Black Belly Whistling Ducks in Mobile, AL!

Carl

Carl

Well-known member
Staff member
Sat in the truck along the HWY 98 Causeway across Mobile Bay this morning and watched 8 Blackbellies feeding on rye grass seed tops!
They werent too concerned about me or the traffic or the fishermen in the area.
Called our waterfowl biologist & he came down with a good camera and got some photos.
From what he said, they had been spotted a week or so ago but this is the first time they have gotten pictures.
I will post some pics as soon as he sends them to me.
 
How neat is that??? Better watch out, before long y'all will be inundated with black bellies out the wazoo...

pretty little buggers for sure...

Hugs
 
Wouldnt mind if they took up residence & started multiplying!

Have you taken any down in FL? These sure didnt seem very wary, just sat they & watched us from 10' away.
 
Yup I've taken some down in FL. And they've even started moving up here to N FL so they are actually breeding and establishing areas that they are living in. They breed like rabbits apparently b/c our population quickly exploded with these birds. They can be very wary, but then very dumb too. Most often I see them flying over us above any shotgun range, heading for places unknown to me, about ten minutes prior to legal...

Dani
 
Carl,

I'm a little surprised that you are just now seeing them. Guys were shooting them in South Central Louisiana below Alexandria 25 + years ago. I knew one Cajun who raided a colony of them during nesting and raised quite a few of them from eggs. He'd chase them around in the pen and feed them all kinds of junk. Then in the fall he did the deed and slaughtered them all. Found so litttle meat on them they all wasted.
But really, lots of them for many years in LA. so if theynare also in Florida they should be nearby in So. Alabama too. At least you'd think they should.
 
every Whistling Duck I ever shot had an EXCELLENT breast, both in size and wt, that was THE BEST eating waterfowl, short of a Brant on Eel Grass, I've ever eaten.....and the thighs and drumsticks.....yummmmmmm....the only thighs that I never don't take when I clean a bird.....

So I'm surprised that the local Coon Asses found them "lacking"......

Steve
 
As far as I know, this is the first "documented" siting.
I will look into it more at work & see if we have any other recorded sitings.
I hope they develop a breeding population, we have the habitat for them. It would be a nice addition to our resident mix of woodies, mottled ducks, and "park mallards & Canadas".
Speaking of Canadas I saw a flock of 12 today.
 
All old photos, but these represent the good memories...

Ask Hackey if he remembers this. Woops - Capt. Hackey

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Hackey hevi-shot fesh from the wad...

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Sutton's first tree ducks...you're welcome.

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And hey Hackey...we'll be "fully" open for business this year - Team Swartley and Team Hitch will again be synonomous with tree ducks once more thanks to Mwa. Day ja voo buddy...I have photos.

Hitch
 
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gratitude for my first Black Bellies, (I had shot Fulvous previously), then please accept this as public acknowledgement of same......great bird and I greatly appreciate your putting me on them on that first trip to Mary A......

Steve
 
Fun times they were Mr. Sutton, twas they. I think we proved the Fulvous and the Balckbellies like each other, at least they like each other's domain. No whimpy ass kickers though next mission or a few, just manly man sleds until the red man is in his final resting place 5000 years later.

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Hitch
 
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you lost me on that one.....I "think" I get it but not sure, for sure......

Regardless they are great birds and those were to paraphrase a famous Indian Chief....."a remembered hunt"....

Steve
 
HAH! I finally found my pictures...

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These babies were of the variety that weren't terribly wary at all. Of course we were hunting some REALLY thick cover, and the black bellies LOVED the cattails and would come in with reckless abandon. It could've been a quick shoot with the HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of them that were flying over that marsh, visiting us, but we were trying to keep the shots within the little opening that we were hunting because even with a dog, those little bad boys disappeared into the cattails...

Although it wasn't my first black belly hunt, it was quite memorable as both my partners (Skip and Duke) were on their first ever black belly hunt and I had more fun watching them get their first birds than I did in getting a limit...

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Fun little buggers for sure

Dani
 
I love those ducks, I will agree with Mr. Sutton. About the best eaters you will find in my book. I've been seeing them every day around my house lately. Theres a small pond behind my home I take my dogs to in the mornings and Its been holding about 20 of em. We hunt them for about the first two weeks of our season and then they leave for parts unknown. I like this time of the year cause I can work in my garage and here them talking to each other for most of the morning. I hope they take hold up there for you.
John
 
Steve,

Not sure what that guy ws feeding them. He seemed a little off and he may have fed them very little. he would get in the pen he built for them and chase them around some for exercise. But probably not what they'd have had in the wild. Anyway, that was the story as related to me from his brother. Those coon asses had quite a laugh about that everytime they told the story. But then they always seemed to have a mason jar in hand with some clear drink in them. I think those tree ducks were relatively safe if they stayed back in the swamps I saw them in. But with the rice fields nearby their numbers may not have gotten too large.

I never got a shot at one during season so can't testify to eating quality of the birds in that area.

Those pic's look like a lot of fun was had by everyone there.
 
As to their current numbers in LA, I have seen thousands in Welsh during teal season. There are presently a couple hundred within the New orleans city limits (and those birds overwintered here last year). Gueydan has quite a few during big duck season, but they are mostly nocturnal. I have shot fulvous in Hackberry during big duck season, but have never had a blackbelly in range and during shooting hours during the winter. They are definitely here, and i even know people who shoot limits of them, but they are masters of being everywhere just before shooting hours and no where once the sun is up.
 
Doesn't that make him one of the Coon Ass Einsteins?

Kris, prior to John putting me on the BB's in Florida I had the same experience with them. Went ot Texas several times on their openers under the promise thatt "they're here" only to find that "they just left".....

Prior to the last few years they seem to be strong breeders but very early migrators, present during Teal season but not later. Thats seems to have changed over the last few years, (definately so in florida where as Dani says they have EXPLODED), although the are still highly nocturnal...

this last Christmas they were in the marsh that we hunted every morning when we arrived in the dark then just prior to shooting time they departed, enmass and post haste for wherever they spend the day.....Dani's shoot was I'm sure in a daytime roost area.....find those and you're gold.....

I do love em....my favorite behind Brant and Wigeon....

Steve
 
I hunt the Illinois River near Peoria,and shot 5 one morning in November,last season. They may have been the first recorded in Illinois. They now reside in the Field Museum in Chicago. What a day that was. Bob
 
we're they all in one flock or singles throughout the hunt?

How about #'s of adults vs. juvenile?

Got any pictures?

Neat stuff......

Steve
 
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