Searching for Water

[PorkChop]

Still seeing plenty of duck families. Unfortunately we are drying fast and many of these birds are walking around searching for water. This hen kept on flying around to different patches of cattails. She would land, spend a minute or two there and then get up and start flying around again. Tried sticking around to see if she would eventually reunite with the ducklings but I had to get going. Never saw a hen do this before but have always suspected that they do this maybe it was just coincidental or maybe this time of year when I see a single hen flying around she is searching for a safe place. I know other animals abandon their young. Maybe one of you more knowledgeable guys can confirm or deny. So plenty of new birds but I’m guessing they are easy pickings right now for predators especially raptors! She ended up having 9 ducklings. Praying for rain!!

[5 stand]

Pretty cool, PorkChop
Mama duck doing what Mama ducks do...

[DComeaux]

Good to see.

[Rick]

Gal who pretty much ran our area's banding parties used to liken the birds' situation to ours if abducted by humongous aliens, which came to mind when you told the wee ones they could calm down, you'd not hurt them in a language they couldn't know. (Not that I don't talk to all sorts of animals, too.)

[Deltaman]

Cool video PC

[Darren]

Thanks a lot for sharing, so rare for us to see what it really looks like up there. I'd have been talking to them the same way

Any chance you could give us a reference remotely nearby town or county?

[PorkChop]

Gal who pretty much ran our area's banding parties used to liken the birds' situation to ours if abducted by humongous aliens, which came to mind when you told the wee ones they could calm down, you'd not hurt them in a language they couldn't know. (Not that I don't talk to all sorts of animals, too.)

After I was done making the crappy video I broke out my Primos and started to speak their language. We had quite the conversation

[don novicki]

Great video, thanks for posting up. I wish I could send you some of our rain. We've had plenty here.

[PorkChop]

Thanks a lot for sharing, so rare for us to see what it really looks like up there. I'd have been talking to them the same way

Any chance you could give us a reference remotely nearby town or county?

These oil wells that I was checking are approximately 8 miles north of Tolley North Dakota

[PorkChop]

Great video, thanks for posting up. I wish I could send you some of our rain. We've had plenty here.

Please do! My wife got to Wisconsin yesterday as my daughter is moving to Omaha from there and they had some pretty good rain yesterday evening. We definitely need it here in these parts.

[Darren]

Thanks a lot !

[SpinnerMan]

Tried sticking around to see if she would eventually reunite with the ducklings

I would guess so, but no idea.

For some reason this made me think of the hen that nested under my air conditioner a number of years back. My dog had to have knee surgery so she was never allowed out except while on leash. While she was not running free in the back yard, momma duck decided to nest under my AC. So the dog had to stay on the leash a little longer than planned. What really surprised me is I have a solid fence with almost no gaps big enough for a baby duck to get through. I figured I'd have to herd the family out the gate when the time came. Got up one morning and checked the nest, all gone and not a single duckling in the back yard. Somehow momma hopped over the fence and coaxed all the little ones threw. There was one small gap by the gate which I'm guessing is where they went through. I would have liked to have seen that. I was really shocked that not only did some of them get out, but all of them.

We had our blind drawing the other week. We have a set rotation. Opening week you have one blind, next week everybody rotates and you have a different blind for the second and so on. Your opening week blind, you are responsible for getting it ready for the season. We got my first choice for starting blind My arms are pretty well covered in poison ivy, but the brush is cleared so we can actually see the water from the blind where we need to. I had this blind last year to start as well. After 2 years of hard work, I really like how the area around the blind looks. Now my blind partner needs to go out and get grass to cover the opening and I'll pick up a truckload of willows to brush it in and we'll be good to go. But no rush, we're still almost 3 months from opening day.

Been seeing woodies and a few mallards every time out, so hopefully that bodes well. Caught a pretty decent bass after I finished up yesterday. Then I put my buzzbait into the bushes across the small channel on the left side and since I didn't bring any additional baits with me or oars, so I called it an evening. I'll retreive my buzzbait next time I'm out there unless someone else notices hanging there first.

[PorkChop]

Cool story on the ducklings in your backyard. Also congratulations on the blind! Would love to catch a largemouth bass it’s been years!

[SpinnerMan]

Would love to catch a largemouth bass it’s been years!

If you look at my logs for September, most years I catch more largemouths than I shoot geese. Most. We're feast or famine in September. I really enjoy doing that and don't know why I didn't think of it years earlier. In September I hunt in areas on the edge of lakes that we specifically cleared and do our best to look like nearby golf courses and neighborhood retention ponds. I get there early, set out my decoys then fish to the sun comes up. I probably average 2 or 3 bass each morning before I start goose hunting. When the geese just aren't flying, I'll sling my gun over my shoulder and keep on fishing. I've actually yet to need the gun when I do that. I guess I know they aren't flying. The hunting is a little better at Blind 15, but the fishing is better at Blind 22. I usually pick 22 if I have my choice

[Rick]

The hunting is a little better at Blind 15, but the fishing is better at Blind 22.

Spot burner.