Brown Duck Discussion

[Candor]

Am curious what the reason is behind having the
"either 1 mallard hen or a black duck" constraint in any limit.

Why does a mallard hen and a black duck even get lumped in the same category? They have nothing to do with each other. Any rookie can tell the difference in them.

[JABIII]

No, they can't. Sadly. And many more can't tell the difference between a gadwall, mallard hen, or blackduck in flight. I watch large numbers of each with a LOT of duck hunters each year. Many of them on this forum. And it is amazing to see how many they miss the call on as they lift off, fly around and even right over our nimrods...

Now would I be all for just fining the living crap out of those who screw up? Yep. But for some reason, WMA's mainly, the state and Feds have always allowed these And/Ors in the language. Most likely for novice hunters.

[DuckEE]

In the past two out of three seasons SC has allowed hunters to harvest both a mallard hen and
a black duck or mottled duck. Even this was more restrictive than the federal guidelines for this flyway as the feds allowed up to two mallard hens to be harvested. ( I could be possibly wrong on this, memory might be going on me). Potentially up to three "brown" ducks could be harvested. What you have to realize is that all our other flyway states are banging away.
In having these types of more restrictive regulations, you really have to ask yourself, will it really generate any measureable benefits to deny the duck hunters of this state the opportunity (if it ever arose) to harvest the federal limit. Or are we just fooling ourselves?

[Tuffy]

I've hunted ducks off-and-on for a lot of years and recognize that I could easily make a mistake under field conditions. If I had hunted other than S.C. and/or had more experience here, it would make it less likely, but I'd think it a small percentage of hunters that would never be mistaken.

Anyway, Canada doesn't even have any hen restrictions and their data says that 0.76 hens are shot for every male Mallard. The bios don't think that rate is a problem and believe that the "Eastern Mallard" population can sustain much higher harvest than it currrently receives.

Like I said, it's the other species that concern them in general. Since the same is probably not true of the Mid-continent Mallards, we might see increased talk about the SE states like SC being encouraged to be more conservative on Mallards based on the source of those that do come here. That's not going to be easy with the proposed 4 duck limit in the AF intending to ease the pressure on other species at the expense of the Mallards. There will be some kickback that we would be harvesting more Blacks, Scaup, etc..

[Duckman#1]

Any rookie can tell the difference in them.

I'll bet 40% can't tell, maybe more. If you'd like a good statistic on that just call the guys that run the draw hunts. Bob at the Broad river can tell you of guys coming to the hill with coots thinking they were black duck and if that were the case they would have been over the limit.
Also of some coming to the hill with widgeon calling them Bluebills. It goes on and on and on! Damn shame!

[Mergie Master]

I gotta agree with JAB and DM#1. There are a whole lot of folks that can't tell the difference between a hen mallard and a black duck in flight. Hell many of them can't tell a difference even in hand. Not to mention those who can't tell a gaddy from a hen mallard.

Add hunting conditions to that lack of knowledge, things like bad weather, poor light conditions, excitement, looking through a blind, etc and you have a potential Charlie Foxtrot on the duck waters!

Candor I think you're giving the "average" duck hunter too much benefit of the doubt by thinking even a rookie can tell th difference.

[Dook]

Cool thang is when you got alot of both blacks and mallets, it is really easy.

I am still learning wing patterns of some birds, because I don't see much else. A widgeon or teal sticks out like a sore thumb when we see them.


Why can't we just have a 8 bird limit, of any flavor? (yes I know why, I am trying to enhance this paint drying thread)

[GMAC]

What's truly flabbergasting is how often some that consider themselves duck hunters can't even identify many ducks IN HAND. I've often seen numbnuts scratching their heads over hen gadwall, and having no clue as to the difference between a ringneck and a lesser scaup.

[JABIII]

I once witnessed one of our more prolific posters here at SCDUCKS in the early days, I won't say who, shoot at a merganser hen that landed in the decoys. It quickly dove and swam off underwater. He said, and I quote, "did you see that damn gadwall dive? I bet he is holding a stick on the bottom"...

[BOGSTER]

[img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Gadwall do dive to eat, especially in a hydrilla pond, but that is bad, a fish duck should only be confused with one bird..... a woodrow.
But still, wing beats should be a no brainer.
I used to hunt with a fella years back that would say "teal" everytime we were buzzed by some fish ducks.

[Tuffy]

JAB...Is that how the unidentified party earned his name?

[FreeLiner]

Ducks at a Distance
A Waterfowl Identification Guide

http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/b...dist/index.htm

Great website, my kids are getting pretty good at identifying several ducks besides mallards and woodrows