The things you would miss.

Jon Yenulonis

Jon Yenulonis

Well-known member
I was out on a solo hunt yesterday at my nearby State Park Reservoir. I put out, (THANKS GUYS), an, (unusually small spread, for me), odd number of 21 decoys. The spread did however contain eight different species. Anyways, I had three Bufflehead decoys kinda segregated off to themselves. I seldom shoot the little Butterballs, but i sure have enjoyed many a hunt by just watching them decoy. Mid morning, I had a hen land in amongst her brethren and swim and frolic about. I was, as I said, just watching the show. After a few minutes, I noticed a young Eagle flying from across the lake. As it approached, I watched as the tiny brown duck became more and more nervous. As the raptor got closer, I watched as she would actually get up, yet immediately turn and re-land right into the toy duck spread. I mean literally, like within inches of the decoys. She would make nervous, little noises directed at her likenesses as if to say- what's going on? Why aren't you leaving? Dont you see the danger lurking above?! I witnessed this over and over again, until the big bird was far away. A few minutes later, the Eagle returned and I was afforded an encore. This happened several times. Very, very neat to watch this little show. One of the countless, silly, meaningless memories I have from Duck hunting. Someday, I should write a book...

But the way, I did manage to scratch down a beautiful drake Goldeneye. A relatively scarce duck around here.

Jon
 
"and to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street"


Good morning, Jon~


Thanks for the wonderful story! I have often reflected on the many wonderful happenings I have observed while afield - and especially in front of a rig with a shotgun on my lap. Because we make the effort to go to special places at special times in special weather - and sit quietly and patiently - we are rewarded with the opportunity to see and hear things which simply cannot be experienced from one's abode. It's an important part of The Rich Storehouse of Memories each of us fills throughout our lives in nature.


I have not been so lucky as to see what you saw, but we frequently watch Eagles cruise over our rigs, looking for a potential meal, especially on our rivers in late-season. Many years ago, though, I did watch a small bunch of Butterball dive into Great South Bay from full flight. They scattered and corkscrewed down and dove directly into the waves without first landing. I soon saw the explanation: a Peregrine in hot pursuit not far behind them.


We duck hunters are lucky in many, many ways.


All the best,


SJS

 
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I never posted these photos from our opener because the picture quality was so bad, but the story associated with them dovetails quite well to Jon's experience, except I turned-out to be the buffie! The wind had died down and was shifting from southwest to northwest when this occurred. I had just had a group of wigeon drop in behind be from open water on the west side of the island, tearing the air as the zig-zagged in. As they started their decent I quickly realized what was happening and decided to not move to shoot until the noise of the air against their wings indicated they were to my left and nearly on top of me. When I turned and shot twice two birds fell and the remainder of the flock of five swung out and away. The lead bird of the remaining three was hit, so I grabbed the my new binocs. and centered him watching him pull the other two birds back down to the deck. He found a small cluster of hard stem bull rush about three hundred yards from me and landed, quickly swimming into the center of it. As I was watching him in the 10x40s I could see he was fighting to keep his up and stationary, and then I noticed a red pool around him on the water-wow good binocs! I waited until he dropped his head to send Kane to retrieve the other two wigeon. That was when I noticed this eagle sitting in the top of a dead yellow birch. After the dog brought back both ducks I got him back in the boat and dug out my camera and grabbed my binoculars to get a clear view of him. He was a yearling bird staring intently at me, so I grabbed the camera and zoomed it to maximum and took a crappy grainy photo. When I saw how badly the photo. had come out on the viewer, I started to take another pic when he jumped, flying directly at me. I frantically tried to center him in the frame as he swooped in my direction of glide mode, when I realized he was getting really close. I ducked and apparently hit the camera actuation button at the same time as he whooshed by inside of ten feet over my head, before sliding down the shoreline and turning the corner out of sight.

I waited until there was a long lull in bird movement, snugged the dog lead off to a blind support post, attaching it to Kane's collar on a "just-in-case" move so he wouldn't try to follow me on the "retrieve" to get the now long dead wigeon still sitting tucked in that cluster of bulrush stems. Yes, a group of mallards worked-in while I was out getting that bird! They settled in the cove where the tree line is notched in the last photo, eventually swelling to around fifty birds. I hunted this spot eventually, seeing six black crowned night herons perched in a small cove.

