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Whats your favorite duck?

14K views 94 replies 80 participants last post by  Lonnie Spann 
#1 ·
Just curious whats your favorite duck, puddler or diver? Mine is a widgeon, I say most is a mallard
 
#39 ·
Too hard to pick a favorite. I can find the same beauty in a black duck as i can in a wood duck. Like them all Cans, pins, woodie,widgeons,teal,hooded mergs,blacks,mallards,buffs . the list is endless with me...
 
#40 ·
What I find sort of strange is that when we are hunting them and watching them fly or puddle around we never say "look how beautiful" until after we kill it. Just a thought,,,an odd one at that. Even a spponie hen captures my attention and admiration ,, But I can honestly say I have never said that about a coot.
Pete
 
#45 ·
What I find sort of strange is that when we are hunting them and watching them fly or puddle around we never say "look how beautiful" until after we kill it. Just a thought,,,an odd one at that.
Not me. I "waste" many an hour pretty much just admiring ducks and geese and miss the beauty they add to our wintering grounds' landscape horribly when most have headed back to their breeding grounds.

Know I'm not alone, because the old ******* who owns the lodge I work for called me out there a couple evenings ago just to watch the bluewings swarming sheet water right behind the camp and venturing into the yard outside the kitchen door for greens or invertebrates. Beautiful.

(Not that I don't also find them beautiful on the other side of that door.)
 
#41 ·
Favorite to fool and, therefore, overall favorite: Local mottleds top my list by getting wise shortly after the shooting starts and compounding that frustration by piloting migrators to safe waters. It's almost a grudge match between us requiring skill and innovation to draw them to known spreads or to blend into spots they deem safe.

Favorite to shoot: I find the greenwings' aerobatics make them the most fun to shoot.

Favorite to eat: Neither blackbellied or fulvous whistling ducks fly as far or hard as other wild ducks, so neither shares their oxygenated blood demands, meaning they've lighter, milder, more domestic duck-like meat.

Favorite from a guiding standpoint: Has to be the mallard. No other bird is as responsive to decent calling and makes me look so much like I know what I'm doing. And few other ducks are as easy for young, old and the most casual of hunters to hit.
 
#47 ·
I carve decoys semi-pro and people ask what is my fav. I answer I don't know but I sure do carve a lot of Ringnecks for fun. Outstanding when fully colored and the hens are so subtle. Great eating too, only issue is they are tough skinned so a little harder than most to skin out. Gotta love those dumb little hotrods though and they live in most waters that I love to be around. Numbers not as great as many other species so they are special when I find a conclave.

Now speak up and tell us what duck you don't like.....
 
#49 ·
The cinnamon teal in full breeding plumage, a bird usually seen after my duck season ends and I move from the rice fields to the marsh and grass lands The Bull Sprig when out hunting. Fun to call with a whistle and very tasty. Love to watch them in their breeding / courting rituals near seasons end.
 
#51 · (Edited)
Favorites:
To eat- Teal (chi-fried!!!)
To look at- Wood Duck drake
To watch fly- Cans/Pintail
To decoy- Mallard
Most startling yet exhilarating- Ringnecks burning the marsh from behind at 5' over your head at just light-sheesh!!!

Just plain ole like- Widgeon
 
#52 ·
For me it has to be cupped wing Pintails , dropping into the spread, Sophies eyes glued to the lead ,and waiting to take the back Pintail first, maybe the follow up on the lead bird, then seeing that double tumble down and the retrive happen, it is about as good as it gets, my hunting partner in my retriever
 
#54 ·
Lot of wood duck lovers, they are very pretty ducks but I got tired of shooting them when I lived in North carolina. The duck I really want to shoot is a canvasback. Im still young maybe Ill get my chance. My wall consist of a Black duck, widgeon, and a gadwall. I might try to get all the puddlers on the wall. Either way I cant think of a duck I dont like, except a coot. lol
 
#56 ·
Black Duck. I have one mounted that I killed in Alaska. Everyone knows there are no Black Ducks in Alaska... But this one was... Don't know why she was there..., but it was a bluebird day and I was daydreaming. If she hadn't quacked as she flew over my boat, I wouldn't have even known she was there. Just threw the gun up and pulled the trigger and she folded. I assumed I had shot a hen Mallard, till my young dog lifted her head out of the cattails and I saw the speculum.. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! I was born and raised in SC, hunting flooded timber swamps most of my life and some along the coast as well. Black ducks were fairly common. But, having hunted in the marshes of Alaska for 20 years, I had never heard of anyone shooting or even seeing one.

Luckily I had a witness. Jim Portch of Anchorage was hunting with me that day. Jim is(was) a member of the RCA.
 
#57 · (Edited)
You guy's won't get too many of these. Even Us In Scotland get but a mere glimpse of them ,but they do come in!..When they do, and If you time it right with the evening flight!?
It sure is a great way to 'steady the dog'. Anybody Know what type of duck it is? (eug excluded)

 
#58 ·
Any duck with the proper camo - for viewing, Widgeon both American & Eurasian (have only seen one of those up close). I think the females are cool in any species. Our pond has become a stopover for many on their way North - quiet, some cracked corn & hen scratch, & short grass to eat :). The Widgeon & other little guys are wary, Mallards & Honks not so much so.
 
#59 ·
For eating---- Hands down Teal.
 
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