WaterfowlForum.Net

They’re back around my area. Just seen a pair checking out my neighbor’s dead sweet gum tree. Hey Rick Hall, what’s that whistle you use to mess with em? I need one so I can play around with these this summer. Thanks.

Darren on this site imitates them quite well with his Haydel MP-90, but I've been using a Montana Lite herding dog whistle. Cheap plastic or metal ACME herding dog whistles won't cut it, the Montana Lite is relatively inexpensive compared to some top tier herding dog whistles that I haven't found appreciably better.

Good herding dog whistles will cover more of the birds' vocabulary than a 6-in-1, to include the fighting over food chatter I find most effective, but there's a learning curve to using one that may leave you wondering how it seemed so steep once you figure it out.

That’s the one! Montana lite herding dog whistle it is. Gots to order me one. Thanks again.

Mighty fine retriever you got there.
Is it gun shy?

That’s Ficey, she keep’s everything in check around here.

Ironically I'll be making some Mexican squealers after I eat this pasta and cheese stuff.

Still needs the cheese.

That two handle skillet gets a workout.
Walmart....9.99

Is that a Lodge? Looks like the one I have.

Anotherone wrote:Is that a Lodge? Looks like the one I have.

No. Cheap Chinese. ( compare to Turkish shotguns)
I think it's the Walmart camping brand .

Ozark trail? They’re probably all manufactured in the same shack in chynah by school children anyway.

Anotherone wrote:Ozark trail? They’re probably all manufactured in the same shack in chynah by school children anyway.

Yeah that's it.
Our lodge one is heavy as hell with only one handle.
We getting old and this Ozark trail one is lighter and works damn good.
I bought it because I forgot the skillet and I'm glad.

Been meaning to pack along an MP-90 on morning walks recently but continue to fail at it; squealers have been out and about over our neighborhood and actually got to see two perch in a tall yet-leafed-out tree. They just plopped down on tips of pretty small branches toward the top, first I'd seen of that.

Have you tried the W19 with squealers, website says it’s more nasally?

Anotherone wrote:Have you tried the W19 with squealers, website says it’s more nasally?

Just between us chickens, their SW-92 squirrel call is essentially the same design as the drilled old fashioned bottle caps glued together used for them in Central and South America. Don't know if that's what in the W19 Rod's blowing through in his demo, but do know sucking through the squirrel call (as it's run for squirrels and in CA&SA) is spot on the fulvous and black-bellied whistling ducks' tone - which Rod's demo isn't.

Rub with the squirrel whistle being that its mode of operation limits its volume below that of a herding or 6-in-1 whistle.

Darren wrote:Been meaning to pack along an MP-90 on morning walks recently but continue to fail at it; squealers have been out and about over our neighborhood and actually got to see two perch in a tall yet-leafed-out tree. They just plopped down on tips of pretty small branches toward the top, first I'd seen of that.

I keep a Montana Lite on the string with the dog whistles that are EDC for me, so I can mess with them on Marsh and my off-season morning rice country walkabouts. Tickles me some that many will even come investigate their alarm chirps, little like crows checking out distress cries.

Yeah, I’m wanting that Montana lite. I was just curious when I pulled up the one Darren uses and seen the W19.

Anotherone wrote:Yeah, I’m wanting that Montana lite. I was just curious when I pulled up the one Darren uses and seen the W19.

Had forgotten that Haydels took a foray into the targeted call design for the whistlers, but with photo below combined with Rick's attestation above, I can assure you an MP-90 can be run to be quite appealing to BBWD's, though not specifically designed to do so.

Also, if you go back a few years into my teal season logs on here, you might come across a video snippet of me demonstrating just that. Pretty sure it's on here, just dont have time right now to track it down for you.

Nice pile, I’m still waiting on my first one. Where I hunt, they split for the coast by late September and show back up this month. I’ve never even heard one during big duck season.

It's not even in the ID book it's so far off the flyway.

Hell, H2ODAD from the fuge informed us that they were a type of goose, not a duck. Whatever they’re considered, I want to shoot some!

Anotherone wrote:Hell, H2ODAD from the fuge informed us that they were a type of goose, not a duck. Whatever they’re considered, I want to shoot some!

I'd take it but would have to declare that " are you sure they're not pelicans" before shooting.
Ever has a guide tell you to shoot a pelican because he thought it was a goose?

Sure wish they would stick around here in the fall. They show up in decent numbers in the Spring, raise their young, and skeedaddle. You hear of one being shot from time to time, but for the most part, they are a rare sight during duck season.

Are those good eating birds?

PorkChop wrote:Are those good eating birds?

I'd have to gauge the leve of disgust on the hosts face when I pluck one instead of just breasting it.

Anotherone wrote:Hell, H2ODAD from the fuge informed us that they were a type of goose, not a duck. Whatever they’re considered, I want to shoot some!

Well, not geese, either, but their own genetic classification "like ducks, geese and swans and genetically closest to the swans" if I recall the post he eventually got around to. But they're "ducks" in the legal limit, which is what really matters to me. Well, that, and fine eating.

Mike, there probably were no black-bellies in this country when that guide was published, and the original "Mexican squealer" fulvous whistling ducks were limited to summers in our area and presumably Texas (don't know about farther east) and nearly, if not, all gone to winter in Mexico by our November regular season.

PorkChop wrote:Are those good eating birds?

Have my vote for "best," as there's less blood in their meat than ducks that work harder - which is all of 'em. They are tough to pluck, and most of us skin them, but no one in their right mind wastes those big legs.

Rick wrote:

PorkChop wrote:Are those good eating birds?

Have my vote for "best," as there's less blood in their meat than ducks that work harder - which is all of 'em. They are tough to pluck, and most of us skin them, but no one in their right mind wastes those big legs.

Gumbo em.
Thats good to know for when hurricane Jeffy blows them to North Arkansas.
Like that'll ever happen.

Ricky Spanish wrote:Gumbo em.

That would be right up there with gumboing specks on any proper list of culinary sins.

Some YouTuber from Florida cooked up the black bellie’s drumsticks. Not sure what he did with the rest of the birds, but he sure was praising the fried legs.

Rick wrote:

Ricky Spanish wrote:Gumbo em.

That would be right up there with gumboing specks on any proper list of culinary sins.

Once you skin it she's going to gumbo it.
Rick I made jerky with speck meat.

You could have a lot of fun playing "let's see of he will eat green persimmons" and that sort of thing.

Ricky Spanish wrote:Rick I made jerky with speck meat.

Don't know that I'd of told that on myself.