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View Full Version : Waterfowling 101 - part 2, Scouting



Ian F.
09-04-2007, 10:22 AM
So let’s review from the last instalment, getting started.

Being successful at waterfowling, means you must be a good wingshot, and the only way to become a good wingshot is to practice, practice and practice some more!

And the answer to who was Shang Wheeler and why should you give a damn?

Shang (Charles E. Wheeler) was one of the bet carvers to ever make decoys, and this is what he is known most for. He was a member of the “Stratford school” of carvers and brought the tradition forward and refined it. He also did his part to continue the school and the tradition, this strong desire to not let what he learned die is one of the reasons you should give a damn. Shang and a few others are the fathers of modern decoys, and as such every time we hunt over blocks, be it hand carved or mass produced we owe to him in the same vein we owe to Elvis for rock and roll.

Yet another reason we should give a damn about him was that he never sold a decoy! Many times he would gift a rig to someone in need of one. I’ve gifted lots in hunting, but I do sell decoys and know of no one who carves at a reasonable level that has not sold at least one bird. Lastly he was selfless, Shang became a senator in Connecticut for the sole reason to get legislation passed to protect Long Island Sound, and the fish and fowl that lived there! He was a conservation pioneer, a gentleman hunter and world class carver, he has indirectly touched anyone who takes up fowling, and that’s why you should give a damn!

http://guyetteandschmidt.com/archives/2001/a04.jpg

Scouting…

I am never not scouting! NEVER! I ride the skytrain to work everyday, I watch out the window as we go by the Fraser to see what birds are around, what numbers, what plumage level. Can I hunt in downtown New West? No, but I still gain valuable information.

The first thing to learn about scouting is it’s constant, never ending and the more you look, the better you see, and the better you see the more you learn, and the more you learn the better you get!

You need to learn about ducks!

You need to know where ducks live

You need to know where ducks feed

You need to know where ducks rest

And,

You need to start on the pathway to understanding the “why” part to each of those questions!

The single most important thing in waterfowling is simple, but many over look or ignore it.

Find out where the ducks want to be, Hunt there!

If you are where the ducks want to be all else matters little, you could kill your count with no decoys, in fluorescent orange with a birthday party of 5 year olds if you are where the ducks want to be!

So how do we find this magical spot? Read on!

I’ll say this here; quite clearly, I will not be telling anyone a spot to hunt, PERIOD! I work too hard to find my spots to just give them away, I have lost spots and permissions over the years and it really hurts and sucks! So call me a crank, but once you put the work in you will understand.

I will teach you to find you own spots, because I believe in teaching to fish, over giving. If you want a little insight into me and why I’m doing this, take a look (http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/(http://partridgecreek.ca/Partridge%20Creek/The%20Partridgecreek%20Philosophy.html))

This would be as good of place as any to talk about Duck Hunting Etiquette.

If someone takes you to one of their spots, public, private of otherwise, it is their spot and you should not talk about it nor return without another invite, permission or understanding from the spots owner. This is a grey area, especially for the eager beginner, but you will soon understand.
Don’t hunt too close to another!
To qualify, if no one is there, and there is no active blind, first come first served!
If there is an active blind (fresh veg, new sign, and fresh shell cases) give them 250 yards min, 400 even better, or best find a spot to yourself!
The law in BC says 100m from buildings, dykes, parks and preserves don’t forget this!
If you end up in a confrontation over who hunts here today, why not hunt together?
Take out what you took in! Empty shells cases belong in the garbage, not the marsh along with wrappers, cigarette butts and empty cans.
More later as it comes up

Birds use different areas for different reasons, and sometimes do all they have to do in one spot. We can break these areas down as follows, Feeding, Resting, and Traveling. Birds feeding may only use a spot for a few hours, or may hole up there for weeks. Food on land means the birds will need a drink, and so on.

So let’s start with generalities that apply to all three areas. First off, you can eliminate huge areas from your scouting if you find out where is and is not legal to hunt birds in your area. Take out all the closed areas, all the built up areas, and all the areas you can’t shoot safely and the grid gets smaller. Now take out all the areas you can’t access for whatever reason and the grid gets smaller again. We are now left with a search area, but need to know what to look for!

