WaterfowlForum.Net

Nothing wrong with that hunt. Congrats!

Date: 25 Sep 22

Time: morning

Location: ND

Cloud Cover: a little

Wind Direction and Velocity: WNW at about 15 MPH

Temperature: 43°

Moon phase: Didn’t see the moon

Special Notes: drove into the field wrong and all the cranes got up and were flying around in the dark

Waterfowl Activity: mostly cranes, a few honkers, couple flocks of ducks, and saw three and heard a fourth flock of Snowgeese.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Pretty responsive

Hunters: Vinny Quack and I

Guns: SX4

Malfunctions: Our shooting abilities

Dog(s): Reaper

Special Equipment: Actually put up the spinners and wasn’t a winner

Curses: no such thing

Kudos: none deserved

Birds By Species: just killed cranes. Mostly saw Pintail ‘s. Wiffed the green heads we saw

Photo Ops:


I honestly have never seen a crane run before but this sucker could run like a giant rooster. Reaper chased him and then he started chasing Reaper. It was quite the thing to watch. Wish I would’ve filmed it instead of snapping pictures.

be careful they will poke a dogs eye out

Have seen dogs wearing protective goggles when hunting them. They are bad dudes.

That’s for sure

Duck Engr wrote:Have seen dogs wearing protective goggles when hunting them. They are bad dudes.

The biologist I help band is from ND and won't take his Labs for cranes without them.

Rick wrote:

Duck Engr wrote:Have seen dogs wearing protective goggles when hunting them. They are bad dudes.

The biologist I help band is from ND and won't take his Labs for cranes without them.

Chris?

Paul Link. Believe he's from near the Art Brazda Wildlife Mgt area. (Named for our late long-time USFWS Senior Mississippi Flyway Biologist who was a great friend and source during my writing days.)

Date: 25 Sep 2022

Time: evening time

Location: ND

Cloud Cover: Mostly sunny

Wind Direction and Velocity: started off about 18 mph from the Northwest and by time the hunt was over there was next to no wind.

Temperature: started off at 66° and ended at 54°

Moon phase: I think it’s nonexistent

Special Notes: Saw ducks in this field about a week ago. Figured we would take a chance not knowing if anybody hunted it or not. Had very low expectations. Seems low expectation hunts are some of the best

Waterfowl Activity: pintails pintails pintails. Also a bunch of geese using this field but that closed at 2 PM. Some Specklebelly‘s were mixed in with the Canada geese. Very few mallards!

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Flying quiet and they were quiet when they landed in other parts of the field. Pintails kept on landing in the decoys and mallards were pretty spooky

Hunters: Vinny Quack and I

Guns: SX4

Malfunctions: Our shooting! I shot the four and should’ve had my fifth plus my pintail and she should’ve had a couple plus her Pintail. We didn’t take many shots but the ones we did, we did not make count

Dog(s): Reaper

Special Equipment: 3 Spinners

Curses: what are those

Kudos: to us for keeping our eyes on a mallard we suspected was hit and sure enough he eventually fell to the ground and reaper found him.

Birds By Species: Only shot mallards. 15+ flocks of pintails. Should have shot one

Photo Ops:

Dirty Drake



Pintails

Have you managed to convince Vinny Quack that cleaning birds is fun?

Rick wrote:Have you managed to convince Vinny Quack that cleaning birds is fun?

This the first duck she cleaned in 2014. She has been cleaning them ever since

Nice few hunts !

Great reports PC, and even if you didn't shoot many, know that watching those Pintails working to stool is worth the price of admission, and those Cranes are a nice bonus!!!!!!

I definitely do enjoy seeing them and it’s a good teaching opportunity for the kids to show them how the birds work in and when you should call the shot. Also a good indication if the spread is set correctly or not. It’s just odd though because with that many pintails there should be 10 times as many mallards. On the way home from crane hunting this morning we did find a bunch Good looking green heads. We may try that spot tonight. There was also some gadwall in there and even some Coots which I’ve never shot a coot but it’s on my list. People say they don’t taste good but people said the same thing about cranes. I will find out on my own whether it’s true or not. I found that most people that say birds don’t taste good don’t know how to cook.

