All I want for Christmas...

[Crazy_Farmer]

Is some full colour drake wigeons. And my dad even told me that you give the birds a day of rest on christmas. But theres no days off for me.

I guess everyone has "that" duck. You know the duck that you love to chase and hunt. The one you think looks the best. For me, it has to be the wigeon. I dont know what it is about the little guys but from the sound they make, to the colouring, and how they decoy, also I guess, we see or dont get alot of them each year but they're my favorite duck.

So after waking up christmas morning, thinking about going out in the morning instead sleeping in a bit. I decided to go out in the deep snow to try for some traffic on some new geese that just hit the area in the afternoon.

Soon after setting up in a foot of snow, I had a white bed sheet on half of my blind, snow packed on the top half, wigeon came from everywhere and started landing into the spread about 10 feet in front of me. I just started picking out drakes, shooting only 1 or 2 out of each flock. They'd come and land right down and just sit there.

Pretty soon, as I'm looking for white heads as a new flock is landing, I see red. I say no way, I fly out of the blind, and hammer another drake wigeon down. When I got to it, my thought were confirmed, either a euro or a euro/american hybrid.




By then I had phoned Matt and told him to come out becuase the wigeon were giving a good show.

Then a nice little flock of geese came right into the decoys. Whacked three lesser down.

We figured we had enough and decided to hunt them again tomorrow morning, and after packing up, there must of been 100-200 wigeon get out of the field next door and circle our truck. I guess this cold weather really pushed the wigeon in from somewhere. As we rarely see this amount here.

[Ian F.]

Crazy,

do a google search for carney and wing id, you'll find the info you need for checking that bird out. I've shot alot fo dark widgeon, but not like that, I think you have cool one there!

Ian

[Crazy_Farmer]

Yea, I've been kindof leaning towards a euro/american hyrid but just not that mature yet, the colour is alot more red in the chest compared to the other wigeons, and the head has alot of bright red with a tiny bit of green right behind the eyes. Definitely a cool bird, its pretty beat up though, I'm going to get the one wigeon mounted thats on top with the euro one. Probably not do anything with the euro one though.


American wigeon
Axillars (if present) entirely white or flecked only at their tips.
Underwing middle coverts all or nearly all white.
Scapulars of males (if present) are heavily vermiculated with reddish brown.
Eurasian wigeon
Axillars (if present) heavily flecked with gray over their entire length.
Underwing middle coverts heavily flecked with gray.
Scapulars of males (if present) are heavily vermiculated with black and white.

Its definitely a hybrid.

The axillars are all flecked grey, no white at all.
The middle coverts are all grey aswell, no white like the other american wigeon.
And last the Scapulars are half reddish brown like an american wigeon and half black/white like the euros.

Its too bad he's not a more mature bird. Birds like that dont come around every season.

[porcupine]

Nice bird! Congratulations. I'd get the euro one mounted. It would be really cool to tha a euro, a hybred, and a american all mounted together. Now's you chance for 2 out of three. It might not come again. What a nice Christmas.
________
weed vaporizer

[phearless]

Very nice!
I had a field years ago where I had excellant widgeon hunting.
None this year at all.
I hope to get out for some late season geese.