Bufflehead Comparison

Carl

Carl

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Like I noted, we have tons of buffleheads this year. Some flocks that came in on the opener and 2nd day seemed to be all hens. I usually don't shoot buffy hens but with my son trying for his first ducks, we seemed to end up with more than the normal amount of "hens" in our bag.
Closer inspection reveals otherwise.

In this first pic, both birds are drakes. The one on the left is this years hatch (v-notched tail feathers) but is the same size as the mature drake. Also on the immature bird, his feet and webbing are just starting to turn pink.

View attachment BuffyComparison1.jpg



This pic is my son's first three ducks. Bird on the left is mature (pointy tail feathers) and is definitely a hen. Note the size difference too.
One in the middle is definitely an immature drake (this years bird) with the white crest just starting to expands a good bit of pink on the feet and webs.
The one on the right, I think is an immature drake given the size, but there was no sign of pink on the feet & webs on that one. And the head spot is still dull and hen-sized.

View attachment BuffyComparison2.jpg



Goldeneyes also mature late, lots of immature drake goldeneye still look like hens even late in the season.
 
Carl,

Thanks for the detailed description and photos. My son just shot his first ducks last week as well. All buffies and one BB. We had the same discussion on the boat as what you have shown. We ended up with about a 1/3 split between mature drakes, immature drakes and hens/unsure.

Buffies sure make it fun for the kids. I never seemed to outgrow them myself!
 
Gene,

Glad to post it!
I too haven't outgrown buffies.
No better site than a bright full plumage drake dropping those big pink feet and gliding straight into the decoys (right before getting greeted by a load of #3's).

Most guys down here don't shoot them, I've only seen one other hunter with buffy decoys down here.
Their loss, our gain.
 
Not many people hunt them up here. They are so much fun to hunt hopefully we will get into them this weekend.

They are good eating too
Definetly their loss
 
I did notice that you seem to have a variety of age and genders in the bag there. Looks like there might be a couple of hen Redheads in there too. I have actually been working with my students recently on aging waterfowl using wing characteristics. Here is a link to "The book" for wing ID...

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~csdepern/documents/WaterfowlWings.pdf

pretty useful and fun to do...unless I'm going to give you an exam on them, or so I'm told.

Keep posting those duck season pics for us in the WAAAY north who have been done for a couple of weeks.

Brian
 
They were called "breakfast ducks" back in the day on the Eastern Sho'. And they eat wonderfully well. Thanks for the photos showing the immature drakes...interesting stuff. I've had days when I let them paddle around in the decoys; best sort of motion decoy there is! Other days when I shot a couple. And the most fun of all, introducing a pretty good claybird gunner to pass shooting buffies and watching his shell bag empty and his eyes get wider and wider at how far behind their tales his patterns splashed the water...Plus another day in the blind with my 30 year old son who turned into a kid right before my eyes when the buffies descended into the rig: "can I shoot 'em, dad?" You can shoot AT 'em I replied...they're a little harder to hit than those deer you insist on hunting...wonderful birds the bufflehead. Yhe marsh would be bleaker without them.
 
Brian,
No redheads, all hen bluebills. two were older hen, the others were this years. Also a Ruddy in the mix.
 
Good observation there...we shoot a lot of buffleheads that seem to be hens but after further inspection there are some immature drakes in the mix. Here's on I shot this weekend that was a little closer to maturity, not the best picture but he had a little iridescence in his face and a larger white patch on his head
4CD718F7-6640-4DD3-B90E-A06A60D3F514_zpsi5uckli7.jpg

 
When we were doing work with the USFWS, we found that a lot of the "hen" Buffy & GE were actually immature drakes, once they had dissected them.
On GE, hens have white to light cream eyes. If you have a "hen" with yellow eyes...it's an immature/juvenile drake.
Lou
 
Great post Carl. Its very refreshing to see someone with an interest in what they're killing, rather than a pile of mis-identified ducks, or my personal favorite, the "what kind of duck did i shoot" post you too often see on the other forums.

My first duck (January 1991) was a hen bufflehead shot from a homemade sneak boat, I'll never forget it!
 
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