2025 Preseason...

[DComeaux]

Call and I enjoyed the sight and sound of our year's first specks, a nice flight of maybe 20, passing well within working range while on our morning round of some rice a friend is putting crawfish water on.

I like reading that.

[Rick]

Thought I'd just managed blue sky pics when trying to catch those first, and so far only, specks with my phone while wearing shades but just found this among them:

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Was sorting through some taken this morning while refueling our new marsh saver:

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[Darren]

Hows the salinity of that pumped water? Recall there being concerns of saltiness in the past during perhaps worse drought conditions than we have now.

Did that salt in the past end up doing much noticeable harm?

[Rick]

That I can't answer your question about the ICW's current salinity tells me it's been too long since I've sat with farmer friends whose water depends on it. Can say that two falls ago the drought was such that we were pumping shrimp and flounder into the Cherry ridge marsh, and it's vegetation returned with a vengeance the following year. Wish it and/or last year's freeze were enough to knock out the salvinia we've been spraying...

[Rick]

Received two nice gifts when I aired Call a tick after 3 this morning: Orion was shining brightly through the only hole in the heavy overcast, serendipodously shaped as though it was opened just to highlight the hunters' constellation, then an unseen flight of specks accompanied by at least one blue popped off nearby.

Also heard another, far more distant, flight of specks I couldn't spot against the morning sun while spraying fourchettes at my blind, so Darren can report they're "stacking up".

[Duck Engr]

Print it!!

[Darren]

so Darren can report they're "stacking up".

Speck day in Klondike is back! Heat up the presses !!

[Rick]

If that was speck day, we're totally screwed. Call and I did a couple mile lap of some Klondike second crop crawfish ponds this morning without sight or sound of migrants other than a very small handful of snipe.

[Darren]

2015 speck day was October 14
2016 was Oct 21
2017 was Oct 25

So we're perhaps a bit tardy by those (past/historic) reference points.

Dont have anything logged since then, and that's probably not a good omen, but the Speck Day in Slidell from the other day is nonetheless noteworthy given the size of the flock and how wayward they were from typical travel paths.

[Rick]

Call and I were in the marsh this morning taking advantage of the NW winds to spray fourchettes SW of our boat access to them and test fire a new ebonite LA Cut Singleton call that I'd tuned higher than what's become my "tried and true" acrylic version of its model in the field. Broke a hen mottled out of a pair in dramatic fashion shortly after reaching the blind and enjoyed her company and vocal critiques of both the new and "old" cutdowns for a good while before she got lonesome for visible company - or was run off. Did see one bunch of sky high pintails - headed north - and only managed to break them up but not down. Also drew passes from some of the several nice bunches (40-50 or so) of blue-wings working the marsh and saw a few similar but higher flights from the north on my way out.

Wasn't satisfied with any of the three differently tuned reeds I'd taken for the new call, but couldn't have been more tickled with my "old" one when jumping all over it turned a "too many to be mottleds" bunch of mottleds that was flat silly far and into a building wind out over the body and finished them front and center, though only a few actually lit and none stayed. Never, not ever would have attempted that stunt with witnesses, but you can bet granny's ponytail there will be witnesses to such "silliness" on tough mornings in the future.

[Darren]

Sounds nice!! Reminds me of a similar "too many to be mottleds" wad 20+ strong from 2024 opener coming on same line at the same height the grays usually frequent.......alllllllllllll mottleds, that had to be passed on due to closed first 15 days.

[Rick]

This morning in the marsh was incredibly disappointing after yesterday's encouraging show. Even the black-bellies seemed to have found somewhere else to be in any real numbers.

[Ducaholic]

This morning in the marsh was incredibly disappointing after yesterday's encouraging show. Even the black-bellies seemed to have found somewhere else to be in any real numbers.

Even so it was a beautiful morning to be out and about!

[Rick]

Even so it was a beautiful morning to be out and about!

That it most certainly was.

[Rick]

October 26, 2022:




After the nice show on the way to my blind the day before, I videoed the portion of the route to my blind where birds are generally thickest - and ended up deleting their no-show. And once at the blind, I was lucky enough to pull the only big ducks seen from there off the body and over me: 30 or so pintails I couldn't break below 60 or 70 yards. Also saw a single big bunch of presumed blue-wings playing over the marsh that the call, or coincidence, eventually drew over us and was surprised to find it a giant wad of spoons. That was it for waterfowl during our early morning hour there, aside from far, far fewer distant black-bellies than expected. And making the outside loop back to the boathouse was no more encouraging.

Things surely do change. Here's hoping they're swarming the rice somewhere of the ag land routes I've driven...