2022 Preseason...

[Duck Engr]

Nice Rick! Always a few white ones mucking up the crowd. You seeing more specks than last year or just posting about them more this year? Don’t recall much mention of specks last year this time.

[Rick]

Was a steady stream dropping from the north "like the old days" that my little camera couldn't begin to do justice at that distance. More geese in one place than I've seen at this time in quite a while. Log says I saw my first little bunch, flying over Gueydan, on Oct 22 last year.

[Ducaholic]

Like!

[Darren]

Very nice, and adds credence to what I was told the other day. Were the birds on the water ducks or specks? Was thinking ducks from the view

[Duck Engr]

Sure looked like ducks to me too

[Darren]

Sure looked like ducks to me too

And looked like they were piled into what's likely precious flooded acreage of the area.

[Deltaman]

Mighty pretty sight Rick

[Rick]

Were both ducks and geese in the water. Specks were dropping into plowed ground and rolling to water. Am told there was a similar scene a mile over.

The bug and I took a disappointing tour of Klondike this morning and found nary a game bird on our ag land piece or evident on any of Dixie's stuff until an eagle ratted out a swarm of ducks on some open water they've flooded. Pins, spoons and teal.

[Rick]

Been repainting some of my spread and finished up my little pod of sprig today, as well as my PhD duck decoy's mortar and diploma. Was touching up the later when I heard young voices out front and went to see what was up. They were hoping to buy my old truck (no chance) and appeared for all the world like they'd never seen an old man with a rubber ducky before.

[SpinnerMan]

appeared for all the world like they'd never seen an old man with a rubber ducky before.

[Ericdc]

You're probably tictoc famous now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Rick]

You're probably tictoc famous now.

Granddaughters will be mortified...or delighted...

[Duck Engr]

All publicity is good publicity nowadays Rick.

[Rick]

Banded birds at Rockefeller this morning and made a pass by Chateau de DComeaux on my way home. Quite the building project, but still no windows/vizqueen to fend off the blizzards Darren's been promising...

[Darren]

Banded birds at Rockefeller this morning and made a pass by Chateau de DComeaux on my way home. Quite the building project, but still no windows/vizqueen to fend off the blizzards Darren's been promising...

Well, what was the bird picture like?

Start diggin that basement and insulating the windows, book it!

Hoping next week brings you some useful rain.

[Ducaholic]

Banded birds at Rockefeller this morning and made a pass by Chateau de DComeaux on my way home. Quite the building project, but still no windows/vizqueen to fend off the blizzards Darren's been promising...

HaHa...

Good One

[Rick]

Well, what was the bird picture like?

Caught several hundred blue-wings with very little by-catch of other species: few green-wings, fewer spoons. Many more hens and fewer immatures than expected.

On the way home saw just one big bunch of ducks on the open water south of 82 and next to nothing along 27 south of the bridge.

[DComeaux]

Banded birds at Rockefeller this morning and made a pass by Chateau de DComeaux on my way home. Quite the building project, but still no windows/vizqueen to fend off the blizzards Darren's been promising...

Screens and doors go up this weekend and I'll be ordering the marine vinyl on Monday for those panels. The wood stove will go in shortly after that. We're spread thin at the moment.

[Rick]

Screens and doors go up this weekend and I'll be ordering the marine vinyl on Monday for those panels. The wood stove will go in shortly after that. We're spread thin at the moment.

You'll be the envy of the RV park.

[Rick]

Met LST at the mudhole this morning and got to watch pretty strong flights of squealers and little ducks to my east and a fair number of woodies and blue-wings nearby. Even had a little pod of grays close enough to ID as such. Big flight of jacks passed overhead between Clyde's and Isaacs blinds to add another species to my list before several hundred more flushed from Gabe's big east end pond, which was pretty much literally covered with them. And an additional hundred or so jumped from the east pond when I checked on my last visit''s work on its run. So we're sneaking up on our marsh's preseason norm.

[DComeaux]

Thats good to read.

[Rick]

"Lots of pintails." Cherry Ridge had a work day yesterday, and Clark took time out to call with that report, so there must be a lot of pintails in their marsh. Said there were also scads of not-yet-flight-worthy little squealers skittering around. "Fryers" said I.

Meanwhile at the house, I've put the easier decoy repaints (pintails and MMM mottleds) behind me and finally restarted the speck decoy flocking effort I aborted last spring but hope to finish before the opener. Got too heavy-handed with the airbrush on this round's trial decoy, but think I've a satisfactory combination of flock and paint colors to work up a little batch specks for the mudhole's permanent spread that won't reflect the morning sun like my painted ones did when dew covered. We'll see...

[DComeaux]

"Lots of pintails." Cherry Ridge had a work day yesterday, and Clark took time out to call with that report, so there must be a lot of pintails in their marsh. Said there were also scads of not-yet-flight-worthy little squealers skittering around. "Fryers" said I.

LOL! Tender vittles........ Heard the same down south. Was told yesterday that just a stones throw north of our camp " is like mosquitos". "Thousands of birds, teal, spoons, greys, and pintail".

Meanwhile at the house, I've put the easier decoy repaints (pintails and MMM mottleds) behind me and finally restarted the speck decoy flocking effort I aborted last spring but hope to finish before the opener. Got too heavy-handed with the airbrush on this round's trial decoy, but think I've a satisfactory combination of flock and paint colors to work up a little batch specks for the mudhole's permanent spread that won't reflect the morning sun like my painted ones did when dew covered. We'll see...

Wish I had the time (Or made the time) to do our decoys. They're in bad shape, and they're going back in with the battle scars, mud, and dried vegetation stuck to their underbellies.

[Darren]

How those flocked squealer decoys coming along, Rick?


Glad to hear of you and Dave's reports, has me giddy for sure. Only report I've gotten within 80 miles of my marsh is a similar marsh with fair many birds earlier this week. Slight chance I get out and about this weekend, TBD. And we've penciled a go of the youth hunt next Saturday the 5th.

[Rick]

How those flocked squealer decoys coming along, Rick?

That might end up being all they are, but we'll take it.

Clark wanted me to take a boat ride with him this morning, and, try as I might, I couldn't talk my way out of it. Found two 70-something old farts acting like they'd never seen a duck before, as swarms in the hundreds of migratory big ducks dropped in from both north and south to join the squealers using the Cherry Ridge "body". Mostly pintails and grays, as far as we could tell, as those swinging wide joined the teal, and spoons buzzing the blind we watched from. Even saw some wigeon, though nary a mallard that could be IDed as such.

[Rick]

Some of my trademark bad video, which doesn't remotely do the scene justice, but I'm posting it, anyway:

[DComeaux]

How Wonderful!

[Duck Engr]

Wow what a sight! Thank you for sharing Rick

[Darren]

Just astounding, and surely attributable to how dry the flyway has been to put them here early and often apparently.



And couldn't move on without the requisite "that's funny, given some have told me for a few years now that ducks dont come to La anymore"

Presume you've got a youth party for next weekend.......seemingly sure should!

[Deltaman]

That'll get the blood flowing!!!!
Great video's Rick and appreciate you sharing them with us.
Can't help but smile at the excitement in Clark's comments