Preseason 2016...

[Rick]

Sweet morning. After we wore out the old coyote, Marsh and I took a stroll through the new Gueydan west farm, hoping to video teal popping out of the duck salad, but found it drained and that party over:


But the open water south half of the farm, which had been barren while the salad was available, was now holding some birds, so we did get a bit of video:


But the highlight by far was getting to work several bunches of specks into "Oh, my!" range. They were taking a cut hidden by a hairy levee on the next farm, but many were easy enough to coerce into passing the body for a close look at the fool curled up in the middle of a newly mowed grass road next to a monkey-tailed coyote. Was an absolute hoot to see so many tongues and confirm that the previously errant backup call's re-tune will do nicely. Though kissing the grass did nothing to improve my bird in flight photography:


(Not the best of the lot, but perhaps the most "representative".)

[Darren]

Rick,

what all species could you make out from the pile of ducks? Couldn't make them out in the video, mostly blue wings?

[Ericdc]

Looked like some gadwalls in that mob


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[Rick]

Is this the farm that is owned by the same person we talked about that we are renting our new house/camp from?


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No, his piece runs from behind the house you're renting to a big drain on the south. It was all farmed out for teal, and I haven't been by there since just before that.

The video was shot by the driers a mile or two north of your blind.

[Rick]

Rick,

what all species could you make out from the pile of ducks? Couldn't make them out in the video, mostly blue wings?

I saw a few spoons and miscellaneous in the pile, but mostly bluewings by a mile and a half. Did have a bakers' dozen pins come pretty when I was working a lost young speck early on, but can't claim to have IDed any in the resting pile I tried to move for the camera.

[DComeaux]

Nice to see the birds. Hopefully we get to see that in the marsh this weekend, and don't forget to yell out the heading when they jump.

[Rick]

...and don't forget to yell out the heading when they jump.

Shoot, I couldn't even make 'em fly more than a couple hundred yards at best - and that was west.

[Rick]

Been over a week since my last entry, in part because a return to summer weather has brought the migration to what appears a halt and grounded most of what's already here. Went out of my way this morning just to see something besides mottleds and teal without much luck: crossed paths with just one little flight of big ducks that were streamlined enough to denote pintails or grays, instead of mottles, and found the most specks seen on the ground to date are still where they were last week but have started to hop the drain to take advantage of new growth where the teal water was let off on our piece next door:


Lousy pic, for sure, but I didn't do anything to discourage their trend getting it.

Deer rifle season began this weekend, and I've been doing my hunting on a piece where I could watch and listen to mottleds and enjoy an absolute calling clinic put on by what seemed a bazillion and twelve unseen bluewings across the upwind protection levee. I may never feel like I've gone too far with how I call distant marsh teal again after listening to what seemed a recording of it for three evenings running. Don't s'pose they were mocking me?

Also got to watch the first two whoopers I've seen on that piece leave it and join the chorus next door yesterday. Would have been a first class evening even if I'd kept my eyes closed. That I didn't was unfortunate for this fellow:


But I'm ashamed to say he got a much better deal than opening morning's little buck. Spotted that one stepping into shoulder high cover that was about to get higher, and having a solid shooting sticks rest and reasonable range, I took a "sure thing" neck shot that dropped him in his tracks. Except he jumped back up and made an apparently disoriented loop around me before stopping in short enough maiden cane that I could see his shoulder and finish what I'd started. Don't know who did what to foil the first shot, but it could have been truly tragic:


Something I hope I'll remember when considering a similar shot anywhere beyond rock chucking range.

Anyway, I'm ready for a weather change and more than snipe and bird hawks to suggest the season's really coming.

[Ericdc]

I've got a few on my camera. We start the 29th up here.



And a few big does. None of the bucks appear big enough for my liking, I've killed 3 from 14-16" wide and would like the next one to be more mature. Got plenty of does and spikes for freezer.



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[Ericdc]

Been over a week since my last entry, in part because a return to summer weather has brought the migration to what appears a halt and grounded most of what's already here. Went out of my way this morning just to see something besides mottleds and teal without much luck: crossed paths with just one little flight of big ducks that were streamlined enough to denote pintails or grays, instead of mottles, and found the most specks seen on the ground to date are still where they were last week but have started to hop the drain to take advantage of new growth where the teal water was let off on our piece next door:


Lousy pic, for sure, but I didn't do anything to discourage their trend getting it.

Deer rifle season began this weekend, and I've been doing my hunting on a piece where I could watch and listen to mottleds and enjoy an absolute calling clinic put on by what seemed a bazillion and twelve unseen bluewings across the upwind protection levee. I may never feel like I've gone too far with how I call distant marsh teal again after listening to what seemed a recording of it for three evenings running. Don't s'pose they were mocking me?

