“Tag: Ducks”

Folks, this may be the dumbest poacher I've ever seen. His alleged actions are so unfathomably stupid that I wouldn't even believe them to be possible if not for the photographic evidence.

When Captain Bob Wetherald, owner of the Mid River Guide Service, invites me to go hunting, I drop everything. He's arguably the Potomac River's best seaduck and diver guide, and the spread of smoked duck breast and spirits he puts out for the post-hunt social hour are alone worth the trip.

Is wind energy bad for waterfowl? It's something we've discussed here before, and a North Dakota study by Ducks Unlimited and the United States Fish & Wildlife Service in North Dakota found that when wind farms are placed on wetlands, breeding pairs of ducks are reduced by an average of 21 percent.

Penn State's University Park airport has developed a widlife hazard management plan that's due, in part, to a 2010 collision between a mallard and a private aircraft. Nobody was injured, but the duck managed to do a whopping $45,000 in damages to the jet—sure makes hitting a deer with your pickup seem not so bad, eh?

Wind farms produce an increasing amount of the country's power, but how many migratory birds are lost in the effort?

California Waterfowl board member and long-time volunteer Jay Goble shot this tremendous video of wood ducklings (or is it wood duck ducklings?) plopping from their nest for the first time. I don't normally use the word "cute," but friends, this is one cute video.

We duck hunters are prone to irrational optimism. How else do you explain a group of people who can spend an entire day freezing our butts off in windy, pounding surf for just a duck or two (if we're lucky), only to go home, convince ourselves tomorrow will be better, and do it all over again? All we need is the slightest indication the duck hunting may improve.

When the weather is more suited to sunbathing than waterfowling, hunters must adapt or get burned.

The arrival of September means a lot of things, not the least of which is the opening of teal season. Are you ready?