buffleheads

D

Don Mintz

Active member
A drake bufflehead was the first diver I ever shot. Our view of waterfowl hunting when I was a kid was limited to puddlers and primarily mallards. When I shot my drake bufflehead, we weren't sure what it was other than a duck, dad called it a baldpate, we had never seen a wigeon at that point, so I just went with it till I could investigate a little more. I have a group of 6 in the works right now, but I've been working toward a 9 hens and 2 drakes for the upcoming season. I'm kind of kicking the idea around about the black line at the top of the flank and just leaving it all white, after all they are hunting decoys. They are just under a pound which will help with the 3 mile round trip to the blind.

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I took this photo on a hunt about 10 years ago and made note about how black the hens heads were compared to the plastic bufflehead I designed for Tanglefree. I did design a hen bufflehead for them, but they never put it into production, so I flocked and painted 9 hens. The duck on the far right is a second year drake.
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I make my buffleheads small and they are still much larger than the real birds. I see yours are much bigger than real ones. Debating reducing my teal and buff patterns by 1/4". They seem to decoy and swim right up to bigger decoys. Don't think the ducks care for the disproportionate size.
 
Don Mintz said:
A drake bufflehead was the first diver I ever shot. Our view of waterfowl hunting when I was a kid was limited to puddlers and primarily mallards. When I shot my drake bufflehead, we weren't sure what it was other than a duck, dad called it a baldpate, we had never seen a wigeon at that point, so I just went with it till I could investigate a little more. I have a group of 6 in the works right now, but I've been working toward a 9 hens and 2 drakes for the upcoming season. I'm kind of kicking the idea around about the black line at the top of the flank and just leaving it all white, after all they are hunting decoys. They are just under a pound which will help with the 3 mile round trip to the blind.

View attachment 75273View attachment 75274

I took this photo on a hunt about 10 years ago and made note about how black the hens heads were compared to the plastic bufflehead I designed for Tanglefree. I did design a hen bufflehead for them, but they never put it into production, so I flocked and painted 9 hens. The duck on the far right is a second year drake.
View attachment 75275
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Don,
I see green, blue, a maroon, and green added in the head of the drake (in that pattern from bill to rear of head). That is pretty genius in regard to the speculum that comes off these birds heads when the sun hits it.

Whats everyones thoughts on if birds see this or not? We know theres some color changing that happens in feathers. We, as humans, all see it... but curious if birds pick up on that as well?
 
My recollection is that research Indicates that they do see these colors. Maybe not exactly as we see them. Hens appear to key in on colors, brightness and contrast as indicators of fitness in males.
 
William Reinicke said:
Don,
I see green, blue, a maroon, and green added in the head of the drake (in that pattern from bill to rear of head). That is pretty genius in regard to the speculum that comes off these birds heads when the sun hits it.

Whats everyones thoughts on if birds see this or not? We know theres some color changing that happens in feathers. We, as humans, all see it... but curious if birds pick up on that as well?
Click to expand...
It doesn't show well in the picture and is fairly subtle in hand too but there is some green and crimson highlights on the heads of mine as well. I try not to go too overboard with stuff like that as to not make them too gaudy but I think it helps give the decoy a little pop where it would've been plain.

Do I think birds see it? Sure or it wouldn't exist. I doubt it makes much difference in a gunning situation but I like the way it looks.
 
a bufflehead drake has a big range of color on their heads. The paint scheme started with blue, then red, and green. As you know you've got to cover the black twice to see any color at all over flocking and there is no maroon/purple, that's just a blend of red and blue individually on the black. You can't mix purple with oil based enamels, at least I haven't seen it in a durable, airbrushable paint. When you mix red and blue rustoleum you get a pink mud, but if you pixel paint it you can get the purple/maroon. you can also get that purple painting over green.

I believe birds see all of the field markings and likely colors, it's just that some really don't care. Divers care a lot more than puddlers. Barrows goldeneye seem to be the most particular. I never killed a barrows before I had barrows decoys, now we routinely shoot barrows goldeneye. I hear everyone talking around here about how the barrows numbers are increasing, but that's not the case, they have always been here, we just never decoyed them. They certainly see something, maybe it's the blue/green/purple head, maybe it's the crescent moon on their face, maybe it's the spotted back, maybe it's the black back white flank. But they do notice something and pull a few "Gs" dumping in. What ducks see, who knows, but they see something otherwise everything would be a cross with something else.

It's really hard to say what ducks see and what they don't. A lot of science is based on assumption and bias and about the only thing I believe is the behavior I personally observe and given what I hear from others across the country and the differences from region to region, what's important in my stretch of the river might not be the same as in other parts of the country. Everything I learned about duck hunting in Eastern Kansas and Western Illinois had to be completely scrapped and reinvented here on the Snake River in Idaho. William, like you say, wigeon are easy in New Mexico, here they are super particular. If I had a wigeon hole like you do I'd have a freezer full of wigeon.

As far as color, when it comes to decoys I sell, I do the color, when it comes to the decoys I hunt over they stay black. I'm a big fan of black, then white, then contrast. All we hunt are divers, there are no mallards where we hunt and consequently no hunters to speak of. I fail to understand someone who goes to a spot like where I hunt and say there are no ducks as they watch 5000 divers a day trade up river and then back down. Mother Q never raised such a foolish child.
 
