Went out duck hunting for the first time in my life Saturday morning after a buddy of mine prodded me to go. I haven't done any real wingshooting (skeet, trap, or hunting) for at least 5 years, so I wasn't too excited about my chances. It was a real gamble because I paid the heavy hit for an Iowa (out-of-state in my case) tag set not knowing what I was getting myself into. My buddy promised me he had a good spot, so I trusted his scouting. We were in place by 5:00 AM and legal shooting started at 6:35 AM. A late sunrise due to cloud cover made for a late start to the bird movement, but the shooting got going all at once.

Well, whatdya know? I limited out that morning - 6 downed, lost two of them in the muck, but still came home with 4 quackers.





I might have to try this again, although I learned a few things about this sport:

1) I won't take the luster off the "limiting out" factor, but I also won't tell you how many shells it took to do that.

2) A dog is literally your best friend out here. A fella with two black labs saved me from losing two more ducks when one landed seemingly in front of me but I couldn't find it and the other fell into tall grass that was well over my head.

3) On opening day, leave the calls at home. There was so much action from people flushing birds to each other, there was no time to fart around with a call!

4) It sounded like World War III out there.

All in all, it was a blast, and it was certainly a positive first-time waterfowling experience.

Nice mixed bag Luis, congrats! We usually have Bluewing Teal (females and juveniles only in the early September season) and Wood Ducks. On rare occasions we'll get Greenwing females.
GH, David

David -

Thanks a lot. It was a great intro to the watefowl world, for sure. Lot and lots of ducks, so skill was optional (which is a good thing in my case).

You're not the first one to tell me that getting a green wing is a rare treat this time of year. I had no idea what I was bagging , so I relied on the guys with me to keep my species limits in check. They told me, just like you said, that getting a green wing this time of year is not common. Beginner's luck, I guess.

Your welcome Luis, typically, male Bluewing's won't come down until next month, when the temps start getting cooler than they like. We miss their migration during the Sept early season. Same with the Greenwing females; usually behind the BW females and young of the year. Thus, it's a treat to get an early GW female. Those GW males usually won't come down until it's really cold. Although they can show up earlier in AR and LA, it's normally cold before we see them. Again, the GW females are generally behind the BW females. Glad you had a great hunt. Now watch out or you may wind up with the waterfowl bug!
Good hunting,
David

I'm already in trouble, David. I already bought a mid-priced call and starting thinking about whether or not a mojo duck would be a good investment for when the birds require a little more coaxing. I'm headed down a slippery slope, I tell ya...that was just too much fun.

Welcome to the world of waterfowling. You'll never again be happy unless your wet, and your feet are cold.

Boy, oh boy. This waterbird business is fun, but nothing will spoil your fun like what happened yesterday evening.

Went out with a friend to a new marsh to try for some ducks. Had a good time, shot some birds. When we got back to the parking area, some meth heads broke into my friend's truck and the only two other vehicles parked there. I got lucky in that all of my stuff was on me when we waded out, but my buddy wasn't as lucky. All of the trucks had been gone through and two of the three (my buddy's included) had the passenger window smashed out and the radios stolen. Other stuff that walked: ammo, hutning clothes, a marine CB radio (from the other truck), bandolier, etc.

Thinking back, two guys showed up to the parking area just before we waded out, neither in hunting clothes and neither said they were hunting. They were just "there." That should've been a big red flag, but hindsight in 20/20 I'm 95% certain these were the eventual thieves.

Wow That takes some Steel cohonah's to break into a vehicle of people you know are armed! Too bad those things go on,

Yes waterfowling gets addicting!,...get a waterfowl ID book and learn your bird ID getting a ticket for being over your species bag limit is another way to turn a good day bad!

Nice....love early teal season!

Oh, and about the thieves......they deserve to die if they were over 21. The only satisfaction is knowing they already live extremely scummy lives.

quote:

Originally posted by Big Bird:
Wow That takes some Steel cohonah's to break into a vehicle of people you know are armed! Too bad those things go on,

Yes waterfowling gets addicting!,...get a waterfowl ID book and learn your bird ID getting a ticket for being over your species bag limit is another way to turn a good day bad!

