The idea to try and notch all 32 huntable species of ducks hunting solo in South Carolina was a kind of gradual process that started with my first bluebill in November of 1994. It had occurred to me that being a puddler purist was leaving gaps in my waterfowling education so I started hunting divers. That first bluebill, a Greater Scaup, was my 13th species of duck taken in South Carolina.
The first time I left the house with the intention of adding a new species to the list was December 20, 2008 when I loaded up for an afternoon redhead. Amazingly, I actually killed my first South Carolina redhead that same afternoon. The redhead was #19.
Things stalled until the summer of 2012 when I bought a leather journal and listed in ink the 32 duck species along with the geese and swans. I’ve almost always kept a detailed electronic journal so it was easy to fill-in the list from #1 to #19 adding the exact “first” dates for everything except for the wood ducks and bluewings that I killed as a youth.
With the goal in writing I started getting serious about finding the missing birds. I booked black scoter in November of 2012 and added the surf in December of that same year. I stumbled into a White-winged Scoter (#22) barely a year later. I killed all of the scoters hunting solo in my small 1436 but I was hunting offshore with a friend when I killed #23, a common eider, from his boat in December of 2016.
I’m so focused on the list that I seldom “limit hunt” anymore. I’m constantly looking for new birds on old bodies of water or learning new water in hopes of finding something special.
It was mid-morning yesterday when I loaded my “good” binoculars into the blind bag, grabbled the big BSS gun and some Fiocchi soft non-toxic loads, and headed out of the door. I can’t shoot that gun well and have little faith in the Fiocchi shells but it was much more of a scouting trip and I didn’t expect to end up hunting.
I rode up river and down checking out a couple of creeks along the way looking for goldeneye. This river was a “new” body of water several years ago when I heard from an old crabber that he used to see goldeneye when running his pots. Until yesterday, though, I had never seen anything there but bufflehead and mergansers.
I was actually headed back to the landing with cased-up binoculars when I noticed a single duck that flew more easily than the tight sitting buffies. My interest was piqued when a bufflehead hen flew to land with the stranger but veered off and landed on her own. I dug the binoculars out of the blind bag…sure enough a goldeneye hen. I snapped a telephoto picture to double-check my ID when I got home.
My mind raced trying to decide whether to try to hunt the spooked bird or setup before daylight. Because ducks have wings, I live by the motto “smoke ‘em if you got ‘em” so I threw out a pair of goldeneye, pulled into the grass near where I jumped the bird and loaded the big double.
A grey cloud of doubt crept in as I worried about buggering up the beautiful bird with the crappy loads or missing her completely because I just can’t shoot that side-by-side. The grey cloud of doubt was joined by a grey cloud of sand gnats so I packed out as quietly as I could planning on being back and set-up before daylight.
I texted a digitally zoomed picture of the bird to a couple of SC Duckers and a bird watching friend who is pragmatic about hunting. The birder called – "no doubt it’s a goldeneye, good luck", he said.
I slept good last night but woke-up easily this morning. I drank my coffee and loaded my five goldeneye decoys into the boat. I threw in a pair of “just in case” old squaw.
It’s an hour drive to the landing and I had to play the radio loud to keep my brain from putting the cart before the horse. It is just bad juju to bag the bird before the boat is in the water but I couldn’t help it – I was just that optimistic.
I put out a pair of home-painted goldeneye decoys at my 9 o’clock, a pair at 12 and a single drake at 3. Surrounded by goldeneye decoys I hunkered in the grass waiting for daylight. Unlike yesterday I carried the Citori. I shoot it well and trust the Fasteel #2 loads way more than the soft stuff.
It’s a little anticlimactic but the solo hen decoyed perfectly to the 9 o’clock pair of goldeneye about 20 minutes after shooting time. The first shot flattened her but I hit her again on the way down and slapped her dying body with a shirt-pocket #6 just for good measure. I lost an old squaw last year because I didn’t triple tap and wasn’t going to make that mistake again this time.
With #24 inked in the book, maybe I can finally put that Christmas Eve miss of a big, mature buck behind me but that’s another story…
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