Looking ahead...

[Deltaman]

They show up along our delta causeway (AL), every spring, have a brood, raise until they can fly, and then return to the MS coast. Only an occasional Squealer is killed here during duck season, but i used to see them in good numbers during duck season, along the MS coast when working there.

[BGkirk]

Dave, I thought of you and your season while eating boiled crabs some of the kids caught at Grand Bayou yesterday.

I've been craving those. I need a weekend or two at the camp as soon as this virus thing subsides. I miss it.

What an unreal situation we're in. Every day brings with it a new adventure, and I've never used so much hand sanitizer in my life. We're considered essential so I've never stopped working. We've implemented shift work to decrease the worker numbers to the mandated (10) per shift here in the yard and are monitoring employees health daily. They've been good at reporting possible contacts with sick people away from work and are quarantined. We have crews that travel and they are diligent in there efforts to stay virus free.

The wife was sent home a couple of weeks ago along with a few others from her job. The oil industry seems to be on the verge of collapse and is affecting many I know. We're just now (this week) seeing the halt of new projects due to the virus and some have stopped all work a week ago to avoid state to state travel. I'm praying for a soon ending to this madness.

Cameron parish has no cases, for now... seems the place to be


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Rick]

Largest parish with fewest people? But I'm fairly sure they had a case early on, according to Chereaux's Creole daughter.

[DComeaux]

Largest parish with fewest people? But I'm fairly sure they had a case early on, according to Chereaux's Creole daughter.

There is still a big influx of people on the refuge and beaches which is ridiculous. I pray that they don't drag this down there. There is an elderly population that doesn't need it.

This was posted on FB a few days ago.

Well just went to Kelly’s Mart in Grand Chenier and there is someone from New Orleans in there down here fishing. What don’t people under stand about STAY the F/:;: Home Order, the parish needs to stop people who are not essential from coming in here fishing and crabbing (whole families) from out of the parish coming into our stores trying to spread the virus to us that don’t have it. Ron Johnson , Scott A. Trahan, Cameron Oep sorry y’all the only 3 I tagged but y’all the only ones on my friends list that can do something. A lot of other people are saying the same thing but want stir the pot but I just don’t care what pot I stir, but my wife works in two of our stores down here in Creole and I have a 7 year old at home, and a 79 year old father in law that we trying to keep home and us get his stuff for him trying not to infect him, need to shut down Rockerfeller also that would help a lot , and forgot to say if one of the workers from any of our stores come down with the virus then everyone one at the store is quarantine and the store is closed down and us locally has to go somewhere else to get our grocery, can good, can of biscuits, bacon, gal of milk, bacon, bread, etc wake up Cameron Parish

[Rick]

Meanwhile, the store owner and employees may be thankful for enough business to stay in business and feed their families.

Lots of rocks and hard places just now...

[Darren]

Meanwhile, the store owner and employees may be thankful for enough business to stay in business and feed their families.

Lots of rocks and hard places just now...

Haven't figured out how the marina near the camp is able to stay open, but they are making a killing given the other area marinas are closed so they're only game in town for bait/ice/fuel.

Grand Isle is closed to all but residents and camp owners, not sure if such a thing would work for Cameron parish. As Rick pointed out, the stores that are open in Cameron area can't be too upset getting some business in such a tough time. If you do/if you don't........

[DComeaux]

Meanwhile, the store owner and employees may be thankful for enough business to stay in business and feed their families.

Lots of rocks and hard places just now...

I get that, but the risk of transmission is increasing down there.

This is from a fishing report FB page, that I wish would go away.

Person asking about numbers using the refuge----, even on weekdays?

Someone answers -- nobody’s working right now, so it’s the same every day. Hundreds of people. Sunday’s are usually slower than Saturday. This past Sunday, you could not turn around on Price Lake Rd if you went to the tower. From there to the back was full including the road. You had to back up to the next bridge about a mile down to turn around. People were everywhere on top of each other. I didn’t go today to see, but my neighbor went & he said today was as bad or worse. East end at Joseph Harbor is the same.


Following response --- Too many people and boats, plus people swimming in the damn water

[Bud]

Good hearing everyone is alright over there. Was wondering this morning. Take care all.

[Rick]

Thanks for checking on us, Bud. Hope y'all are doing as well as can be, too.

[Darren]

Meanwhile, the store owner and employees may be thankful for enough business to stay in business and feed their families.

Lots of rocks and hard places just now...

I get that, but the risk of transmission is increasing down there.

This is from a fishing report FB page, that I wish would go away.

Person asking about numbers using the refuge----, even on weekdays?

Someone answers -- nobody’s working right now, so it’s the same every day. Hundreds of people. Sunday’s are usually slower than Saturday. This past Sunday, you could not turn around on Price Lake Rd if you went to the tower. From there to the back was full including the road. You had to back up to the next bridge about a mile down to turn around. People were everywhere on top of each other. I didn’t go today to see, but my neighbor went & he said today was as bad or worse. East end at Joseph Harbor is the same.