Yeah, you would think they would be afraid to try this, but they clearly had a system down and had done this before. They waited until they heard the shooting start before they do there thing. Once you are out in the middle of this marsh where there's open water, it's gonna be at least 20-30 minutes to wade back out of there. Once you're out there, barring the state troopers driving by, the vehicle are at their mercy.

I'm not going into what I would love to do if we caught them in the act. Some things are better left unsaid.

As for the bird ID thing: yes, I am always nervous about what I'm about to shoot when the totals start adding up for each species. I have been studying all of the ducks listed in the Nebraska reg book, not just the expected season birds to avoid a possible run-in with the ol' game warden.

quote:

Originally posted by Luis L.:
Went out duck hunting for the first time in my life Saturday morning after a buddy of mine prodded me to go...... A late sunrise due to cloud cover made for a late start to the bird movement, but the shooting got going all at once.

Well, whatdya know? I limited out that morning - 6 downed, lost two of them in the muck, but still came home with 4 quackers.
...

Just curious, was the legal limit 4 birds or 6?

The legal daily bag limit for ducks is 6, which was the total I know I shot. I wasn't going to blast more birds to make up for the fact that I lost two, hence why I walked with just my four. The only species-limited bird I shot was the wood duck (of which you can bag no more than 3 of either sex); I took just one.

Just for the sake of showing it, here's the direct quote pertaining to ducks from page 5 of the 2010-2011 Iowa migratory game bird hunting regulations:

http://www.iowadnr.gov/law/files/waterfowlregs.pdf

quote:

Bag Limits
Ducks: Daily limit is 6, including no more than 4 mallards (of which no more than 2 may be female), 3 wood ducks, 2 redheads, 2 scaup, 1 black duck, 2 pintail, 1 mottled duck and 1 canvasback.

We have both male and female teal here now. They both look like females because the males are in eclipse plumage till winter. You actually have two drake blue wing teal there. You can tell by the strong white stripe under the blue wing patch. Females will not have this pronounced line.

Bluewing teal are the second most common duck and one of the first to migrate each year.

thanks
224TTH

quote:

Originally posted by Luis L.:
The legal daily bag limit for ducks is 6, which was the total I know I shot. I wasn't going to blast more birds to make up for the fact that I lost two, ...

That was the right thing to do. Too many hunters think bag limits mean how critters you actually put in the bag. We have so many like that down here, they really hurt the future of hunting.

quote:

Originally posted by 224TTH:
We have both male and female teal here now. They both look like females because the males are in eclipse plumage till winter. You actually have two drake blue wing teal there. You can tell by the strong white stripe under the blue wing patch. Females will not have this pronounced line.

Bluewing teal are the second most common duck and one of the first to migrate each year.

thanks
224TTH

That's an awesome bit of info that I did not know. Much appreciated I was wondering if I had males or females there after my taxidermist and a few folks online mentioned that it's tough to tell them apart until the real cold hits and they are much further south.

quote:

Originally posted by The Shottist:
That was the right thing to do. Too many hunters think bag limits mean how critters you actually put in the bag. We have so many like that down here, they really hurt the future of hunting.

Thanks a lot. The way I see it, what you mentioned about people just shooting until they can fill their bag probably also keeps everybody's potential bag limit lower. After all, when they do the harvest surveys and compare notes with the population samples to make the game laws, birds that get shot but not taken certainly must show up in the numbers game. You have to figure this gets factored into the harvest limits.

Well Done!

quote:

Originally posted by CamoManJ:
Well Done!

Thanks very much!



Just a quick update: I just got this flying pair back from the taxidermist. I took my green wing teal hen, and what we now know is a blue wing teal drake in his eclipse color phase, and had them mounted to commemorate my first duck hunt. Sure, the males aren't in their boldest color phase yet, but it's the hunt that matters and I really had one of the most positive hunting experiences the day I shot these ducks. I couldn't be happier with how it turned out, save for the one flight feather I apparently blasted off the blue wing (I'm sure you can spot it).