Black Duck on the Bay

[Pete Lester]

The only one in the bag this morning for me. A big Black duck with a Parker 10ga NH, shot in Little Bay NH this morning. It's been a very warm fall so far and the duck hunting has been slow.

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj57/nhshotgunner/blackduck10gaNH.jpg

[Destry L. Hoffard]

With black ducks, one is enough some days.

DLH

[Pete Lester]

Hi Destry, one Black a day is all we are allowed and all I got today :-) Scott got a hen Mallard and the rest of the ducks steered clear of us.

[charlie cleveland]

them ducks new you boys had them 10 ga s was the reason they did not come in....got my first black duck to see much lessgetting to shoot one...i envy you fellas... good picture.... some day.... charlie

[William Maynard]

Great Photo. Looks like a beautiful place to hunt.

[Pete Lester]

Great Photo. Looks like a beautiful place to hunt.

It is a beautiful brakish water bay to hunt, however it was much more pristine with far less shoreline development 30 years ago.

[calvin humburg]

Wow its still dark in KS. Great picture Pete!

[Dean Romig]

Kathy and I had a late lunch today at the Cape Neddick Lobster Pound at about the tail end of the ebb tide. There were mallards everywhere and not a single black in sight. Black Ducks have sure seen some bad times in the last several decades and the picture is somewhat bleak. One of the reasons for their low numbers is their propensity to breed with mallards thus thinning the bloodlines of the true Black Duck. The result of this cross-breeding is a duck that has more mallard characteristics than blacks.

[E Robert Fabian]

Dean that and the marsh area's where they like to nest have a endless supply of gulls that will eat every chick as fast as the hen can hatch them and get them to water. I and others witnessed this when I was in the Guard working buoys up the coast of ME. One fisherman made the papers after he killed a big Black Back gull that he caught eating chicks.

[Dean Romig]

Gulls are like coyotes - opportunistic feeders of the highest order that will eat anything and everything that will fit down their throats.

[Richard Flanders]

That duck looks like a mallard that crossbred with a goose! What a roaster that would make. Nice.

You got that right about gulls Dean. In Antarctica the big Skua gulls will swoop down and grab a baby penguin from right between the legs of parent who is protecting it. I helped a bird guy band giant petrels once and my job was to scoop the chicks from the nest as they guys dragged the parent off to work on it and wrap them in my down vest to protect them from the circling Skuas. They are fearless and bold predators. They would hover 6' over me as I gathered them up, waiting for one small mistake or opening.

[charlie cleveland]

now thats some brave birds...would have been hard for mr to have not made a mistake if i had been there.... charlie

[Destry L. Hoffard]

The the UK the blackback gulls are hated by the fowlers, but they're lucky enough to still be able to shoot them if they see them going after ducks.

Destry

[E Robert Fabian]

Scott's new 136 year old 10ga. Lifter. Well with a small amount of coaching he was able to down a few today on a tidal river.

[E Robert Fabian]

Otto the wonder dog made his first Goose and duck retrieve today.

[scott kittredge]

Scott's new 136 year old 10ga. Lifter. Well with a small amount of coaching he was able to down a few today on a tidal river.

now THAT'S funny, i don't care who you are:rotf:

[charlie cleveland]

nice wood on that ten....charlie

[Ron Jamieson]

Nice duck, brings back many memories of crawling the shoreline in Maine for Black ducks.