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By far my favorite duck memory was a dawn scouting trip a few days before the season opener. I put in my kayak on the outlet of a large shallow lake, and paddled up through wild rice and other marsh plants to where the lake opened up. Just as I came out into the open at sunrise, a literally wave of teal and woodducks pushed all the way across the lake and over the tops of the rice towards me, and they all passed 20-40 feet over over my head. Just then I saw the bald eagle that was pushing them as it passed 20 yards or so to my left. Awesome.

A second favorite was watching a harrier chase a pair of teal across a marsh. The two teal dove down into the rice, and harrier pounced on top of them. One of the pair of teal flew away. We assume the harrier got the other and spent the morning eating it, as we never saw either of them get up .
 
The other day I had a whole family group of eagles, 2 adults and 2 juveniles, hanging out close to my blind. I too noticed The buffies got really nervous when the were in the air. And no gadwalls came around either. They eventually left and my hunt got better!
Today I saw one of the juveniles chasing an osprey
You just never know what you will see on the water!
 
Cool Stories all!

Watching Raptors while duck hunting seems to be a common thread for many of us, here are my favorite two...sorry I cant choose just one!

First was on a local salt marsh known for its Short-eared owls in the winter. I watched for quite a while as one of the (winter) resident owls fought mid flight with a marsh hawk (northern harrier). They would fly up high, get entangled in the air, drop to almost the ground, then chase back up and start again. The best part of this show....was that on the nearest osprey platform sat a Peregrine Falcon who seemed to be enjoying the show just as much as I was!

My second memory took place while working in Alaska. I was knee deep in the river, taking a moment to take it all in, as I tried to do as often as possible while up there. I did the arched back, hands in my fleece lined chest pockets, and head (eyes) up semi-stretch, and into my view a broadbill was cruising by, who instantly got hit by a speeding peregrine!! The attack was silent and I never would have known it had happened only 40 yards from me if i hadn't taken that moment to look up and take it all in!

I've probably got 100 more that I've forgotten!

Bill
 
I used to hunt with a guy on Champlain a lot. I had cork decoys and he had plastics. One day an eagle came down and grabbed one of his plastic whistlers which was proof that plastics were more life-like than cork. My response, "we're not hunting frikken eagles". [cool]
 
Great story, seems like many of us have out faves with raptors.

One of my favorite duck hunting and raptor stories, I was out on a low and remote offshore island with a rig of brant and blacks. The boat was hidden along a long skinny and low bar that extended several hundred yards forming a bay. I had the blacks in a little group scattered along the bar. A Peregrine came very low over and along the bar to the decoys and extended one foot to touch the decoy on the back. No hurry, no predatory feeling to its actions.

A couple years ago, I had to follow the dog with the boat on an open water retrieve of a weak swimming crip to keep an eagle at bay.
 
Many years ago we saw a deer swim by in Long Island Sound, heading for Long Island about 15 miles away. We pulled up alongside, roped her, hog tied her and took her ashore unharmed. She ran off a bit and stopped to watch us pull away, she was so tired she was wobbling. Cool watching deer swim, they lunge ahead like Santa's reindeer.

While hunting scoters a school of alligator-size bluefish chasing bait came through the rig. Our decoys are attached to the longlines with bronze snaps, apparently those matched the hatch so down went half the rig. Luckily no damage.

My eagle story was just a couple of years ago, I was sitting in a blind watching an empty sky. There are quite a few bald, and sometimes a golden eagle in the area. Amazing how much bigger the goldens are compared to the bald, itself a massive bird. Through the field glasses I see the golden perched in a tree about a half mile away. Meanwhile a school of bunker comes through the rig, splashing like they do. The eagle spots this and heads over. I thought no way, I had read somewhere that goldens didn't eat fish. This guy hadn't read that article, he swoops into the rig, snags a bunker and lifts back up coming right over the blind so low I could have touched him with the gun barrel. If you think they look big from a distance, at six feet they look as big as a pterdactyl. Hide the dog and the boat. Also had a Great Blue Heron land on the blind roof, I touched his leg before he knew I was there. That got a squawk!
 
Love reading these stories!

A few years ago I was crawling down a ditch to sneak shoot some snow geese which were straight in line with the ditch. So once I got within 300 yards they got ancy, thinking they were seeing me I stopped, they flew up and circled as a bald eagle flew through. I took this time to move closer hoping they would land again.

They landed in the same field and I waited a few minutes. The eagle flew back by and the same thing happened. I would go about 50 yards each time until finally I was right next to the field they were in. Once they landed that last time I was around 25 yards and made my shots to take down 9. I retrieved 8 as the furthest crippled was the eagles dinner and I wasn't about to go fight him for it.
 
