Black belly whistling duck

[Shadow]

Gadwall,

I got a better look at those odd ducks the other morning in my ponds at work. They are Black Bellys. I am pretty certain because of the bright red bills. The teal should be showing up here pretty soon. We usually get a wad or two of blue wings. I still can't figure out what type of goose was in there. http://www.mbr.nbs.gov/id/framlst/i1770id.html

[JimHewitt]

http://www.fruitjar.org/birds/Oct/mix.html

Here's a site with a picture of a gray-type domestic goose that I've seen at times mixing with Canadas (when I lived in Colorado).

One guy came down the river came by my blind once after shooting one, all hot and bothered that he'd shot something illegal. He said the goose had sort of lumbered into his decoys right at legal shooting time, and now he was worried that he'd shot some kind of swan or something that he didn't know about.

I told him that he was on state property, and that whoever it was that had raised the goose wasn't very concerned about it if he was letting it stray at least a mile from the nearest private property!

[ August 07, 2001: Message edited by: gadwall ]

[Shadow]

I have seen those grey geese before. My parents have some that hang around their house on the lake. They are MEAN! The geese that is. I didn't know they would cross breed though. Whatever it is that I am seeing is really weird. I have only seen it twice, but got a good look each time. It is about the size of a snow goose, maybe a little bit smaller. It honks, and is colored much like some of the other whistling ducks. Sort of a peach color across the chest. I figured it maybe some sort of domestic or exotic that escaped, but I have not seen anything like it. If he starts showing up again, I may just have to take the 12 gauge to the field to record some notes :D

[JimHewitt]

Could it be a fulvous tree duck?

Couldn't find a good picture, but this description says "rufous underparts"....
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i1780id.html

Don't know about you southerners and your weird versions of ducks, to be honest. Couldn't be worthwhile eating or hunting if it's too wimpy to take a little cold weather now and then!

[Shadow]

I have been thinking about that. The peach/apricot type color and wing pattern were very close. Had I not heard the thing honk, that is what I would say it was. Maybe he was just horse that day, and could't whistle. I remember the wings having a lot of pattern on them. The size would have been about right. I once saw a pintail/mallard drake hybrid at a taxidermy shop. It was a pretty bird. Later in the fall I will be getting some snows stopping by to take a rest. Man, yall got woodies all the way up there? I would not have figured that. Probably the oddest duck I have heard of being killed around my haunts was a golden eye. Guy I deer hunt with killed it on the lake where my mom and dad live in North Louisiana. I had never heard of one being killed down here. from your deer hunting post, it seems like a hunt on my lease would be torture for ya. LOL all those birds buzzing the stands at daylight. I can almost see the bullets of sweat forming LOL.

[Shadow]

By the way, we get a wet cold down here. It will cut right through ya LOL. It is the humidity RIGHT that's it.

I have seen the Fulvous ducks before, and the ones down here I would describe as having some peachy coloring. It maybe a different duck, the ones I have seen, but I know it is one of the whistling tree ducks. The honk is the only thing that has my puzzled. So what is a typical bag for yall to bring home?

[JimHewitt]

Woodies? All over the place in the early season. Last year, while goose hunting for local birds in a wheat field, I had one walk across my leg. I'd never seen so many at one time -- had close to a hundred of them in my decoys.

Opening weekend of the regular duck/goose season, I had my two woodies allowed within the first 20 minutes, and then (by count -- I wrote it down that day, too) had 135 more woodies sit in my goose decoys before noon. That's not counting the number that buzzed me or shied away at the last minute. Funny thing is, they would not come close to the mallard decoys, nor the 5 or 6 pintails I had off to one side. All they wanted to do was sit next to or even in the goose decoys.

I believe that woodies are the 4th or 5th most commonly harvested duck here in Minnesota. A lot depends on how warm it stays, though, because most of our woodies head south to commit suicide by alligator pretty early. I've gotten wood ducks into November, but most are gone by the first week in October.

Most commonly harvested duck is the mallard, followed closely by bluewing teal and then ringnecks. All four species breed here in the state, and the bluewings and woodies probably make up a big part of the first two weeks' bag. We see quite a few shovelers, a flight of wigeon every once in a while, gadwalls, and greenwings. Every once in a while a pintail, but not often.

When the flights start coming through from Manitoba, and further, it's mallards and divers with a few more greenwings. More ringnecks, bluebills, cans, redheads, buffleheads, and at the very end of the season, goldeneyes. There are a few local redheads, goldeneyes, and cans, too, so they might show up in the early or midseason, but most people don't even get out their diver decoys until late October.

Geese here are Canadas. Big locals up to 20 pounds and the Eastern Prairie Population of 7-9 pound smaller birds that roost on Hudson Bay.

Last year, Minnesota led the nation in harvest of Canadas. In fact, I remember reading somewhere that more Canadas were harvested than any single species of duck except the mallard. We're about 70 miles east here of the snow/blue migration corridor in North Dakota (I live about 2 miles east of the North Dakota border). It seems I see one flock of snows per year, always flying high. There are a few harvested down in the extreme southwest corner of Minnesota, but a negligible amount, really.

Non-hunting waterfowl include local trumpeter swans. You have not lived until you get a flock of these aircraft carriers landing near you, or REALLY live when they're sitting in your decoys and you take a shot at a duck coming in and they take off in surprise. I've walked under trees in the dark where a 20 pound gobbler took off a couple feet over my head, but these trumpeters make a full size gobbler seem like a hummingbird when they start beating their wings 10 feet from you.

Best hunting around here is opening weekend (starting the last Saturday in September this year) and from October 25 or so until freezeup (which could be October 26 or all the way to November 15).

[Shadow]

We get woodies year round, and filling the three bag limit on them is pretty easy. Our early ducks consist mainly of blue wings. I rarely hear of green wings being taken, but they are around. Later in the season we get mallards and gadwalls (grey ducks). Pintails can be numerous around the mouth of the Mississippi River I hear, but I have never seen them on the lakes I hunt. We also have a ton of Scaups (dogrees). Not sure I spelled that right, but that is what they are called down here. Late in the season some divers, mainly "cans" show up on the big water. There are some off ducks occassionaly, but those are the main stay. I have about 25 Greater Canadians that frequent my ponds at work. They live at aquaculture, and were wild birds that just stop flying back and forth. They can be a real pain when I am establishing a new pond. They seem to love pulling up what I plant in the ground.