Cranes did not come to our field. They went to the field we hunted on opening day for cranes. The farmer raked that field yesterday so I’m sure it spread all the grain around. It’s a mile away from the roost. Not sure how the birds know when these fields get raked but they always seem to be in them the next day. I will give them a few days to get adjusted to it and then hopefully we will get some more

Date: 28 Sep 22

Time: afternoon

Location: ND

Cloud Cover: not much

Wind Direction and Velocity: South at 18

Temperature: 78°

Moon phase: Just a sliver of a moon starting

Special Notes: Vinny Quack and big D Dominic P we’re also along for the hunt. They had faith formation that they had to go to so Sarah came and picked them up before the hunt was over. And although each of them manage to bag a gadwall each majority the birds came after they left.

Waterfowl Activity: probably 600 or so birds using this pothole. Guessing right around 300 of them were mallards and they were some really good looking drakes. Mallards really never came back. Seems like they’ve been coming back when it’s close to dark so I may need to hunt this place home first thing in the morning and stick it out till they come back

Waterfowl Responsiveness: I only used my call one time when there was a gadwall quacking after it landed on the other side the pothole. We talked back-and-forth a little bit and then she came over. Did not shoot her. Other than that just depended on the flock whether they came into the decoys or they landed 40 yards out of the decoys.

Hunters: Vinny, big D, and me

Guns: SX4s

Malfunctions: The Chessie was being a stubborn Chessie But at least he has not stop using his nose. He found one of my cripples from the other day in the cattails and Dominic’s gadwall in the cattails. He obviously needs more work and that’s my fault but his nose makes up the difference so I don’t mind so much.

Dog(s): Reaper

Special Equipment: none

Curses: huh??

Kudos: To Sarah for bringing Dominic out when he goes to school and picked Vinny and him up to bring them to Faith formation.

Birds By Species: 6 gaddies 2 mallards (I smoked a hen that was mixed in with some gadwall. 100% my fault but I did try to blame the kids for shooting it hahaha) 1 Cancan

Photo Ops:






Got a couple other hunts in that I did not do reports on. Here is a video from one of them. Missed this Drake with the first shot definitely hit him with the second shot, third shot I figured sealed the deal. He landed belly up. I was getting reaper from his Blind and when I turned around the Drake was gone. Vinny was not watching it. Wasn’t sure if he dove which I’ve seen mallards do but not a lot. Figured he went into those cattails and sure enough after 10 or so minutes the boy came out with him.

Nice work by Reaper! Conservationist!

Forgot to mention that although I have been seeing snow geese in the air I saw the first birds on the ground today. Lots of gray in those birds. Obviously just a small sample size but if it’s an indication to what’s the come, it could be a good snow goose season!

PorkChop,
I do enjoy the adventures of You, Reaper and Vinny Quack...

Great report and video PC!!!!!!

PorkChop wrote: Wasn’t sure if he dove which I’ve seen mallards do but not a lot. Figured he went into those cattails and sure enough after 10 or so minutes the boy came out with him.

That is such a good feeling when they exit the brush with a mouth full.

DComeaux wrote:

PorkChop wrote: Wasn’t sure if he dove which I’ve seen mallards do but not a lot. Figured he went into those cattails and sure enough after 10 or so minutes the boy came out with him.

That is such a good feeling when they exit the brush with a mouth full.

100% truth and I was also getting worried because I could not hear him swimming around in there.

Date: 30 Sep 22

Time: afternoon

Location: ND

Cloud Cover: yup but thin and sun was poking through enough to make identifying birds hard

Wind Direction and Velocity: NE at 18ish

Temperature: 72

Moon phase: a little more showing

Special Notes: I am seriously just so happy. I don’t know what to say but for whatever reason this hunting season has filled my heart with tremendous joy. Probably because my wife has been able to go out this year. She went a lot when we first started dating and got married but as the kids came it just didn’t work out. Dominic decided he did not want to go so she came along with two of our girls. Like I said I’m just happy I feel very calm! Was hard to see the birds because we had to face the sun. Thankfully the thin layer of clouds helped. Just the layout of the field we were not able to set the blinds a different way.

