Three Mornings and LOTS of Broadbill

Chris.. late 70s early 80s there was a 100 pt limit. broadbills were 10pts so were pintails. I don't think they ever recovered both species.

As a crow flys where steve was taking pictures not that far away unless your trying to get there by car, from jersey,

It would be nice to know what they were feeding on.

Thanks Steve the only think missing was snow

God I love chet

Phil
 
That felt so good looking at those pics.......what a sight they must have been in real life. Thanks....I needed that!


Dave
 
Steve I'm glad to see that the broadbill have shown up down there. Thanks for sharing. I really like the photos of the birds flying in to join the raft. I could watch that all day!
 
Good morning, Chris~

We never had the Point System here in NY but we did have a Special Scaup Season for about 20 years. It ran the last 16 days of January and the daily limit was 5. It was AFTER our Regular Season so Scaup were the only legal bird.

We also had a Scaup and Goldeneye Season on Lake Champlain about the same time - but I did not live up here or hunt it.

All the best,

SJS
 
Pete told me of the late broadbill season, I think it was an extra 4 birds.

I would trade the whole month of early season goose for a week of the late broadbill season, one can dream.

If these are my generations "Good Ole' Days" we got rooked!
 
Chris, we had the "bonus" broadbill (scaup) season in CT. It was the last two weeks of January, the limit was 5 same as described by Steve Sanford. The state of RI was on the points system during the regular duck season for a while, broadbill were a 10 point duck, so each guy could take 10. We hunted upper Narragansett Bay on a regular basis back then as RI has Sunday hunting and CT does not.
 
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And thank you Steve for the pictures. They sure bring back memories. Really reminds you of how small your rig is compared to a raft of birds.
 
Steve, thanks for the pictures.. just to see them pouring in is cool. the sound of them pouring in un mistakable. So cool

Chris I still put out 70 decoys for a chance at 2. They are my favorite bird bar none. I was weaned on them and I have Andy Tanner to thank for that.

Phil
 
Chris - At times the "Good Old Days" were not that good. Drought, lead poisoning, short seasons, small bag limits and many regulations. Yet we still hunted and supported waterfowl conservation even more, to help as best we could. Many of today's waterfowlers have not been through the lean times, only the fat times. So I would say for many these are the Good Days. Enjoy them while you can.
 
Talk about Spring Migration. I just saw a small bunch of Ruddy Duck rafted up in Central Park. Normally it is just Mallards and Geese. Definitely new arrivals.
 
Chris - Ducks, like owning property is all about location. You know that. My encouragement to any waterfowler is, if possible, be ready to travel. In my time waterfowling, I've found most abundant waterfowl experiences occurred when I traveled. Most of the pictures I post up on this forum are the result of travel. And, many trips were done very reasonable in cost.
I would rather pick one good week and travel to experience abundant waterfowl rather than sit home for 3 weeks of nothing. Sometimes, you have to go to the ducks if the ducks are not coming to you. There is an abundance of waterfowl in this country. We have been blessed with it!
Just my 2 cents... Pat
 
Brad,

Anyone ever look into whether or not the 10 pt or special season years may have increased the harvest enough to result in additive mortality & push scaup and pintails over some tipping point?
Maybe that combined with the early 80s drought??

It is nice to see that both seem to have turned the corner and are on an upward trend, lets hope it sticks.
 
Carl, there were reports done in 1988 when the seasons were suspended. I believe the reports were published in 1990. I doubt the analyses were detailed enough to look at that question. As I remember they looked at whether the extra opportunities could be evaluated at all and if the point system, bonus bag limits and special seasons were appropriate at all. The current regulatory schemes for both pintail and scaup were implemented in the 2005-2009 timeframe. I'd have to look up the implementation dates.
 
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you know wats funny the birds are resting or sleeping, not feeding we had 50k plus come in to the oceanic bridge, and they all tucked there heads, I think that was 4 or 5 yrs ago

Phil
 
Phil~

I observed all different behaviors over the 3 mornings. Lots of loafing but also active feeding - the typical leapfrogging (aka rolling) where birds are continually flying up to the head of the raft after drifting down below the food source. Red Oster knows the bottom here and was sure they were over the "mud line" - where the nearshore sand gives way to mud. We do not know if they are feeding on Duck Clams or Grass Shrimp or ????

We do not know whether they came from the Atlantic or from elsewhere in the Bay as they arrived each morning.

And, I believe the birds that went ashore enjoyed the easier preening on terra firma.

SJS
 
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