Start off looking for ducky spots, and I will talk only of puddlers and geese here, I will write a separate section on divers and sea ducks. Ducky areas usually have water and vegetation and are shallow enough that the birds can feed.

http://www.digitalfrog.com/resources/archives/marsh.jpg

There must be cover from predators, and it must be big enough for what those birds want. Often you’ll find a small hole and it may hold a few birds, but if you choose to hunt it, it could be a one bang hunt as it doesn’t hold numbers of birds, so for now look for areas that are at least ½ a football field in size.

Keep in mind that a lot of scouting can be done from your house, looking over maps and finding spots to go check out. Unless you have a ton of time on your hands you want to maximize your time in the field and be looking where it’s worth looking.

While I’m thinking of it, if you are reading this, then you are “net savvy” spend time surfing, read everything you can on duck hunting, ducks, wetlands you name it. The wealth of info is mind blowing. Information is power, and this power is your shortcut to good wingshooting.

So we’ve found some ducky areas, looked at them through the trucks window, but are they worth hunting or not? To some degree only time will tell. You see at this time of year (late summer), we only have local birds and not migrants, so the true indicator of a spot, being ducks present, may be hard right now to confirm. Don’t count out a spot until you’ve checked it out in season, and a few different times. A place void today could be covered in birds come November.

The next step is to get out and check it out! A boat is best, but use what you have. You are looking for signs birds have been there, or would like to visit. These signs include feathers, rooted up vegetation, or vegetation holding feed!

http://ucreserve.ucsc.edu/YoungerLagoon/photos/plants/bulrush.jpg
See those little buds at the ends? That would be duck food!

Ian F.
09-04-2007, 10:23 AM
Find any signs? Now look for a place to hunt from, once again we’ll talk about boats and blinds later, but if you are walking in, is the bottom firm enough, and shallow enough to set dekes and retrieve birds? Is there a good place to hide? Where will the sun come up? Which way is the prevailing wind, all things to consider!

The formula is simple, find a likely spot, and check it out. The more you do this, the more you confirm your thoughts, the better you get at this!

Back to feeding, resting and travelling.

Let’s start with travelling, I don’t look for travel paths other then to find where the ducks are coming from or going too. I do not like to pass shoot and looking for traveling lanes usually means pass shooting. Sometimes you can rig out along a flight path and pull birds in, but you are not where the birds want to be! Use traveling birds as indicators.

Feeding areas on the water can be harder to spot unless you know the signs.

http://www.alaska-in-pictures.com/data/media/1/feeding-mallard-ducks_7356.jpg

Disturbed vegetation and floating bits are the obvious signs, the easy one on land (duck poop) doesn’t help you here! Kicking birds out is one of the best ways to find them, and also you will rarely find feeding areas that are not well vegetated. Ducks in open water tend to be resting, so look to the edges, look for movement, and if all else fails, give it a whirl and see how it performs!

Birds feeding in fields are easy to see, especially geese, but the crops need to be cut, the birds have to be around (not many birds in the lower mainland right now, so if there was a smorgasbord of spilled corn, it will sit till the birds arrive) Once you spot the birds note the spot in the field they are. GET PERMISSION BEFORE YOU GO ANY FURTHER! Leave the birds be, don’t spook them out, set up the next day for an awesome hunt, remember, you are now where the birds want to be! No birds? Have a field already? Take a walk, look for poop, feathers, amount of feed, signs birds have been in there (cobs without kernels) Most of us work, and scout when we can, birds do what they want on there schedule so we don’t always see them when we are there, but they leave sign!

http://www.deltafarmland.ca/images/P1020170.jpg

Resting, Often resting birds are the most obvious, they are the birds in the middle of the pond taking it easy, digesting lunch, taking a drink. Resting areas (different then roosting where birds spend the night) are great places to hunt, equal with feeding and sometime better! Those sometimes are when the birds are field feeding, you can’t hunt or can’t get permission there, but you can hunt the public water where they come to rest!