Waterfowl Activity: I realize cranes aren’t considered Waterfowl but they were already in the field next to ours and so they flew off when we drove in. Lots of small bunches of ducks mostly Pintails. Had a loan Specklebelly cup in even with a Spinners going. It had a leg hanging but can’t shoot them after 2 o’clock. He never made a peep. Could hear a few honkers here and there. Then about an hour before sunset the cranes really started migrating in. It was pretty cool!

Waterfowl Responsiveness: I actually blew the call quite a bit tonight and they came. Mostly Pintails. My calling really sucks

Hunters: Sarah and I

Guns: SX4s

Malfunctions: Everything was good

Dog(s): Reaper And he actually did very good tonight.

Special Equipment: Three spinners

Curses: No such thing

Kudos: to Sarah as besides the crane hunt the other day she has not shot in years and she shot her first pintail today and she got that on the second shot. First shot was really close. Then she got a greenhead with her first shot. As a sidenote I remember one early season we went goose hunting. It was her, two other guys and myself. I said she doesn’t get the hunt very much anymore so first flock of geese that come in she gets to shoot first. A pair of honkers come in and I called the shot way too late. They were at about 10 yards or less. She popped up and drop them both. It was amazing and those were the only two birds that came in.

Birds By Species: we shot two pintails and two green heads. As a sidenote we had a blue wing teal buzz the decoys that I was not ready for and then I went for a quick walk and flushed two other blue wings that I was not ready for.

Photo Ops:

Pintails





I spotted this guy on the first pass. Very very very rare to see that tail this time of year. Took four or five more passes before I was able to get a shot. Then I almost blew it at the angle I chose to shoot but I got him!



Double trouble with our birds



Typical Drake for this time of year and the rarity

PorkChop wrote: Mostly Pintails. My calling really sucks

Having heard hen pintails squack, I'd guess you were in fine company.

Love seeing that.

Really nice to read someone being happy and enjoying what we all love to do. As a group were bad about seeing the negative and being a grumpy lot. Glad you’re able to enjoy it with your family PC!

Duck Engr wrote:Really nice to read someone being happy and enjoying what we all love to do. As a group were bad about seeing the negative and being a grumpy lot. Glad you’re able to enjoy it with your family PC!

It's true.
Over and over again at pretty much every WMA I use the brotherhood exists but it does need cultivating or pruning from time to time. Bayou Meto is possibly the grumpiest most stressful one I've used. Rainy Brake will drive most people bonkers. They hunt right on top of each other. Parties that are 100 yards apart happens.

Great report PC, and glad you made it a family affair!!!!!

PorkChop wrote:Date: 25 Sep 22

Time: morning

Location: ND

Cloud Cover: a little

Wind Direction and Velocity: WNW at about 15 MPH

Temperature: 43°

Moon phase: Didn’t see the moon

Special Notes: drove into the field wrong and all the cranes got up and were flying around in the dark

Waterfowl Activity: mostly cranes, a few honkers, couple flocks of ducks, and saw three and heard a fourth flock of Snowgeese.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Pretty responsive

Hunters: Vinny Quack and I

Guns: SX4

Malfunctions: Our shooting abilities

Dog(s): Reaper

Special Equipment: Actually put up the spinners and wasn’t a winner

Curses: no such thing

Kudos: none deserved

Birds By Species: just killed cranes. Mostly saw Pintail ‘s. Wiffed the green heads we saw

Photo Ops:

96B6F750-80D6-4662-AD46-89A9F214E4EF.jpeg

I honestly have never seen a crane run before but this sucker could run like a giant rooster. Reaper chased him and then he started chasing Reaper. It was quite the thing to watch. Wish I would’ve filmed it instead of snapping pictures.

DE0BB01F-35D2-4A52-A2AD-261BD679FEA4.jpeg

80DC8BAF-D130-41F6-8DC7-22F2D69F8217.jpeg

5AAF30BC-BAB1-4991-BDA2-49D5E1D33F22.jpeg

About that no moon thing.
Not sure but I think it sets early in September and October.
In January im cursung the moon. The birds fly back to refuge under moonlit sky and I'm fucked.

Porkchop earlier in a post I named names, I shouldn't have done that because I left out Sarah, and double trouble.... That picture of double trouble above, is just special in my book, thanks for posting it...

Haha you can name names