Season Log 2024-2025

[Rick]

Date: 12/7 Sat

Time: morning

Location: #3 and Neal's

Cloud Cover: cloudy with a bit of rain

Wind Direction and Velocity: fairly strong easterly

Temperature: 40s

Moon phase: ?

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Absolutely dead at my blind aside from the occasional jack passing way up or out and a pair of spoons that buzzed us. Went to Neal's at 8 and were covered up with black-bellies, and real ducks were plentiful - but too smart to finish for a fellow who refused to try hiding.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Thankful for gullible black-bellies that came to chatter, regardless, and a few little ducks that buzzed too close.

Hunters: 2, Glad (his real name that fit - never quit smiling -and Andre the Giant's doppelganger) and Clarence who was nearly as tall and apparently thought we were playing an arcade game. (But was just as nice as Glad.) Both once-a-year hunters.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment:

Curses: Stayed caught by big ducks at Neal's.

Kudos: Good guys had a big time with the black-bellies.

Birds By Species: 12 black-bellies, 1 blue-wing, 4 ringnecks and 1 shoveller

[Duck Engr]

Glad some real ducks were at least stirring somewhere.

[Rick]

Glad some real ducks were at least stirring somewhere.

Wouldn't bet the front brought anything new but geese.

[Ericdc]

Would take something fierce to move them out of Arkansas and Louisiana's east zone with no hunting pressure since Sunday,


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[Rick]

Maybe so. Hoping this morning's 100% rain chance by LST will at least shuffle our local deck for what could be an otherwise unpleasant hunt.

[Rick]

Date: 12/8

Time: morning

Location: #3

Cloud Cover: heavy and, mostly, threatening rain

Wind Direction and Velocity: east shifting to SE moderate

Temperature: 40s?

Moon phase:

Special Notes: last morning of the first split

Waterfowl Activity: Still next to no big ducks seen but enough mostly jacks and squealers around for good shots to fill without moving.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Most black-bellies we saw were easily tolled as well as the few teal and our big ducks. Ringnecks were mostly targets of opportunity.

Hunters: 2, Taylor, who shot lights-out and Ned

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Call did a fine job of tracking down a chipped gray and a chipped shoveller.

Special Equipment: Dropped the MMM's trolling motor while trying to clear the trash in it.

Curses: Only the trouble caused by the above bobble.

Kudos: Nice guys hid and shot well and didn't have to move to fill on an easterly wind.

Birds By Species: 9 black-bellies, 1 gadwall, 2 green-wings, 1 pintail, 4 ringnecks and 1 shoveller

[Rick]

Black-belly fajitas for lunch reminded me that our changing waterfowl situation isn't all bad.

[Duck Engr]

Glass half full!

[Deltaman]

Great reports Rick, Thanks!

[DComeaux]

Black-belly fajitas for lunch reminded me that our changing waterfowl situation isn't all bad.

Yum.

[Bud]

Indeed. Thanks for all you do, Rick.

[Rick]

Really is my pleasure. Thanks for coming along. Helps keep me keeping up the log, which I never was very good at without public commitment..

[13051305]

Rick,
As others have said thanks for your daily log.
After years only being able to read I figured out the code to the login!
Looks like the blackbellys have replaced Mallard on common straps.On my stock ponds leases in central Texas I started to take some about 2011.
Myself and 9 other guys had a rent house in northern Tampa.Mexico where the blackbellys started to replace the blue and cinnamon, green wing Teal.
One afternoon I witnessed a roost on the San Juan river that had 3 to 5 thousand tree ducks... mostly blackbellys.The primary cash crop in our area was grain sorghum... Milo.

[Rick]

Ours are bulging with rice when they return from their nights in the fields. Scourge of the rice farmers at planting time.

[Rick]

Date: 12/21 Sat

Time: morning

Location: #3

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: ENE more moderate than strong

Temperature: 30s

Moon phase: big

Special Notes: second spit opener

Waterfowl Activity: Scads of teal and spoons, but little to none of anything else passed our corner.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Most everything withing earshot did as bid - or tried to.

Hunters: 2 hidh-schoolers with last name first names, Tilton and Baker

Guns:

Malfunctions: Tilton's Beretta wouldn't cycle until i oiled it.

Dog(s): Call had a really nice morning on cripples.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Just that T & B had a couple of the palest faces on the planet and weren't inclined to hide them - perhaps because they we preoccupied with a phone app providing math quizzes. "If Johnny gave Susie two of his five apples..." to the umpteenth degree.

Kudos: While somewhat befuddling to this old geeezer, they were really good kids who had a big time in their own fashion.

Birds By Species: 6 blue-wings, 6 green-wings, 2 pintails and 4 shovellers

[Duck Engr]

Sweet strap!

So wait, they were doing math problems on their phone, in a duck blind, for fun? I’m half your age, a “professional nerd” as I refer to myself, and that befuddles me as well.

[SpinnerMan]

So wait, they were doing math problems on their phone, in a duck blind, for fun? I’m half your age, a “professional nerd” as I refer to myself, and that befuddles me as well.

x2

Although I am not half Rick's age. Feel a lot closer to his age than I am the last couple months, but I am making progress on that.

