Had a slow but productive day yesterday. I had found a pile of gadwalls and divers on Friday and we got out at 0-dark early and set up in what I thought was the best spot for a mixed bag.
Well, it turned out to be pretty slow. The divers mainly stayed out in deeper water and only 3 of the gadwalls came back. I got one. Only 3 bluebills came by and I got 2. Missed some GEs (see below) and passed on a few hen buffies.
After frustatingly watching a pile of divers trade back & forth about a 1/4 mile away all morning, the day ended at 11:00 with 1 gadwall, 1 buffy, 1 GE and 2 bluebills.
After we picked up, we ran out to where the most divers were, ran up over 500 bluebills that were rafted up in along line of a 1/4 mile long, plus a pile of buffies, marking the X with the GPS.
Two strange things:
I a pair of gadwalls come over the blind, high but in range. I flat out folded the drake (yep that is a drake in the pic, a very young one). The hen continued on for a milli-second or two, then saw the drake falling down. The hen turn, tucked her wings and did a crash dive to follow the dead-in-the-air drake! She pulled out at the last minute, fluttered around about 1' off the water, then flew off & sat down about 75 yards away. I was too stunned at what I was seeing to take a shot at her. She sat there for 10 minutes looking back where the dead drake laid.
The other strange thing was the number of GEs. In addition to the one I got, there was another one with it that I did not get a shot at, 3 that snuck in while I was looking through the binos (put 3 holes in the water behind them) and a couple of other pairs & singles I saw cruising around. The last time I shot a GE was 4 years ago and I've never seen this many GEs around on Mobile Bay. I hope to get back down to the spot soon to see if I can't fool a few more.
[inline CFDucksJan15_2011.jpg ]
View attachment CFDucksJan15_2011.jpg
Well, it turned out to be pretty slow. The divers mainly stayed out in deeper water and only 3 of the gadwalls came back. I got one. Only 3 bluebills came by and I got 2. Missed some GEs (see below) and passed on a few hen buffies.
After frustatingly watching a pile of divers trade back & forth about a 1/4 mile away all morning, the day ended at 11:00 with 1 gadwall, 1 buffy, 1 GE and 2 bluebills.
After we picked up, we ran out to where the most divers were, ran up over 500 bluebills that were rafted up in along line of a 1/4 mile long, plus a pile of buffies, marking the X with the GPS.
Two strange things:
I a pair of gadwalls come over the blind, high but in range. I flat out folded the drake (yep that is a drake in the pic, a very young one). The hen continued on for a milli-second or two, then saw the drake falling down. The hen turn, tucked her wings and did a crash dive to follow the dead-in-the-air drake! She pulled out at the last minute, fluttered around about 1' off the water, then flew off & sat down about 75 yards away. I was too stunned at what I was seeing to take a shot at her. She sat there for 10 minutes looking back where the dead drake laid.
The other strange thing was the number of GEs. In addition to the one I got, there was another one with it that I did not get a shot at, 3 that snuck in while I was looking through the binos (put 3 holes in the water behind them) and a couple of other pairs & singles I saw cruising around. The last time I shot a GE was 4 years ago and I've never seen this many GEs around on Mobile Bay. I hope to get back down to the spot soon to see if I can't fool a few more.
[inline CFDucksJan15_2011.jpg ]
View attachment CFDucksJan15_2011.jpg