Following response --- Too many people and boats, plus people swimming in the damn water

Seeing the same in Shell Beach, people out and about, they have nothing else to do. No one's on top each other, no ones bothering anyone, and save for going into the marina store, no one's touching the same surfaces. Got to maintain sanity somehow.

[BGkirk]

Guess I shouldn’t feel too bad about going into chessons and asking for a burns permit? (I haven’t yet)..I could go for some of their ice cream right about now (which I just found out about last year when I saw someone walking out with a vanilla cone) been going down there for 12-13 years now. Was upset I’ve missed out for so long.
I was pondering making a marsh trip this weekend but I see cooler weather next week and any day the skeeters/deer flies aren’t super active is the day I prefer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Rick]

Some, surprising to me, bad news from Paul Link's speck telemetry study:

"Lots of movement since the last update! Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. We lost 3 birds in the recent big ND/SD blizzard. A SDGFP game warden recovered one for us near Milbank, SD, a cousin recovered “Hess” near Mapleton, ND (write-up in attached), and my dad is waiting on the snow to melt and a section line road to dry out before he goes to look for the other one near Velva, ND. I’m pretty sure that one is drifting though as it’s moved a few times so hopefully it will settle in some vegetation and give us another cluster."

Also had another last seen just off 380 west of Thornwell that some asshole might have road-shot.

Good news being that the others are working their way toward the breeding grounds. The two most notable journeys being one's single hop of 778 miles and another topping that with 808 miles. Others are working their way at a more leisurely pace.

Here on the home front, the bug and I began our Easter in country, where he got to work in crawfish ponds and I got to call a pair of black-bellies to within 10 and 15 yards, respectively. Which is as close as I've ever gotten them to a man in faded jeans and light gray tee-shirt standing on a grass road with a big dog. Didn't see but a pair of blue-wings, but didn't pass any likely habitat on our way to that closest, just-over-the-bridge "playground," either.

[Duck Engr]

Sad news on the white front mortality. I believe I recall a late blizzard being blamed for the death of a significant portion of the hatch a couple years back, but I’m surprised a blizzard took out adults. I wonder if the added burden of a transmitter had anything to do with it. Any indication of additional non-transmittered casualties observed while retrieving the transmitter units?

It really is amazing any of them survive such a long trek with the laundry list of things waiting to kill a duck/goose.

[Rick]

The above is all I got on the blizzard losses.

But my favorite of Paul Link's notes read: "...to a fancy-looking golf course/boy scout lake complex! It pains me to think of how wild and smart these birds are down here to have them loafing on a perfectly manicured golf course in IL."

[SpinnerMan]

The above is all I got on the blizzard losses.

But my favorite of Paul Link's notes read: "...to a fancy-looking golf course/boy scout lake complex! It pains me to think of how wild and smart these birds are down here to have them loafing on a perfectly manicured golf course in IL."

I never understood why people equate geese on golf courses as not being smart. If you are a goose, where would you be? Out in the rice fields or in the park in the center of town? Where might you get shot and where will you not? In the rice field some dumbass is going to shoot at you. In the park, all you have to do is hiss at the dumbass and he steers clear.

[Rick]

The above is all I got on the blizzard losses.

But my favorite of Paul Link's notes read: "...to a fancy-looking golf course/boy scout lake complex! It pains me to think of how wild and smart these birds are down here to have them loafing on a perfectly manicured golf course in IL."

I never understood why people equate geese on golf courses as not being smart. If you are a goose, where would you be? Out in the rice fields or in the park in the center of town? Where might you get shot and where will you not? In the rice field some dumbass is going to shoot at you. In the park, all you have to do is hiss at the dumbass and he steers clear.

I'm sure he was just enjoying the irony of that location's optics, rather than intending the observation as you apparently took it. Rare to spend much time at all with Paul without hearing the latest examples he's seen of the birds' remarkable capabilities.

[SpinnerMan]

The above is all I got on the blizzard losses.

But my favorite of Paul Link's notes read: "...to a fancy-looking golf course/boy scout lake complex! It pains me to think of how wild and smart these birds are down here to have them loafing on a perfectly manicured golf course in IL."

I never understood why people equate geese on golf courses as not being smart. If you are a goose, where would you be? Out in the rice fields or in the park in the center of town? Where might you get shot and where will you not? In the rice field some dumbass is going to shoot at you. In the park, all you have to do is hiss at the dumbass and he steers clear.

I'm sure he was just enjoying the irony of that location's optics, rather than intending the observation as you apparently took it. Rare to spend much time at all with Paul without hearing the latest examples he's seen of the birds' remarkable capabilities.

I got his point, but I have heard the stupid comment many times. It is interesting behavior to see them so wild and cautious in their "natural" habit and acting domesticated in the park.

[Rick]

Another reminder of our changing times (albeit shot through my office screen and run off by a squirrel before I could slip outside for a clearer one):

004a.jpg

One of, I hope, the pair that have been hanging around with my pigeons and nesting in our oaks the past few summers. Hadn't noticed a for-sure white-wing in months, but did see a pair of large, maybe white-wing doves screwing in the front oak yesterday.

