One Of The Best Seasons I've Ever Had!! AND..... A HEMAPHRO-DUCK?

B

brian ziegler

Member
Just wondering if anyone else is having such a spectacular year. Me and my dad shot more ducks over the weekend than we have in a long time. I've also seen more cans than i ever have. Here's a pic from our saturday hunt
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This is a picture of a funky duck i shot. It wasn't done fully changing, but it's got a green head like a drake, but the body of a hen. Is it a hemaphroduck? I've never seen anything like it, have any of you?
View attachment ducks552.JPG
Its hard to see but its head was changing green

Hope you guys are doing as well as we are. This is the first year we've hunted strictly out of sneak boats and i dont think I'll ever use a big ol' blind boat again. We had a big jon boat with a blind hunting on the other side of the pond we were hunting and all the birds wanted to be where he was; Until they got an eye of that big blind. They'd flair from him and come right to our spread. I havn't had a bird flair at the sight of my boat once this year and I'm reaping the rewards. God i love this sport!
 
I thought black/mallard hybrid, too.

As for good numbers of ducks, my early season, which is mostly teal and resident woodies, blacks, and mallards, was pretty good.

I'll let you know how the migrants seem to be in a few days, as our second season opens tomorrow. From what I've seen scouting, it looks pretty good.
 
Looks like a very immature drake mallard to me. What I can see of the bill it looks like drake to me and the he/she mallards I have seen had very orange hen bills. Most hermaphro-ducks are old hens with 'woman' problems. From what I can see of it the tail looks very juvie to me too. That is what 50% of the drakes look like when the season starts here.

Nice bunch of waterfowl.

Tim
 
I think Rob nailed it. Your "hen" is just getting old, that is all. Does the beak contain the brown blotches that normal hen beaks have? A federal waterfowl biologist studied my hen. He told me that she was going through SENESCENCE. Being so old her body began producing testosterone instead of estrogen.
Brian, did you check for ovaries?
Al

He-SheVeryConfusing.jpg


HeSheMallardDrakeorMaybeHen.jpg

 
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I didnt check for ovaries, i actually posted this after i breasted the bird. Its weird to hear that birds have their own form of menopause which is what it sounds like you described. If that bird is like any of the women i know in that stage of life, i probably did it a favor! Or atleast made life easier for the drakes it flew with.
 
I know this year out in Oregon I have shot more immature birds than ever. Especially on the opener. A lot looked just like the one you posted. I would say it was just a late hatch. We have shot a handfull of both mallards and pintails that are getting there colors.
 
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