[Rick]

Yeppers. "Never seen so many ducks in my life." one moment to "This should be a fun one" phone app math problems the next. Were the flight a little slower, they might have calculated the time required to make a lap around Orion in a Model T.

[Rick]

Date: 12/22 Sun

Time: morning

Location: #3

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: Too due east for my blind and moderate

Temperature: 30s

Moon phase: waning about half

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Yesterday's swarms of teal and spoons found somewhere else to be, and big ducks were even farther and fewer between.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Between our new and old, we did our best to run off what did come by before it could get killed.

Hunters: 2, August who had never hunted or shot before but just married their host's granddaughter and 80-something Mike, who'd been coming to CR since way back when he and its owner were married.

Guns:

Malfunctions: Though he'd made his literal first hunt yesterday, I still had to show August most everything about operating his new SBE

Dog(s): Call was our morning's shinning star who hunted down our mottled and mallard (as well as a chipped green-wing)

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Just that the lack of opportunity to work out August's struggles - and that he froze out an hour before curfew. (So much for the "I'm from Minnesota and used to real cold." I received when suggesting he button up for the ride to the blind.) Though, given our givens, quitting early may have been a blessing, I did feel sorry for our fish out of water.

Kudos: Beautiful morning with nice folks. And shortly after conversation on the topic, I got to show Mike how the CR mottleds he was convinced couldn't be called could be. Also kudos to Call who proved it was, indeed, a mottled and not some dumb Susie.

Birds By Species: 2 blue-wings, 1 gadwall, 2 green-wings, 1 mallard, 1 mottled, 1 ringneck, 2 shovellers and 1 wood duck

Photo Ops: Call with said evidence:

thumbnail_PXL_20241222_144335850.jpg

And with the only mallard killed in our marsh this morning:

thumbnail_PXL_20241222_132057737.jpg

[Duck Engr]

There’s been many a yankee underestimate how cold southern cold can be.

[SpinnerMan]

Nice variety.

There’s been many a yankee underestimate how cold southern cold can be.

Humidity makes it feel so much colder.

Something we get very little of when the temps dive well below freezing. Plus if he's not a hunter, does he spend hours out in the cold with little exertion, he probably has no clue how to dress.

[DComeaux]

Good to see the birds.

[Rick]

...Plus if he's not a hunter, does he spend hours out in the cold with little exertion, he probably has no clue how to dress.

Definitely not an outdoorsman, but had a new oil-cloth/waxed cotton shooting jacket with a new-to-me flap that could be buttoned around the front of his neck when the collar was turned up. Just not enough under it or, I'm guessing, heavy socks; "My feet are ice."

Very nice, polite young man, but odd in a Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper kind of way. During a lull in activity and conversation and as out of the blue as could be he blurted, "A horse walks into a bar, and the bartenders asks, 'Why the long face?'"

Am certain Mike was as surprised by that as I, and I broke the awkward silence that followed with "A dad joke." To which August responded, "It's the only one I know about horses." as though we'd been swapping jokes or talking horses. Odd duck, he.

[DComeaux]

Sheldon Cooper...I laughed...How awkward.

[Ericdc]

Bazinga


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[Darren]

To be able to have success with anyone who walks through the door versus chosen blind partners........

Quite a collection of characters coming in to the CR camp

[Rick]

To be able to have success with anyone who walks through the door versus chosen blind partners........

Have long maintained that there's not much to killing birds, but doing it with whoever comes through the camp door makes it sport.

[Rick]

Date: 12/23 Mon

Time: morning

Location: #3

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: moderate due easst

Temperature: 40s

Moon phase: 44% waning

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: True to what it's shown to date, #3 hates an east wind, as we saw very little of anything that wasn't way the hey out over the body.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Thankfully excellent, given guys who helped hide themselves. Speck couldn't have worked in prettier and fell so close to the blind that I "retrieved" it.

Hunters: 2, Wendel and Brian, big rice farmers hosted by our camp owner's mill

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): easy day for Call

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Only that it was so slow that they chose to pack up at 8:30, rather than wait out a few more big ducks or move to a squealer blind.

Kudos: Good guys who hid well and killed most everything that came by.

Birds By Species: 6 green-wings, 2 pintails, 1 ringneck, 1 shoveller and 1 speck

[DComeaux]

Nice hunt.

[Rick]

Date: 12/24 Tue

Time: morning

Location: #3

Cloud Cover: clear to partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: SE light to moderate and back

Temperature: cool

Moon phase: waning 35%

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Southerly tilt in wind direction showed us appreciably, if not "a lot," more opportunity, large and small, than yesterday's due east breeze.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: By and large, very good

Hunters: 2, old buddies and too rare recently play day partners Bobby and Roland

Guns:

Malfunctions: electric fuel pump's ground wire broke - super gluing wire to ground got us home

Dog(s): Call had an easy morning.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: None, thanks to the super glue I'd taken this morning to re-attach the spinners' toggle switch to its spot.

Kudos: Despite not hunting much in recent years, my buds shot much better than what I've grown accustomed to at CR..

Birds By Species: 2 blue-wings, 3 gadwall, 5 green-wings, 1 mallard, 1 pintail, 4 ringnecks, 1 scaup and 1 shoveller

Photo Ops: Bobby and Roland hunting like big shots:

thumbnail_PXL_20241224_154157713.jpg