[Deltaman]

Those white-wings are cool birds Rick! We only see them every now and again in AL, but I see a wad of them in the marsh South of Venice each duck season, in the few areas with small trees. Do you see many of the Eurasian Collared Doves in your LA boot heel? They seem to be taking over here in some areas, pushing out the mourning doves.

[DComeaux]

There's a large flock of those that hang around here in town (Carencro) in the winter. I see them when going to mass on Sunday's. They seem to disappear in the spring and summer.

[Rick]

Do you see many of the Eurasian Collared Doves in your LA boot heel?

We were up to our butts in collared doves years before I saw my first white-wings here. For whatever reason, the collareds seem more comfortable in town than out, and ,when my MIL was still alive and living with us, we regularly had they, mourning and little Inca doves below the bird feeder I maintained for her. (Let the feeder go when she did, as the sunflower seeds that drew her favorites, the cardinals, also pulled what seemed every squirrel in the parish: often to their deaths on the highway out front.)

[Deltaman]

When you mentioned Inca Doves, I thought maybe you wee referring to what we call Ground Doves, little birds, but googled the Inca Dove, and it's a bird I've never seen. Those big enough to eat? or even legal to shoot? I know Ground Doves are not

[Rick]

Well, hell, always thought "ground dove" a colloquialism for Incas and never looked for differences. Didn't think either looked right in Google images, until I went to flight photos - and found both then showed the russet hue I associate with what I'm thinking of. Ranges over-lap, so guess I'll try to photograph or glass one for heavily scaled appearance or lack thereof. Haven't dove hunted in decades but am pretty sure the wee ones, by any name, are protected.

[BGkirk]

Never heard of the Inca dove, but coincidently at my grand in laws the other day under there feeder we saw a small dove with what seemed to be a different feather color/arrangement... I claimed it being a young mourning, now I know I was wrong. Will have to inform the in laws they have illegals trespassing in back yard


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DComeaux]

Unmistakable sound when they flush. It sounds like they're shaking a little bag of rocks. We have them around here at home every now and again.

The tiny Inca Dove is covered in tan scaly-looking feathers and blends right in with its suburban desert habitats. That is, until it bursts into flight, making a dry rattling whir with its wings while flashing chestnut underwings and white in its tail.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Inca_Dove/overview

[Ducaholic]

According to LDWF we can shoot...Dove: (Mourning, White-winged, Fully Dressed Eurasian, and Collard Doves)

[Rick]

Have it in my head that a pup named Blue ate the last dove I shot, which would have made it 2005, so it's a non-issue to me. I'll hike a mile and swelter in the September afternoon sun to watch a blue-wing work, but wouldn't cross the street on a cool morning to shoot a dove. Not that I won't help eat someone else's, just not much of a shooter.

[Ducaholic]

Have it in my head that a pup named Blue ate the last dove I shot, which would have made it 2005, so it's a non-issue to me. I'll hike a mile and swelter in the September afternoon sun to watch a blue-wing work, but wouldn't cross the street on a cool morning to shoot a dove. Not that I won't help eat someone else's, just not much of a shooter.

Thankfully it opens in the morning these days so by 9:00 I'm done and my back yard is my dove field.

[DComeaux]

Have it in my head that a pup named Blue ate the last dove I shot, which would have made it 2005, so it's a non-issue to me. I'll hike a mile and swelter in the September afternoon sun to watch a blue-wing work, but wouldn't cross the street on a cool morning to shoot a dove. Not that I won't help eat someone else's, just not much of a shooter.

Thankfully it opens in the morning these days so by 9:00 I'm done and my back yard is my dove field.

I used to have this growing up into my early twenties when we had the dairy farm. Our cut hay fields in September was where I spent my time. All of this is gone now, not to mention the acres and acres of "dirty" soybean fields with access. I haven't had a place to do this in many, many years.

I can remember vividly sitting under a bush in September at the gate to my high school football field in sweltering heat. I was dressed in full football gear waiting for the coach to open the gate, all the while watching doves pass by in range. I still remember my thoughts as to what in the hell was I doing here with this crap on. It was even worse when I heard the coach jogging his way to the gate with his keys jingling. He always seemed to be in a better place mentally then I was at that time.

[Deltaman]

I am fortunate enough get invited each dove season by a friend that quietly farms a small field on a 40 acre patch, lined by Pecan trees on one side, and a hay field with pond on the other, and has always been a natural spot for doves. You can spend as much money as you care to try and attract birds to your patch of ground, but if it is not in the right place, it will all be for naught. We only hunt 3-4 times during the season, and the number of times I have fumbled shells trying to reload because they wouldn't stop coming, are many, and the excitement rivals a fast hunt in a duck blind for me. At the start of the season, the heat can be unbearable, so we start with a big feed midday, and wait until we see birds working the field before walking out and setting up, usually around 3:00, in the shade of a Pecan tree when possible. Pretty exciting in those trees when the birds are zipping in and out in every direction. I still prefer a good duck hunt, but a good dove hunt is right up there with it, and a whole lot easier my terrible sleeping habits.