Ducks in the snow

Dick Sargeant

Well-known member
Seems like once every season I get a chance to hunt one of our coastal marshes when a big northeaster is getting a head of steam. Friday was such a day with wind building to 20 knots and snow starting around 2PM. I was just going for a walk and minding the time of high tide to be sure not to get caught too far out in the marsh when water would flood over all of the little creeks and cuts. I had taken a compass reading as well to insure that I could have a direction if a whiteout took place. Since I am without a retriever at this time, I was also mindful not to take any shots where a bird would fall out of my reach.

Here in N E Massachusetts the big red leg blacks are down from their northern areas. I generally gun these ducks with a barnegate and cork decoys and they are extemely wary birds. What is it about a howling wind and sideways snow ? The birds seem to go nuts and small groups will lift up, zip around and settle back to a new spot often moved by the tides. After over 30 years of watching them I am convinced that when the wind gets really humming - they seem to rocket around for the fun of it. I could watch em for hours. After a few misses ( you know .....watching ducks, pulling the trigger ) - I did manage to catch up with a big duck and was able to quickly find and secure it over my shoulder for the long walk in. Only one thing could have made it better....... and I plan to get retriever # 4 someday..........and then hope for snow.

sarge
 
sounds like a few of my days here lately except Daisy gurl gets me the ducks for me...100% on the bad weather and black ducks they love it,there starting to raft up here ive seen a few to over a hundred riding in the waves and surf on the bay o fundy..and when its time they get up fly around and you will get a chance if all is right..very smart burds..

congrats by the way nothing like a black duck for the table..

shermie
 
Shermie - I was last up hunting in your neck of the woods in 2002 over on PEI for Geese in pit blinds. After a few days I managed to get a duck hunt with a couple of guys who managed an oyster farm. We got a couple big ducks toward the end of the day and my lab and the guide's shared a side by side retrieve that was the highlight of my trip. I brought home 50 #s of potatoes in addition to the birds. The boss especially appreciated the potatoes. One of the guides that had the other lab was from Nova Scotia - Steve DeLorey - Mahone Bay in Martins River. I remember that he said the ducking was good over in NS. After the hunt I drove back and the two guides were going to NS for deer. They were bringing a whole crate of oysters to eat in camp for the week - now that's the way to do it !

sarge
 
which outfit did you use over there,i hunt over there on there opener with friends ..mostly we dont bother withthe geese we chase blacks and pintails and any other duck we can find..ducking is better there then here as they are all there before they migrate..
 
I don't have a record of the outfitter's name but it was only goose hunting. I stayed in a cottage off malpeque bay in Bayside - I think. The guy was a retired trooper I remember and I had the birds dressed and frozen at a local farm. They were good at geese but did not really have anything going for ducks. They hooked me up with a local guy and his friend from NS that I mentioned earlier for the duck hunt and I think we went down to the south for that hunt. It might have been a lower tributary of malpeque bay. If I ever get up there again I am going to bring home some oysters.

sarge
 
Great description of what the day must have been like. I was out with my dad (dad doesn't like hunting snow anymore as he's getting older) the day before and while the conditions were very different we too encountered what had to have been big northern birds based on their size.
 
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