2020 Waterfowl Thread

Finally got out yesterday with my son and a friend of his. We had heavy rain, hail, some sun, and high winds. But we also had lots of action.
Set up the decoys and one mojo in a slough and in about 2 1/2 hours we had 19 mallards, 4 pintails and a widgeon.
The wind switched completely from the start and was coming hard down the slough where we were set up which sent a lot of the birds to a more protected area of the slough.
Our 2 year old springer spaniel is starting to get it. After a couple of retrieves to the other side of the slough, She brought the rest back to our side.
It was a good day.
 
1963beretta said:
What is strange is that I haven't seen much of teals. The first couple weeks of the season is usually loaded with green wing teals and some blue wing teals added into the mix. This year has been totally different. I’ve only seen 1 small group of green wings on opening day and that was the end of it.
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It's been mild here in the west until this week. Still seeing lots of greenwings, widgeon, gadwalls and even coots here still! They are usually gone by now! Very few divers around but Tundra Swans are starting to arrive and build in numbers. We are covered up in lesser Canadas and Snows and still hammering limits of Specks! With mild temps and extremely few resident hunters taking part and outitters with amost no clients due to covid there is no pressure on the birds to leave. Almost every farmer has 100% of their crops harvested so there is no shortage of field for the birds to feed in. It's some of the most incredible waterfowling I've experienced since moving here 8 years ago! Two pics from today with my buddy who flew out from North Bay, ON to hunt this week. Limit of dark geese this morning and ducks this afternoon.
 
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Went out a quick hunt the other night with 3 buddies. Got 15 Canada's and 1 lesser. Kicked 80 geese off the field when we got there as we were late (5pm) quickly set up 6doz decoys and stood in the corn. Wasn't long and a lot of birds were coming in. Got our first lesser and right before we quit a nice woodie drake.

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Hunted another corn field today. Was a pile of birds hitting it the night before.

6 guys, 26 geese and 4 ducks. Awesome hunt in a big corn field. Seen hundreds of birds and even one nice buck just after daylight. He wasn't long getting out of dodge when the shooting began lol.

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Looks like you are having good success this year DVXDUDE.
My son took 5 friends out this morning and they got 37 mallards, a pintail and 2 widgeon in about 3 hours.
There are lesser Canadas flying overhead all day, but they are so squirrely they will be in one field today and somewhere else tomorrow and then a different field the next day.
Big honkers are way more consistent around here, but we don't have lots of them in our are yet.
 
Today was a great day out on the lake. Lots of birds moving. I made out with a limit of ducks and three geese. I should have had a limit of geese as well, but looks like I bought a bad box of shells that had multiple squib loads. Nothing more frustrating then calling in a big flock, waiting patiently for the wings to cup and landing gear to come down, and then you pull the trigger only to hear a fart and have pellets and smelly powder land on your face. Having it happen once is bad enough, but having it happen almost a handful of times in one hunt is a real pain.

One another note, I passed on shooting a group of woodies as I saw a big black duck circling and I wanted a chance at that bird instead. After a few passes, the black duck came in on a string and dropped stone cold dead at about 20 yards. I initially thought to pluck it, stuff it and roast it in the oven. But after a long day, I didn't have the patience to go through all that work, so I ended up skinning it. And let me tell you, boy am I glad I did. This is what was hiding under its skin.....
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Disgusting! I've never seen anything even close to that before and hope I never do. Just fleas on ducks but none of that nasty stuff!

Seeing some black ducks here as well, We got 4 nice mallard drakes today, My cousin is getting it mounted.

Nice job nonetheless
 
We got out yesterday on a harvested bean field. Not sure what was up, but the birds just weren't interested in our set? 24 full bodies & 20 shells...

Regardless, we had a great time and it was the FIRST waterfowl hunt for James (on the right in pic). My friend Geoff & I got to watch him harvest his first 2 Canada geese. That was awesome!

Notice the dog crate is empty? I sure miss Nos & his retrieving... Egon is too young at 5 months, but his day is coming...

Cheers
Jay

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Was out this morning on a small wheat field. Couldn't find anything else last night so decided to try this field. Been 50-100 geese hitting it daily so it was worth a shot.

3 guys we got 8 geese and 2 ducks. Didnt really see that many, and the ones we did see came in bigger flocks so we didn't get many shoots.

Think we got the smallest lesser in Ontario though. Tiny compared to the big Canada's we usually see. Headd him sqwalking on the way in to the spread and thought it was a snow goose but didn't see any white birds lol had a lot of fun anyways.

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fader said:
Oh that is just nasty! Hope it isn’t too common.
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I’ve shot thousands of ducks and geese.....and cleaned even more than that....this was the first time I have ever seen it. In fact, I didn't even know it existed until I saw it. Naturally I had to share photos with some friends and one of them told me what it was. And believe me, its nastier when you see it in person.
 
1963beretta said:
I’ve shot thousands of ducks and geese.....and cleaned even more than that....this was the first time I have ever seen it. In fact, I didn't even know it existed until I saw it. Naturally I had to share photos with some friends and one of them told me what it was. And believe me, its nastier when you see it in person.
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My skin is just crawling from seeing the pics. Thanks for sharing though. Something to watch out for.
 
This is my favourite time of the season. Most waters are frozen over, birds are concentrated on the remaining open water, they hit the fields hungry due to the cold weather and they are extremely co-operative, plump and their plumage is starting to look great. Also my friends are finished hunting waterfowl and focused on other game so I am able to hunt my favorite style, solo! I can pick and choose the birds I want and how I want to take them. Love it!
 
1963beretta said:
I’ve shot thousands of ducks and geese.....and cleaned even more than that....this was the first time I have ever seen it. In fact, I didn't even know it existed until I saw it. Naturally I had to share photos with some friends and one of them told me what it was. And believe me, its nastier when you see it in person.
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I've seen several over the years with rice breast.
 
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