My first actual decoy was a bufflehead, didn't have any diving decoys but had a crab pot buoy, a chunk of balsa, wires from flags, and a dial rod that I drilled and put buckshot in. Decided to make something so I could hunt the river shore with more than teal, wood duck, and mallard decoys.

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And because it might get asked, the decoy in the background I did not carve. Bought from the bird store at OBX.
 
My first carved bird was a Buffy. #2 -#6 were buffies. My first six bird limit were buffies. One of my top ten hunts in my life was a 12 bird drake buffie hunt on Chesapeake bay with a friend over my six hand carved buffies. My son’s first duck was a buffie.

I dont shoot them anymore. But I sure used to enjoy them.
 

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Don Mintz said:
a bufflehead drake has a big range of color on their heads. The paint scheme started with blue, then red, and green. As you know you've got to cover the black twice to see any color at all over flocking and there is no maroon/purple, that's just a blend of red and blue individually on the black. You can't mix purple with oil based enamels, at least I haven't seen it in a durable, airbrushable paint. When you mix red and blue rustoleum you get a pink mud, but if you pixel paint it you can get the purple/maroon. you can also get that purple painting over green.

I believe birds see all of the field markings and likely colors, it's just that some really don't care. Divers care a lot more than puddlers. Barrows goldeneye seem to be the most particular. I never killed a barrows before I had barrows decoys, now we routinely shoot barrows goldeneye. I hear everyone talking around here about how the barrows numbers are increasing, but that's not the case, they have always been here, we just never decoyed them. They certainly see something, maybe it's the blue/green/purple head, maybe it's the crescent moon on their face, maybe it's the spotted back, maybe it's the black back white flank. But they do notice something and pull a few "Gs" dumping in. What ducks see, who knows, but they see something otherwise everything would be a cross with something else.

It's really hard to say what ducks see and what they don't. A lot of science is based on assumption and bias and about the only thing I believe is the behavior I personally observe and given what I hear from others across the country and the differences from region to region, what's important in my stretch of the river might not be the same as in other parts of the country. Everything I learned about duck hunting in Eastern Kansas and Western Illinois had to be completely scrapped and reinvented here on the Snake River in Idaho. William, like you say, wigeon are easy in New Mexico, here they are super particular. If I had a wigeon hole like you do I'd have a freezer full of wigeon.

As far as color, when it comes to decoys I sell, I do the color, when it comes to the decoys I hunt over they stay black. I'm a big fan of black, then white, then contrast. All we hunt are divers, there are no mallards where we hunt and consequently no hunters to speak of. I fail to understand someone who goes to a spot like where I hunt and say there are no ducks as they watch 5000 divers a day trade up river and then back down. Mother Q never raised such a foolish child.
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Don et al~

First, let me say I love those Buffleheads! I meant to comment as soon as I saw them. We never shot many - we call them Butterball on Great South Bay - but I have always admired their beauty. When I was kindergarten age, my Dad had brought a drake home - and left it on the tail of a flatbed trailer we owned at the time (built on a Ford Model A chassis, I believe). He taught me to always take care of the birds - and to study and appreciate each one. The iridescence on the head remains vivid in this old brain.

I have never carved a Butterball gunner, but I did develop paint charts for the species. As with its bigger cousin the Whistler, actual gunning decoys were always just black and white (just as drake Broadbill heads were plain black). However, here is how I broke down the spectrum of colors to help others paint their gunning stool.

sm Bufflehead Drake - BEHR PAINTS.jpg

The Missus (no idea why the photo has been spun clockwise....)

sm Bufflehead Hen - BEHR PAINTS.jpg

I have carved several mantelpiece Butterball drakes.....always hollow Pine.

Bufflehead - Pember.jpg

All the best,

SJS
 
Your paint schemes are a valuable asset to us all. I have an 11 year old grandson that went with us this year and he did just what I hoped he would, he cherished the ducks we shot, inspecting them commenting on their color and the shape of the bills. I think he was more impressed with a 2nd year drake bufflehead than he was with some of our big drake goldeneyes. He wanted to take home three species, bluebill, goldeneye and bufflehead to see what the differences were in their taste. I wasn't much older than him when I started trying to make head mounts with some of the birds we shot. He is super inquisitive and a very good artist. I have no doubt he will be involved in making and or painting decoys in the future.
 
Don~

Great news about that grandson! Please give my best to him. My grandson lives in Germany. He'll be 9 next Fall - and loves everything about the natural world. We are looking to his visit this Summer.

All the best,

SJS
 
Don Mintz said:
excellent Matt. I really need to make a flyer bufflehead, my wife will likely say as she usually does on stuff like that, "where are you going to put that thing. My response is usually "apparently in someone else's house".
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My wife's normal response is "when are you going to make something for us to keep"

I just like making things and giving them to friends and family, hard to sometimes sit down and do one for myself.
 
I wished I got that response from my wife. Once in a great while she will latch on to something. I think she's just around my stuff so much that she's no impressed anymore. Most of the time she doesn't even know what I'm making at the time. Any carvings we have are because I refused to sell them and most of those sit in my studio. However last week my cousin sent me a carving that was in my aunt's house that I made in 1994, my wife actually put it up in the living room, that makes 4 carvings in the living room, at least until the furniture changes and seasonal decor comes out, then my stuff gets poked in a hole, sometimes permanently.

I need to put a safety harness on this guy and get that bowstring redone. Pretty amazing to ship it up here from Kansas and only have the bow string broken and one ear off the deer.

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