Rosey Bills in a swamp in Argentina

M

Mike Perry

Member
It's been a few weeks since the close. Withdrawal setting in in a big way.
I'm at the beach with the wife. (Not my favorite activity). So I am playing on the computer with some videos I shot in Argentina. The videos were shot with the Garmin VIRB camera and edited with the Garmin VIRB edit program. It's pretty simple to get to use. Believe me, if I can do it any one can.
We waded about 200 yards into a swamp hole about waste deep. Birds were coming very fast. For those who don't know, a Rosey Bill is a South American duck about 1/2 again as big as a mallard and as fast as a teal. In my experience, they don't really decoy as we know it, but just bomb in to the spread. You have to shoot what they show you on the first pass. So we shot a lot of singles because they are here and gone in a flash.
The only negative about the South American hunting is that I can't bring my dogs. They would love this!!!!! Birds fly for at least a couple hours each morning. Fun shooting for sure.
If you get a chance, you should go at least once for a fun shoot. Nice people, good food, good hunting.

https://youtu.be/D-TGPD8Ahsk
 
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Neat video Mike. Loved Argentina and keep plotting a way to go back. The variety of ducks that were totally unknown to me was fun. I really liked the people and countryside as well - maybe Patagonia fly fishing next time.
 
10-4 on that Pete, That was a bucket list trip and memories to last a lifetime. Might even follow you into the dark side of fly fishing. Lead on
 
Sorry, how do they taste was what I meant?

I like to shoot birds I like to eat...usually pass on species I don't care for as table fare. Napoleon was the source of: "An army marches on its stomach."
 
From what I understand they taste good but I don't have any personal experience. When I was down there we ate quite a few Perdiz plus beef, pigs and I think a lamb. I asked the owner of the estancia why we didn't eat any duck that week and he said that no one eats duck around there. Why? "Because they have Beef" was his answer. "Well, what do you do with them" I asked. His reply was completely logical but caught me a bit off guard. "Well you know, we have 10 dogs and we have to feed them all year long so we breast out every bird shot and freeze them for dog food." I guess no different than feeding sled dogs salmon all winter.
 
Dog salmon are mostly chum salmon and pinks, which make-up the vast majority of the salmon that get fed to sled dogs. These are not top of the lie fish for human consumption.
 
Good morning, Mike~

Thanks for sharing your experiences. You had me searching the deep recesses of my brain - and then jumping to Google. Sure enough, the Rosy-bill is a pochard - like our Cans, Redheads, Scaups and Ringnecks - so, of course it's a great gamebird!

(I was actually surprised to see how little information is on the web.)

All the best,

SJS

 
They are the Argentine version of the redhead. Hen is pretty similar, but the drake is rather gaudy, especially the knob on the bill. Rest of him is the normal -kind of-redheadish color. BTW, they taste like our pochards.
Looking forward to the trip south the end of June. Should be a hoot. This is my twelfth trip.
Indeed, a retriever would be in heaven with the numbers of patos that are available. That trip would not be advisable for a dawg, though.
Glad you had a blast!
 
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