Several years ago on the Ohio river we spotted what appeared to be waterfowl swimming in mid river heading for the Ohio shore on closer inspection we discovered 3 does, we backed off and watched from a distance as they exited the river shook off and hit the woods.
 
Hunting West Branch in Ohio sitting in the blind when a large Musky or Northern Pike swam thru the decoys! Looked three to four feet long.
Ken
 
I have had several "wow" moments in the blind or in the boat myself.....

Years ago we had a hawk grab a decoy in a stick pond, lifted it about 5 or 6 feet before letting it go. It was plastic, and wore the talon marks!

On several occasions we have had otters and muskrats appear in the decoys and swim about.

A couple years ago, early split, we were in a blind along a creek. Early, with minimal light a teal landed just outside the decoys. While we wait for starting time, it swam around and fed. And then something else fed! There was a big splash, and something from under the water inhaled it!

Another cool event was last of the season hunt. Ice everywhere, but we spent an hour breaking ice to a spot, then opened a hole. Epic day, the birds wanted our spot. We had our limit of most everything, and were holding out for widgeon. There were 3 flying around with some BBs and RHs, but the light and ice made it impossible to ID until they were even with us. And they were in a flock, so fear of hitting more or something else prevented us from shooting time and time again.

At one point. A pr of RH drakes splashed in. One crawled up on the ice and tucked it's head to nap, and the other immediately tucked his head too. But he spun in constant circles, and many times bumped into the decoys. Never startled him, he just played bumper cars with the decoys. I think I recorded it, will have to try to find it!
 
Seems a stirred a few memories.

And I LOVE reading them all!

I have a bunch, and a LOT of them involve my home town lake- West Branch. There was the time a doe swam across the bay, got tangled up in three of my goose decoys and drug them all the way across the lake; or the time the water was up into the blind about a foot. We were watching a little Grebe swim around just outside the blind when all of a sudden plop, it was inside the blind; or the time a young swan left an overhead flock and spiraled down, slowly circling until it landed in the spread more yards from me; or the time hunting Brant with Jeff Coates out on Maryland's Eastern Shore when he sent his dog after a cripple and an eagle followed and hovered right above his dog's head until she returned to the boat. THAT was interesting. Jeff was quite nervous...; or the time, again, hunting with Jeff, where we lost a crippled Bufflehead to a Marsh Hawk. It grabbed the struggling little duck on the water and actually dragged it over to the shore while never really picking it up, to eat it. I could go on and on...

Jon
 
Duck hunting changed for me when it became less about shooting birds and seeing what I can get to decoy. In addition, it became about what I could see.

Last hunt, before first light, I had a muskrat swimming around my boat. That was a first for me and I really enjoyed that. Then shortly after dawn, I watched a beautiful male bufflehead swim into my decoys and then even further. At one point it seemed as though I could have reached down and gave him a pat on the head. This is a duck I in the past would shoot. Now I always give them a pass.

In my early years of just walk in hunting, I spent most of my time in a northern NJ beaver slough. I remember one hunt where it seemed like the entire swamp around us was teeming with beavers. Everything from large to small. They would swim within yards of us then go under.

I think my coolest encounter was 2 years ago. I would shoreline diver hunt the bay here in NJ. One morning watching my spread, I noticed what looked like a headless duck swimming through my spread. I just sat there baffled. Then I noticed a puff of air come from it. It was a seal swimming through my decoys.
 
Reading these great and true stories, Reminded me of a hunt that I was on. It was early duck season here in upstate New York on the Hudson River. I had a spread of two dozen or so green wings out. As the sun came up the ducks started to fly. As a small flock flew over my spread. I looked up an saw a big red tail hawk high above the flock. As the birds turn around to take another look at the decoys. That hawk dropped his wings and started dropping out of the sky like a ton of bricks were dropped. I never witnessed this in person before this day. That hawk dropped right on one of those teal in mid air . It was so awesome! I could not believe my own eyes. Some how that little teal got loose out of that hawks claws and flew a way.
Later on that same morning a hawk(can't prove it was the same hawk) return to the spread. This time dropping from the sky and grabbed one of my decoys. With the Hudson having a tide. I had pretty long decoy line on and a heavy weights. That hawk took that decoy about seven or so feet up in the air and let go. Guess the weight was to heavy , I also guess it was a great day to be a teal even a decoy. Thanks
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