Canadaian Red Legs

C

Capt. Jack Passie

Well-known member
Years ago, I mean 30 years ago atleast, When I used to spend a lot of time gunning in hassocks of the Great South Bay here on Long Island we would kill Many Black Ducks that we called Canadian Red Legs. They were much larger. I have one mounted, they're legs were bright orange. Here on the East End of the Island we kill plenty of Black Ducks but we never see any of the Canadians. Even 30-40 years ago we never saw them out here. Do any of you guys see the birds I am talking about in the Eastern Flyway anymore?
 
I'm Glad they're somewhere. I remember talking to a guide from the Chesapeke years ago and he told me that they don't see them down there anymore. What got this thought into my mind was that I was looking at one of my old duck hunting books, "A Book On Duck Shooting by Van Campen Heilner" And he claimed that the best Black Duck shooting on the East Coast was Lake Montauk. That was long before my time and Capt. Bob Tuma who just passed away this past winter at 86. Because I have never seen Black Ducks out here like we had back west
 
I shot red legs forty years ago, (seems like yesterday) on the southshore of Long Island, Baldwin, Freeport, Oceanside. Thanks for bringing up the memories...John
 
Jack, we shot em good here but I was told by a biologist that the legs get red from the freezing cold weather
nothing to do where they come from because most of the blacks come down from Canada
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Go ask Paul Castelli, but they don't get the red legs from cold water, its because of hormones. They color up as they get closer to the breeding season.
 
now i thought they were just the mature grown ups finaly showing up to the party...ill agree they are bigger then the younguns,and you would think livin up here they would be everywhere but they dont show up until late in the season we call them northerns or red legs...just this past year i had a great day got my limit of 4 in 2 flock fly bys and this was in december i dont think any were red legs tho..but in exploring that day i have a new area to check into for next season..my fav duck by far they are so smart you blink and they see it there gone ,that past day found me and daisy laying in the bay o fundy muck until the tide chased us back to shoreline the whole marsh went under by about 3 feet that day...

Shermie
Nova Scotia
canada
 
Jimmy when do you want to come to Montauk. Stret should be back by May 1st and we should have an MBCA meeting the 2nd Saturday, if not it will definetly be in June
 
Like Mallards, Black Duck drakes legs turn a brighter color as they get their full breeding plumage each winter.
Even park ducks that never migrate down here get bright legs by late winter.
Has nothing to do with where they are born or how cold it is, its all about hormones.
 
Jim

Paul's a great guy, one of my oldest friends in this profession. He is also an avid waterfowler and knows black ducks inside and out.
 
last time i seen big red legged blacks was in 96 during a snow storm got him mounted came through with about 30 or so of his friends i have been told that the red legs have to due with breeding also but you can tell if it is a local by the size i hunt moriches bay and see locals all the time not so much the cans anymore unless you have that ducky weather
 
A while back people were posting what other names they used for ducks and I had wrote that here in Southern Ontario where I'm from we call those mallards red foots.Thanks for the great responses as to why their feet were red I guess I just thought they were a mallard from farther north because we always shot them later in the season,,HMMM, 41 and still learning,,,please keep the lesson coming
 
last time i seen big red legged blacks was in 96 during a snow storm got him mounted came through with about 30 or so of his friends i have been told that the red legs have to due with breeding also but you can tell if it is a local by the size i hunt moriches bay and see locals all the time not so much the cans anymore unless you have that ducky weather
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Mike I used to gun Moriches bay alot but I never saw them there as often as I killed them in Amityville.The Black Ducks we kill in Sagaponak and Montauk are babies to the ones that used to live in South Oyster Bay. I believe they are a separate strain of the bird. All of them we kill out here can't be immature.
 
Shot 1 about 20 years ago here in eastern NC in a swamp. Thought perhaps it was due to a mallard cross. Those mallards be Ho's. I have even seen mallards breeding with muscovy's.

The Black Duck I have on my wall has kind of orangeish feet.

Best,
Harry
 
cap, i see them frequently when we gun maskinnonge-check heilner's book on that

late in season, assuming when cold drives them south, we catch a few.on our marsh---even our aduld blacks do not seem to attain that reddish hue.
 
yea jack most of the blacks i seen lately have green in the head and come out of the estates not enough green to be a hybrid still a black
 
I've wondered about the Green. I've often thought , that if stoped by the DEC could I convince them it was a Mallard and not a true Black Duck?
 
If the ducks have any non-black duck characteristics, such as white feathers in the speculum, orange bills, green heads white feathers then by regulation they should be classified as a hybrid and be considered as one of the least restrictive species. So if you shoot a pintail that has mallard characteristics it goes towards your mallard limit not your pintail limit. Same with black ducks. Now you may have to argue with a warden for a while but you should prevail.
 
I LIKE your thinking. Thank got I've never had to argue with a Warden over hunting matters, fisheries is sometimes there's sometimes a difference of opinions
 
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