Bunch of pictures.

A few birds decoyed in but it was a lot of pass shooting and pass missing this morning. It took me nearly five hours and 40 shells to get 8 birds. Its always nice to have lots to shoot at though. Only 3 days left in the season so I'm really happy to get a few big pluckers like these.

View attachment DSCF9623.jpg

Hopefully I'll get out again tomorrow. A couple of birds had barley in their crops and I know of only one barley field on the river, so that's where I'd like to be at sunup. We'll see.

Mike
 
That is a nice strap of ducks Mike. I love the scenery there. I was just telling my wife that we may have to take a road trip north next summer.
 
Enjoyed the photos--from that one tilted decoy it looks like the water was dropping while you were there. Where did you hide thatbright orange thingamajiggy when ducks were flying?
 
Very nice shots, Mike. I agree with what you said about that pintail hanging around up there at this time of the year. Very unusual. Maybe it was loaded with anti-freeze. Like Steve said, awesome speculum picture. Your environment sure is getting that "cool" look now.
Al
 
Great scenery, nice pile of buffies too.
And those funny looking things with the green heads aint bad either..... :)
 
Thanks guys,

Bill, that's my camera case and its usually in the bucket. It doesn't seem to flare birds if I leave it out though.

And Dennis, that is a 60's vintage A5 . Great gun, dependable, easy to clean, shoots where you point it and everything.

Only two days left now.
 
Mike, what is the quality of your "plucker" mallards? Down here near Anchorage we get a lot of "mud flat" birds that don't have much fat on them and appear to still be eating mostly snails and inverts.

I would imagine that your "northern" birds coming down from the interior might have a better diet and be fatter.

I need to get back into waterfowling now that my left arm is healing up. I should be able to stand shooting more than once an hour now.
 
I'll post up a pic when I get them plucked today. Surprisingly it is often the mature hens that are the fattest, some of those full on drakes can be a bit skinny. That nice looking pintail I got had no fat at all.

Mostly the mallards are eating freshwater snails and some kind of water weed. A buffy I did yesterday had a few snails in his crop too, that's a first for me. They are usually vegetarians here.

I got one mallard drake this year that was sockeye salmon orange. Not just his feet, but his skin and fat were bright orange too. Weird.

Are you done for big game this year Ray, or is there more to chase?
 
Are you done for big game this year Ray, or is there more to chase?
Click to expand...


I am done for the year unless I get motivated to go after a black bear in the mountains before it snows anymore. However, people are having a hard time finding them right now.
 
Great pictures Mike.

I spent the morning on the north side of the east lake at the hill on the mud bar. The lake was frozen except for a small hole the birds kept open.
We had a good shoot in andy's swath grazing on Monday morning and just arrived in North Dakota b/c everything pushed south in the last two days. It was -18C last night and the frost stuck around until noon today.

Good luck deer hunting and have a good trip there.

-D
 
Cool Dave, glad to hear you made it back to Hamiota again. -18 is not good for duck hunters though is it? I might have to pack two pairs of socks for deer hunting if it stays that cold!

Post some pictures when you get back.

Mike
 
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