Minnesota's mysterious mallards of the wilderness

[NickR]

There's a legend that is passed down to all the little duck hunters and duck huntresses in Minnesota. After the lakes have frozen and the ducks have gone south, when most Minnesotans are ice fishing, the duck hunters can be found fixing, painting, and making their gear for the coming season. At the beginning of this off season ritual, in December, the old timers spin yarns about the mega mallards that come down from the arctic and spend the winter in secret pools that are often whispered of, but rarely seen. These wilderness ponds, as the legend goes, can be found sparsely scattered from the Boundary Waters to the bog country. They say the mallards are big as a snow goose and mean as can be. They have teeth and feast on meat!

A little old Ojibway man showed me the way to one of these ponds out in the middle of a huge, remote bog. T'was a long bitter walk on the snowshoes, tangling with the tag alders all the way, but oh, the sights we saw . . .

 

[Pete McMiller]

How do we know he's a real, honest to goodness, bonafide ...........Red Legged Mallard from the North Country, if he has no feet?

 

[TimJ]

So your're saying the migration hasn't started yet? hehehe
Neat pictures.

Tim

 

[Derek Z]

Like the snow pic - can you Em it to me Nick.
D-

 

[Al Hansen]

Nick,
What great shots and the Ojibway story to boot was like the dessert. Excellent. That was worth putting on the snowshoes.
Al

 

[Mark W]

Real neat. Can you imagine seeing this when actually out hunting? I was hunting near Gores Pool sometime back and went to a pot to more enjoy the day than hunt ducks. I went south out of the North Lake landing which is the opposite way everyone goes. I found this nice little island and pulled the boat up onto shore. As I didn't think I would see anything, I had only thrown out 6-7 dekes, didn't put the blind up and was erading the paper. I heard some whistling out in front of me and looked up in time to see about 20 or so mallards trying to land near my dekes. I started to reach for my gun when I hear a noise like a frieght train overhead. I looked up and saw the tornado of hundereds of ducks coming downinto my little spot on the lake. I froze. Ducks by the dozens are landing in my decoys. I look up to see the funnel still coming down - hundreds of more ducks. I stand up and line up on duck # 1 and pull the trigger - nothing. Never loaded the darn gun. Now I'm scrambling for shells and get 3 in with ducks stikll in range. Shoot at duck # 1 and drop it dead. Line up on duck #2, pull the trigger - nothing again. Darn shell was jammed. The rest of the ducks fly away.

Real cool to watch and I have never seen this since. The sound was amazing.

Mark W

 

[Matt_n_Barb]

Amazing how the shotgun seems to have operator error at the most opportune moments....I think it is subliminal messages by the god of the ducks....esp...no shell in gun..no shell in gun...no shell in gun....forget to load....forget to load...


Nice photos....once in a very blue moon you see mallard flocks like that around here....moslty smaller flocks are the norm...

Matt