Also got to watch the first two whoopers I've seen on that piece leave it and join the chorus next door yesterday. Would have been a first class evening even if I'd kept my eyes closed. That I didn't was unfortunate for this fellow:


But I'm ashamed to say he got a much better deal than opening morning's little buck. Spotted that one stepping into shoulder high cover that was about to get higher, and having a solid shooting sticks rest and reasonable range, I took a "sure thing" neck shot that dropped him in his tracks. Except he jumped back up and made an apparently disoriented loop around me before stopping in short enough maiden cane that I could see his shoulder and finish what I'd started. Don't know who did what to foil the first shot, but it could have been truly tragic:


Something I hope I'll remember when considering a similar shot anywhere beyond rock chucking range.

Anyway, I'm ready for a weather change and more than snipe and bird hawks to suggest the season's really coming.

I've shot quite a few in the neck. But always broadside in rock chunking range.


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[Rick]

It's something I avoid when I can because I hang them by the neck to skin and box, and the ballistic tip bullets I use do enough damage to make pulling on the hide an iffy deal. Meaning I'll have to peel most all of it with a knife. But when it's a matter of deer or no deer the debate begins.

[Ericdc]

I've never tried those bullets, the traditional soft points have never let me down.

Glad you got a couple


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[aunt betty]

If a deer pops up out of a ditch and it's 15 feet away eye to eye face to face #6 shot will do the trick. (self-defense)
Style points mean nothing once the meat is in the freezer.

[Rick]

I've never tried those bullets, the traditional soft points have never let me down.

A club in coastal South Carolina(?), where the limit was one a day every day for like two months, tracked ammo and distance between shot and fall for however-many seasons, and the Ballistic Tips led the quick kill list. I started using them, instead of the Partitions I used for big guys up North, after coming down here where a shot deer that ran into the water was apt to be lost or miserable to recover and haven't been disappointed by their stopping ability. But, then, I also like to double-lung them and don't mind taking out a shoulder in the process for good measure if they're in a bad place.

[Ericdc]

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[Rick]

Tuesday's photo was just across a gravel parish road from that.

[Ericdc]

Those pics from last year were really neat.


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[Darren]

Hoping you've got something else to photograph after this frontal passage/weekend.

[Rick]

Been thinking "Thursday" all week and admit waking to more of the same weather this morning sucked. Now see the turn is this evening and going to come down to the wire about how shifting wind will affect my plans to see if the change moves a deer my way. If it comes too late this afternoon, the initial westerly swing may shut me down until morning...

But, yeah, I'm also hoping to see new birds.

Longer term forecast, however, isn't doing anything encouraging on that front - or to make me think the water will be cool enough to give Marsh some practice working what falls behind the Mudhole blind before the season. Have visions of a warm water season start like last year's, where we'll have to work under the same gator enforced limitations as September teal. And when water temps finally do drop to safe, I'll be trying to acclimate an unprepared pup to working through the boat and in and out of it in manageable routes through the floating super-duper mess that is our "island" on paying guns' time. Not a good thought.

[Ericdc]

Supposed to be 39 at my blind Saturday morning. Prolly won't be that cool for any of the early speck season. Just thankful the 90 degree weather is gone for the year....hopefully.


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[Rick]

"...hopefully." But we're still showing mid 80s all next week.

60 now and nice, but the front took its time and a westerly breeze kept me out of the field last evening. No matter how badly I wanted to make it work somehow, and hemmed and hawed over it: a bad wind is a bad wind. Ended up just taking a ride and went home without getting 50yds from the truck. Didn't see but one little flight of teal, let alone a show of anything, or deer.

[Darren]

"...hopefully." But we're still showing mid 80s all next week.

60 now and nice, but the front took its time and a westerly breeze kept me out of the field last evening. No matter how badly I wanted to make it work somehow, and hemmed and hawed over it: a bad wind is a bad wind. Ended up just taking a ride and went home without getting 50yds from the truck. Didn't see but one little flight of teal, let alone a show of anything, or deer.

Try again today, hope on hope......

[Rick]

10/21/16: Specklebelly Day in Klondike.

Didn't see a single high flight from the north but was treated a mess of lower ones out of the south headed into the north wind and toward rice. Have no idea if they came in with this little front or slipped in over the week that's passed since last I was in that area at sunrise. Could be I've simply missed them, because the flight was all but over by 8, and I didn't see pecans on the drive back to town. Have no idea why I didn't photograph some of the birds that came low overhead, other than that I was "deer hunting," but didn't even think about the camera until nearly at the truck, when I shot what seemed the last of them rising up off the guy in the orange vest on a grass road:


Would have been the perfect morning flight for hunting, with birds in sight somewhere most of the time, but not in such numbers or so bunched up that the flight's momentum would be hard to break. And there were lots of bare-bellied young birds, which may bode well for the season to come...

[Ericdc]

We do the best on ducks on days just like this. Have killed some specks but seem to have our best speck hunts on strong southerly winds.


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[Darren]

Only 7 days behind last year's Speck Day in Klondike I noted to be Oct 14. Also recall that the next day we had a speck day of sorts in Mandeville area, as odd as that is, with flights over town headed SE.

[Rick]

Finally saw a high, lost looking bunch while working the dogs a bit ago and some others taking a field just east of Lake Arthur.