Well the first half of duck season is over and with it saw many firsts in my circle of manly influence.
My oldest little alpha male got his first duck.
His friends got their first as well:
Brayden
Ronnie
One of the Middles got to go on his first hunt, with his own waders and face paint!
Even got a new hunter, a work friend, his first duck.
Fiona retrieved her first duck.
I got my first:
Black Belly Whistler (the brown duck)
Fulvous Whistler
and Ringneck.
Despite the hunting being fairly slow, thanks a lot El Nino, we’ve had a good time.
Sometimes I got bored and we opened up on some coots. This did not impress Fiona or the oldest boy. But my cajun buddy is cooking a giant pot of gumbo and we are stockpiling the little water chickens.


So far here our season totals.
Birds to date
Poldeaux: 32
Blue Wing Teal: 22
Ruddy: 12
Gadwall: 5
Spoonies: 4
Green Wing Teal: 3
Wood Duck 3
Redhead: 1
BlackBelly Whistler: 1
Fulvous Whistler: 1
Ringneck: 1
So now we give the ducks a two week break, during which I’ll chase some geese, pigs, deer, snipe and perhaps a squirrel or two.
Do any of you keep a log of the birds you kill?
No logbook for yours truly!
Andy, you are inspiring me. Chores and projects will always be there. I need to make more time for hunting and taking the boys out hunting. You sir, are a good dad.
That’s quite the crew you had out there. Those critters didn’t have chance 🙂
I don’t hunt much anymore but I do keep a log of the fish I catch (bass, speckled trout, and redfish). I can remember poule d’ eau gumbos as a kid and when I was in college. We would shoot them by the 10’s. I think the limit was something like 15 when we were in high school. All we kept were the breasts and gizzards. In fact, the gizzards on a poule d’ eau taste better than the breast.
Totally agree. I quit the legs this year. Just too many bones.