The end of duck season

Dani

Dani

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came for me two weekends ago. I was lucky enough to get the flu...the plague...some nasty beastie that kept me down and out for the last two weekends of the season. I began feeling better this past weekend, but not nearly well enough that I thought I could drag myself out early and say goodbye to the season. Saturday was a beautiful day but Sunday dawned wet and dreary. After being sick for 8 days and cooped up inside in bed or on the couch, I just HAD to get out of the house so I drove down to St. Marks to say goodbye to the season. Usually there is a good variety of ducks to be found on the pools in the refuge and I was not disappointed. While there weren't nearly the numbers of birds (particularly coots) that I've seen in years past, the variety was good. There were widgeon, ringnecks, pintail, green and bluewinged teal, shovelors, bluebills, redheads, canvasbacks, and bufflehead.

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While I was watching the divers on the lighthouse pond, there was one drake that kept catching my eye as different. With the rain sometimes heavy, it took a bit of watching to recognize why he seemed so different. My crowning beauty for the end of the season turned out to be a Canhead (or maybe a Canneck...haven't really decided)....either way, he is a stud...


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It's not the way I would've chosen to end the season and I think it was the first season since I've started hunting that I missed the last weekend. At least it was a neat way to make the best of it....

Dani
 
cool looking bird! kind of looks common pochard-ish, but darker.

looking at birds after the season, is almost as much fun as hunting. There always seems to be more around AFTER the season too.
 
Definitely one of the coolest hybrids I have ever seen photographed.
 
No, I didn't get a flu shot. And since the Dr didn't do a test to see if it was flu or something else, I can't really say if it was the flu I had for sure or some other nasty bug. There are a number of different bugs going around work right now so it's hard to know what it was that knocked me out for so long.
 
Very very cool! Bummer you got sick but glad it made you go out to look at some ducks.

Was the head dark or it just the lighting?
Jeff Coats (pitbosswaterfowl on instagram) has many photos of a live redhead x canvasback. It doesn't look the same as what you have here. It's side pocket and back looks like a light colored redhead. Yours looks to have sides and back that look more like a ringneck. I'd go with the Can-neck cross.

Btw the hummer story was interesting too.

Tim
 
Thanks all.

Tim, the head was red like a Canvasback, the lighting on that feller was just right to make it look a lot darker than it seemed.

I might get some better pictures soon from a friend who is going out there today. She has a really nice scope and camera set up so if the bird is still there, hopefully she will get better pictures of it.

I've been watching the black duck hybrid thread and seeing this bird made me wonder how a warden might classify it. The "safest" bet would be to count it as a canvasback I would guess. Clearly there is a lot to say that it's definitely not "just" a canvasback but there are a number of wardens out there that don't know just the regular species. I went round and round with a warden once. They wanted to ticket me for shooting over my limit of hooded mergansers. I had 6 green winged teal. Perhaps with everyone having smart phones and able to call up identification guides at will, it would be easier with a warden who wasn't knowledgeable with duck species but I wonder how a warden might classify this bird.
 
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