One Last Widgeon

The day after Christmas I had planned a duck hunt with my friend Josh, and then he informed me that an old hunting buddy of ours, Todd, was in town from Utah, so that made it final. We got up early in the morning and headed out to the river to set up the decoys hoping that the wind would not be blowing this week. The forecast was calling for a high pressure system to move into Arizona creating deep blue skies, and a gentle morning breeze, not exactly good duck hunting weather. As the sun started to make its presence know, it was apparent that birds would not be moving near as often as usual. Birds that we did see have been in the area for quite some time, in that they were more decoy shy, aka, educated than in previous weeks. Fortunately Todd was able to capitalize on a high flying Ringneck drake early in the day to avoid being skunked.


Todd with Ringnecks



Pair of Drake Ringnecks

After some time with no birds flying Josh decided to go see if he could jump shoot some birds down river from us. Some time later we heard several rounds of shooting, hoping that Josh had connected on some birds, I said maybe some will come our way. We prepared for ducks to arrive, but they never did. Josh returned back to the blind to tell us he had dropped a pair of Ringnecks. As the sun started to heat up the desert we decided to head for home, I thought I need some good pictures to post on the blog and we have an extra now to take them. So we packed the decoys into their bags and proceeded to take some pictures.

Whos Standing in a Hole



Is that A Duck Coming in

Having hunted ducks for many years now. I sat my gun to the side in a safe location, but still ready to go. We took several pictures when 10 plus ducks appeared down river. A quick dash to the gun then two steps to the river and I was good to go. As soon as we were set, one of the birds cupped up and committed to the duck hole. This bird was on a wire, and as I whispered don’t shoot, don’t shoot; I could see it was a nice drake widgeon. I won’t claim to be trying to get this duck solely for me, but funny enough that is how it worked out. As I went to call the shot it saw me move, it flared, I fired and the pictures tell the rest. This bird is a beautiful bird and will probably end up mounted on the wall as well as the dinner table. In the end it was a great day hanging out with friends and hunting ducks.