue

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: dead calm to light easterly

Temperature: cool

Moon phase: half?

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Still nearly dead.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Thankfully good, except most birds were coming low right down the length of the blind and catching our "full moon" crowd control issue.

Hunters: 2, Larry and Camron again

Guns:

Malfunctions: Camron's Beretta was "clicking" on bad/old shells until I gave him a fresh box.

Dog(s): Easy morning other than the long wait for a bird on the flotant, where he could unload his ballast.

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: No game, no-go shells and crowd control

Kudos: Nice folks still passed enough of a time to say they'd be asking for me again next year. (Don't know that Larry will be making the trip again, as he's no "spring chicken" and crippled by back issues.

Birds By Species: 1 black-bellied whistling duck, 3 bw teal and 3 pintails

Photo Ops: My little Panasonic camera finally croaked. Perhaps had all the dog shake water it could stand...

[Duck Engr]

That’s a shame on the camera. I enjoy your pictures from the mud hole. Have to pass pintails again or were the three that came the three that died?

[Rick]

Have a backup camera, and just ordered another of the one I preferred.

We're seeing precious little of anything, but more pintails than any other big ducks. Or ducks, period, today. Two came out of a big bunch and the last one joined a pair of local mottleds - and pulled them with him to the call, instead of the usual opposite. Bad news being that by the time the guns got underway, the mottleds, one a bright-billed drake I had on the strap in my head, were beyond my safe zone.

Broke another general rule, in that we usually seem covered up in pintails after filling on them, I don't recall any more passing. Lucky to toll what we did.

[MARSH BEAR]

Rick - I don't think anyone in our club has killed a mottled duck this year - Hurricane Laura must have blown them all inland.

[Rick]

Today's were the first we (with the sprig's help) have fooled into range in quite a while.

[Deltaman]

"Have a backup camera, and just ordered another of the one I preferred."

Rick, the pics you post have been awesome. What is your preferred model?

[Rick]

Been, and will be, using a Panasonic ZS50 "travel zoom". Not great at anything, except being a great compromise between zoom range, ease of use, portability, image quality and cost.

[Rick]

Date: 1/6/21

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: SE brisk

Temperature: 40s

Moon phase: 48% waning

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Slooow again.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Most of what very little we saw came to die, or trying to.

Hunters: 2 1/2, father and sons, Cory, 15yr-old Steve and 6yr-old Cohen observing

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Marsh made a fine mark on a tipped way out blue-wing that could still nearly fly, but eventually lost him in big water.

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: Cory knew I'd hit our only sprig and wanted one of his own for the wall - then lost his water and jumped up early when a bunch including a real buster was coming in on the deck.

Kudos: Other than that screw-up and the lost teal, we killed everything that came.

Birds By Species: 2 fulvous whistling ducks, 2 pintails and 1 ringneck

Photo Ops: A pair of Mexican squealers that should have been living up to that name two months ago:

005a.jpg

[Deltaman]

Been, and will be, using a Panasonic ZS50 "travel zoom". Not great at anything, except being a great compromise between zoom range, ease of use, portability, image quality and cost.

Thank You Sir!

[Rick]

Date: 1/7/21 Thur

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: cloudy, clear, cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: WNW brisk

Temperature: 40s

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Virtually none at all on our end of the marsh.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: What waterfowl? But better than ours on our very few ops.

Hunters: 2, father and grown son, Dave and Brad

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Lost a blue-wing under flotant at pond's edge.

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: Westerly winds once again suck wind.

Kudos: Nice folks.

Birds By Species: 1 bw teal and 1 ringneck

Photo Ops: Buster bluewing:

001a.jpg

[Deltaman]

Damn fine specimen!!!

[Rick]

Damn fine specimen!!!

Pluckers will be tickled: no pin feathers.

[Rick]

Date: 1/8 Fri

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: dead calm to NW brisk too late

Temperature: 40s

Moon phase:

Special Notes: Thought we'd get even with this morning's wind change and clear skies - that never really came

Waterfowl Activity: Next to none on our end again, but more easterly blinds did better, again.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Most of what little we saw high or low tried. (Just didn't see anything.)

Hunters: 2, Chris and Bubba from yesterday's group drew the short straw.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Easy morning - except for the mighty long wait to get on the flotant to take his morning dump.

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: Hate it for my guys.

Kudos: They, like yesterday's two, were great company.

Birds By Species: 1 pintail and 1 scaup

[Rick]

Date: 1/9 Sat

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: dead calm, again, to moderate NE near hunt's end

Temperature: 40s

Moon phase: waning cresent

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: dead on my end again

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Everything bumping off spinners, but had a man that had to be told to hide, repeatedly, so left them running too much to try taking eyes off him.

Hunters: 2, one nice and trying, one lost in time and space - maybe badly hungover?

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): The bug couldn't locate the second of two spoons dropped (when the guys should have been shooting the "Your end, your end" mottleds on that end of their bunch), but a hawk later showed it to be in a spot I thought I put him through.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Empty skies over us while more easterly blinds got some shooting, again.

Kudos: One man was alive and trying.

Birds By Species: 1 gw teal and 1 shoveller (third two bird hunt in a row)

[Johnc]

B638A4EB-D20B-4C22-96E5-54C2829C28B6.jpeg

Magnum blue on end

[Johnc]

90ACB94E-16A5-4D23-AE35-044D3E71E9CC.jpeg

Magnum 1 st year male on end

[Rick]

Looking up, John.

[Rick]

Date: 1/10 Sun

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: Serious east

Temperature: almost bitter going out

Moon phase: waning cresent

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Again listened to what seemed a lot of little duck shooting to our east, while seeing little, for the first hour. But saw and got to break some high bunches of mostly pintails later.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Much, much better than ours.

Hunters: Yesterday's guys again.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Just one hunt'emup, which he quickly nailed when handled downwind of it.

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: One of the guys simply would not try to hide or even hold still, no matter how much I hinted, even to the point of "They're probably not anxious to come to a man standing in the weed watching them." Was like having a zombie hunter in the blind.

Kudos: Other guy tried and got to shoot some.

Birds By Species: 1 mallard, 3 pintails and 3 shovellers

[Rick]

Date: 1/11/21 Mon

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: strong north

Temperature: bitter when wet

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Started out looking strong, then petered on our end. East blinds did much better with little ducks and black-bellies.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Sweet when we'd let 'em.

Hunters: 2, father who hasn't hunted in years and grown son who was a much steadier, more experienced hand.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): I wore the poor bug to a nub looking for mallard that lit way the hey and a boat ride out, to no avail. But he was aces on a mottled that dove as soon as it hit the pond and slipped out and off to the races unseen until the bug hit his track and finally snagged him in broken marsh.

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: Took too long to work out our costly crowd control issues.

Kudos: Nice guys still had a big time, thanks to a few mallards they let do it right.

Birds By Species: 2 gw teal, 3 mallards, 1 mottled, 1 ringneck and 1 shoveller

Photo Ops: Not quite sly enough mottled:

003a.jpg

[Darren]

Nice!

Will be around in the morning

[Rick]

Will be around in the morning

See you're slated to hunt with Byron, who shot A LOT this morning. Not sure what all they killed besides squealers, but seemed a mess.