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Duck Engr wrote:That’s the only kind of deer hunting I do anymore. “Incidental”.

It's all I did until the old lady died. Her garage was right across the corner from the county park.
Just sit there with door cracked a little and wait.

Kicked around a marsh hunt for tomorrow morning but just not in love with the conditions to warrant the effort it would take to make it happen. Light winds, warm, could be pouring, need little more of a wind shakeup to get me motivated down there, and another day in wouldn't hurt my ongoing recovery.

'Twas a wonderful Thanksgiving day, so much to be thankful for. Will give my health another couple of days.

Sun. 11/27/22
Delacroix
Johnny and I with Harry
Winds SSW to WSW 10+ down to almost nothing then thankfully back to fairly strong, 50s, clear skies

Hoped the sunshine would have things stirring after a few days of nasty weather, and thought the extremely rare pair of woodies in the decoys before LST would be a good omen. Indeed it seemed about every critter in the marsh with wings was out stretching them today. Saw good many grays though they were already mid-season skittish, and the mottleds seemed particularly frisky. Could hear them calling all around us much of morning and got our allotted two. Wind direction had the grays working over our backs on some tough ops, didn’t put them down as well as we should have, and too many I had go to hunt up with Harry in the marsh.

(11) 9 grays, 2 mottleds





12th bird was downed but true to the morning’s standard, chipped and behind blind in the 5 ft grass and broken marsh. Long search was to no avail. Don’t think we saw a single teal today.

Sounds like a good morning...

You got your grays back. Has to have put a smile on your face.

Awesome!

Duck Engr wrote:You got your grays back. Has to have put a smile on your face.

We're seeing fair many, good bit more today out and about compared to Tuesday. True to typical grays, some dive on in, some circle 4 times then move on to then circle what I know to be live birds on a nearby pond......8 times, then still move on.

Worth noting we also gave a pass to the season's first visiting bufflehead this morning sitting in the decoys. And to not really a surprise given the fair weather and light winds of the morning up that way, the bunkie field blind scratched. Eyeing weather mid week to maybe go give it a shot.

Great pic of the mottled in the sun.

Bud wrote:Great pic of the mottled in the sun.

X2!

Great hunt Darren, and glad that your health is improving

Wednesday 11/30/2022
Bunkie area farm
David B and I with Harry
Frontal passage overnight, temps falling, heavy clouds then cleared around 7:00a, rippin winds West to NW, 60s to 50s

Favorite weather condition for the field and sure enough it produced early before the skies cleared and flight shut off like a switch at 7:00a. Had nice flights early that were working us just beautifully, ate up the call. Not a lot of ops, but made good with three bunches that finished nicely of both flavor teal and spoons, picked off a few singles and let couple others get out. When it stopped at 7:00a, didn’t see another duck while packing up and leaving by about 8:00a.

(11) 4 GW teal, 2 BW teal, 4 spoons, 1 mallard







Really enjoyable 40 minutes of action, great morning all around with a buddy. Back at the office for 11a. Heading to the marsh for Saturday but wondering if the gnats might run us in. Not much wind and temps will be rebounding quick behind this little front.

Early action, pretty mess of birds, and in the office by 11:00 ......nice!!!!

Sat 12/3/2022
Delacroix
Johnny, Matthew M and I with Harry
Warm, 60s to start, no wind at all first half of hunt but eventually 5-10 southerly, moderate fog for boat ride but glad to find it only light at the pond


Fog navigation is always dicey but was thankfully uneventful thanks to electronics. Dead to start but could plainly hear grays in the area sitting. Sure enough eventually a couple hundred got up and that got us started on what ended up being sporadic flights well into the late morning. Shot well early but not so much later, cost us what should have been enough for full limits. Given the conditions, though, and hearing how others did, we weren’t complaining. Had plenty opportunity to bulk strap with dos gris/scaup but gave them all a pass.

(12) 11 grays, 1 mottled





Enjoyed Matthew’s visit, same Matthew M I first brought on youth hunts and sporadically thereafter. We were also blessed with no gnats to contend with. Really nice morning where we just kept waiting them out and got to see quite a lot of grays do some really pretty flying out and about. Hoping they stay cozy out there until we open back up for 2nd split.

