The last week of the regular duck season, (there's a five-day break and then open again,) came with perfect weather and some of the best duck action I've seen in years. Because of a warm early December, the Northern ducks just kind of chilled out for a while before heading south. Well, they headed and then they stopped in Craig and it was good.
Along with a ton of mallards, there were also gadwalls, blue-bills, ring necks, buffalo heads, golden eyes and yes, pintails. In fact, for the last couple weeks I was seeing a couple of these guys just about every time out but couldn't get a good shot on one. Jill came out once and dropped this nice bull sprig. We were actually lucky enough to shoot two pintails on Saturday.
Check this out. About 45 minutes before the end of shooting hours, a green head set into the decoys and I shot. I didn't hit him all that well so he circled over the field on the other side of the channel we were set up in and as he got out a few hundred yards, he took a nose dive. It happens quite a bit if you get a couple BB's in their lungs; they fill up with blood and suffocate but it takes a little while.
Seeing where this duck dropped and knowing it was going to be dead, we left it until shooting hours were done and this is what we found. A hawk had been circling over and apparently got to this duck before we did and in literally less than 45 minutes, completely devoured this thing. You can tell it was a fresh kill because the bill is still yellow and it wasn't frozen but check out how clean this skeleton is. Crazy.
Keep 'em where they live...
P.S. Big news coming soon...and oh yah, great win by the Packers. I know all you Dallas fans will be complaining for the next week but by rule, the right call was made. And Mike; sorry about throwing all the "f" bombs at you when you threw the red flag. It was the only challenge you got right all season. Good timing.
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