Birds fly on schedules, for instance ducks fly at first light, but geese wait about an hour after sun up to get moving, they leave the water and head to feed. Goose shooting in fields is a gentleman’s game for sure! My point? You have to look at different times through the day, or you may miss them. Also, just about anywhere can be a resting area, not so with feeding. So you found a spot, saw some birds mulling there a day or two before and now you are on the water check it out, what to look for? Feathers always look for feathers! Ducks preen constantly and always are loosing and replacing feathers! The other indicator or resting areas are sand, mud, gravel or logs that have obvious signs so****ing has been there (lack of veg is the obvious), but you will also see duck poop! Poop is a sure sign birds have spent some time there, poop is your friend!

You’ve scouted a spot or two, and now you hunt it. Pay attention to what’s going on around you. Are you in “the spot” or are the birds going down over there? DO you see a flight path you never saw before? In season, and during hunting scouting is the most important and often finds you your best spots! After I pack up I almost always go on a tour to check spots out and see what’s what. If you build a blind and hunt one spot all season long, you get what you get. If you want to be consistently into the birds, you need to be where the birds want to be, and that can change, even hourly!


I’m at 5 pages so far, so I think I’ll break there, any questions or comments add below.

Homework….

What is the preferred feeding habitat of mallards? On opener mallards will be in eclipse plumage, what is this? And how can you tell a drake from a hen?

Very best,

Ian

4ptbuck
09-04-2007, 10:44 AM
Homework answers:
Preferred feeding habitat of mallards is the handouts of corn within the Reifel bird sanctuary.
Eclipse plumage is the transition plumage before the traditional colours come out.
In full plumage, it's pretty easy.... In eclipse,...I would have to do some research....

4ptbuck
09-04-2007, 10:46 AM
oh yeah,... keep up the good work.
There one thing you should mention, hopefully it is upcoming. The retrieval of birds, and the benefits of a dog to a die hard ducker.

MichelD
09-04-2007, 11:03 AM
Another awesome chapter Ian.

Crazy_Farmer
09-04-2007, 06:34 PM
One true thing about waterfowling is the more time you spend scouting the less time you spend hunting. It makes the difference bewteen slow hard days or exciting quick days.

Sasquatch
09-04-2007, 08:15 PM
Great post Ian. Thanks.

Dano
09-04-2007, 08:51 PM
Great stuff, Ian!
I've hunted the same area for years but like Ian said, I moved last year to another area about 1/4 mile from my old spot just to be closer to where the birds want to be (not enough cover to go to the perfect spot). We did well and because it is slightly narrower across the slough we are at now, we get better/closer shots.
I'm heading out again tommorrow night to do a little more work on the blind. I was out sunday and the vegitation is thick all over the marsh. A lot more weeds in the sloughs too. Goose season opens saturday, I can't go but my buddies are heading out. I may get out sunday.
Like was mentioned, this is an opportunity to scout out the area too. I checked out a couple spots I haven't hunted and although I don't plan to go there, I may give it a try one day if the birds are going there and nobody is hunting the area (there is occasionally someone there but not more than a couple times a year). Not a lot of birds around yet, did see a few nice flights of 15-20 though....
Ian also touched on something that guys who share information deserve from those they help. It's the ethical part of hunting and as much as anything else, it's respect for others. Many years ago, I took a guy out duck hunting. We had a good day and the next week I went out with my regular hunting partner and the guy, his dad, and his buddy were in the spot I took him to a week earlier. I set up farther up the shore and seeing as I could out call them, we had a good day and they never fired a shot. I learned a good lesson that day, pick your guests wisely and when I have a guest, I point out where I shoot, where others hunt in the area, and what areas I believe would be worth hunting if my guest should want to come out with a friend.
Look forward to more, Ian. It's good for us veterans to have a refresher like this just before the season too.
Dan

reach
09-04-2007, 09:46 PM
Great info - it all makes sense when you put it like that. Thank you :D

Those unwritten rules of ethics are gold. There is no way for a newbie like myself to learn them except from an experienced hunter so thanks for sharing.