Lawn Darts

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

Some people like to call them that based on the way they fly!

 

[Catscratch]

Amazing!!!

 

[jlonll]

Wonderful

 

[j-bird]

Are those actually a type of merganser? I think they are, but I'm not certain, we don't see much diversity in waterfowl in my area.

 

[Catscratch]

I would say Common Merganser.
I think the Hooded Merganser is one of the prettiest ducks out there, but they are all neat!

 

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

Yes they are Common Mergansers

 

[wiscwhip]

In our little corner of the world we call them "Fish Ducks". They make some cool mounts, but not much in the way of table fare.

 

[wiscwhip]

IMO, hoodies are not near as bad as common. We pretty much just quit shooting any of them(after I had my drake hooded on the wall, of course).

 

[wiscwhip]

That's funny ^^^ the drake hooded I mounted came from the Petenwell above the dam north of the Strongs Prairie landing.

 

[wiscwhip]

Never hunted petenwell.

It can get kind of spooky hunting along the eastern shore when big winds kick up out of the west. My little bro and I were pretty close to dying out there one day. Just about capsized the boat 2 or 3 times trying to pick up the last of the blocks. Sucked too, the birds were really flying that day, but the water just got to bad to stay out any longer. It is a great place to hunt divers though. If you have a good spotting scope, you can stand on top of the dike near the dam and glass for the rafts of ducks in the middle of the lake. Huge rafts of bluebills and ringnecks. Occasionally you get smaller rafts of cans and redheads and later in the season buffleheads and goldeneyes.

 

[kpj5br]

Outstanding photos!