Good Job D

Sun 12/4/2022
Bunkie area farm
Johnny and I with Harry
Weak frontal passage but surprisingly nice north winds 5-10+, 50s, heavy clouds

Lucked out with decent north winds despite predicted weak ones. After what was reported to be a dead area yesterday, there was a whole lot of shooting all around us today in about every direction. Unfortunately the vast majority of the flight was off of us today, just not the usual pattern despite seeing quite a few birds. A buddy on far end of farm from us had an easy 3 man limit, said the teal were in his decoys as he picked up the spinners, while we didn’t work a single bunch of teal.(and what I thought to be our first bunch of them turned into wood ducks when they got close). And boy did they work pretty, should have had a couple more. Picked it up early for prior commitments, today was lagniappe anyway for us, wanted to come get the bike to bring home for the break.

(5) 2 woodies, 1 BWT, 1 GWT, 1 shovel duck

I like that term, shovel duck. Makes them seem more elegant than “spoony”

Nioce hunts!

Duck Engr wrote:I like that term, shovel duck. Makes them seem more elegant than “spoony”

Smilin mallard.
Knew right away our club was a joke when the head jokers named it that.

Matthew's first gray with me, youth hunt 2011

Great reports Darren, and glad to see your mentoring paid off as well!!!!

Wrapping up our first split yesterday, compiled species numbers this morning that wasn't all too difficult given limited variety.

33 grays
32 GW teal
24 BW teal
17 spoonies
1 pintail
1 mallard
2 woodies
3 mottleds

113 ducks total on 8 hunts


Though the sum of 113 for the 1st split is but third highest overall on the log, it's worth pointing out that both of the two first splits with higher sums came on significantly more hunts, 13 and 12 respectively, in fact. So with that in mind, it stands to reason that this one appears to be the most productive first split of my log spanning now 21 seasons. Illness cost me a hunt or two but I'm back in action and been making good on my promise to get after them once I could. Been really nice to enjoy the fruits of our hard work on the new marsh blind build, its hunting beautifully. We look forward to the 2nd split opener on the 17th.

Awesome work Darren. Big drought and some early cold and boom, record first split.

I’m lagging way behind and not optimistic about the second split. We’ll see.

Really should have noted that of the collection of harvested teal, green wings especially, NONE have come from our marsh hunting. which is very unusual. I think I may have seen our first bunch of GWT on Saturday morning but didn't give us a pass and was busy with the grays at the time. Sure hoping to see a few in 2nd split.

Time to crank up the weather machine. We need a plunge or two!

Duck Engr wrote:Awesome work Darren. Big drought and some early cold and boom, record first split.

But with record low aerial survey to start the season, despite factors you noted above. Goes to show.....we don't even know what all we don't know about the birds, their migration patterns and habitat choices, timing, etc.

Darren wrote:

Duck Engr wrote:Awesome work Darren. Big drought and some early cold and boom, record first split.

But with record low aerial survey to start the season, despite factors you noted above. Goes to show.....we don't even know what all we don't know about the birds, their migration patterns and habitat choices, timing, etc.

It used for be simple. Fall came and every inch of tillable ground was plowed under. No food meant they gotta go south and that's not even a thing anymore...a plow.
Do I need to go videotape an east central illinoiz cornfield?
It'll piss you off.

Darren wrote:

Duck Engr wrote:Awesome work Darren. Big drought and some early cold and boom, record first split.

But with record low aerial survey to start the season, despite factors you noted above. Goes to show.....we don't even know what all we don't know about the birds, their migration patterns and habitat choices, timing, etc.

Timing, location, and luck will always play a part of the equation. You did good!

All went to plan in todays mid-day heavy brush gathering effort until we got within eye sight of the pond and saw all the little feathered heads in it. Opted to leave brush staged nearby and ease out. They still bumped but went down all around our area just as they were doing on the previous trip on closing Saturday. TBD whether they show tomorrow but sure were there today.

On way back to launch finally saw some impressive wads of green wings in broken marsh and far more grays than we’d been seeing along those travels in first split.

Good luck all, we’ll go see

Sleep well...
Don't be dreaming about all them Gray Ducks you're going to kill tomorrow...