Waterfowl
- Thread starter ksgobbler
- Start date
18 degrees this morning with a windchill of 6. Braved it and didn't see a duck. Did see several woodcock which I have not seen in a while. No geese either until I left and saw them on the cattle pond across the street. Probably wouldn't have shot them anyway with it being so cold. With the temps this week, I expect everything I hunt to be iced over next weekend, so this is probably it for me.
Telemark
5 year old buck +
When it gets cold here, and the ground starts to freeze, the woodcock migrate closer to large bodies of water where there is still soft ground they can probe with their beaks. For us, the seaside is the best. Unfortunately most of it I can't hunt, so I try to get at them early in the season. But the one time I got to do a late hunt on a property right next to the sea, holy cow there were woodcock everywhere.
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
I thought I would share this.
My son shot a nice drake pintail, skinned it and saved the hide in freezer.
Last week he put this together by pulling feathers from skin and glueing them in place in the frame. It took him a few days as a winter project.
I had never seen anything like it and thought it turned out pretty good.
He is going to try it with a grouse and maybe a pheasant.
My son shot a nice drake pintail, skinned it and saved the hide in freezer.
Last week he put this together by pulling feathers from skin and glueing them in place in the frame. It took him a few days as a winter project.
I had never seen anything like it and thought it turned out pretty good.
He is going to try it with a grouse and maybe a pheasant.
Catscratch
5 year old buck +
Amazing!!! You son did something special!
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
I have seen some really cool turkey ones. If I can ever start killing turkeys again I am going to give it a whirl.
How was the poult production in your area last year. In my area of AR, for the last six years,I always had two or three hens and a couple gobblers move onto my place during the spring breeding season. Rarely did they raise a nest and if they did, there would only be one or two poults. This year, I have a bunch of seven jakes staying on my place. There are also two hen flocks - one with 11 hens and one with four. The best hatch we have had in years. Last Apr, May, and June we had 20 inches of rain - ten during May. It was an extremely wet and miserable nesting season - so favorable nesting weather was not the answer. We had a severe drought last summer - so a wet summer and fall did not help. It is like in spite of everything, there was a bumper poult crop last year. I am hearing many good reports all across our state - and even across other southern states where production has been poor.
Just wondering how production was in your area?
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
Honestly I feel like it was a better year as well. I saw more poults than I had in awhile and this Winter I feel like we have seen more birds in the fields. Time will tell. I heard a couple gobblers sounding off a week or 2 ago, I wish the season started earlier in KS.
I will amend this.... I just looked at brood survey data for last Spring. My county actually led the way with a 204% increase over the year before. Granted you need to take into account a lot of variables, but that would seem to indicate my observations were probably correct.
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