Sometimes Being Wrong is Good (12/22/10 Duck Hunt)

Afternoon hunts appeal to me for a couple of reasons.  First, I don't have to get up at 3:00 am and rush to get a good spot to hunt.  Second, not many people duck hunt in the afternoon.  Many times, the afternoon is not as productive as the morning, but having the river to yourself is rather nice.

This afternoon, I headed to Finley with Eric's Marsh Rat boat in the back of my truck.  What a great tool.  Low profile, stable and light.  When I got to the river, I immediately went to the bank to survey the best spot to set up.  What I saw was a large raft of birds directly in front of where I wanted to be.  Since I had Eric's boat, I decided to put a sneak attack on first thing.  I paddled up river from the raft and hoped to slowly drift back downriver until the birds were within range.  It didn't quite work out that way.  As I got close, the birds simply swam the other way.

I went back to shore to set up.  After that, I sat for quite some time.  Eventually, a pair of mallards worked their way overhead and I shot the drake.  He landed with a thud on the other side of a little bay.  After getting him, I sat back down and reloaded my gun.  I sat for another hour or so watching ducks land in the big raft in front of me.  In the distance, I saw a pair of birds fluttering around like they were unsure where they wanted to be.  I hit the call and pulled the flutter wing string.  They decided they wanted to be in my decoys.  With three shots, I put both birds in the water.  With multiple birds flying, I hurried out in Eric's boat to get them.  I quickly looked at them, decided they were a pair of bluebills and threw them into the boat and paddled back.  No more ducks came near me so I picked up and went home. 

As I was readying to clean the ducks, I looked at the drake a little closer.  This did not look like any bluebill I had ever seen.  There was much too distinctive of a pattern on his bill.  I did a little research and arrived at the conclusion that it may be a ring-necked duck.  Not being terribly great at identifying unusual birds, I took a picture with my phone and sent it to Eric.  He confirmed it was, indeed a ring-necked duck.

Another unusual bird.  I have shot more unusual birds this year than in the past.  I have mentioned it before, but one of my favorite things about duck hunting is that you never know what you will bring home.  Sure, I love shooting the big mallards, but I really enjoy the unusual ones too.  This time, my initial identification of the birds was wrong and I am glad I was.