# A Thousand Wood ducks



## Old Hunter (Mar 8, 2002)

I was headed to work last Friday and saw a slough absolutly covered with ducks. The slough is right by the highway and seldom has a lot of birds on it. As I got close to the water some of the birds got nervous and started to lift. As the first birds lifted I noticed a few woodies. I then realized that the whole body of water was covered with woodies. I had come upon a huge migration of these beautiful birds. I have never seen anything like this. They were feeding in barley field next to the water. Fun to watch.


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## taddy1340 (Dec 10, 2004)

Old Hunter said:


> I was headed to work last Friday and saw a slough absolutly covered with ducks. The slough is right by the highway and seldom has a lot of birds on it. As I got close to the water some of the birds got nervous and started to lift. As the first birds lifted I noticed a few woodies. I then realized that the whole body of water was covered with woodies. I had come upon a huge migration of these beautiful birds. I have never seen anything like this. They were feeding in barley field next to the water. Fun to watch.


Two years ago while on leave back home in WI...I saw thousands feeding in the neighbor's corn field. It definitely threw me off seeing that many!


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

Oh man i want to see that!! You saw a slice of Heaven, my ultimately favorite duck...yeah!!! :lol:


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## Man of all Seasons (Sep 14, 2008)

woodies tend to group up and shift their migration somewhat north before they drop south. you sure saw a rarity there though! i see flocks of 20-30 and occasionally a massive group of over 100 right before they push south. thats definitely one of those times where a camera would be nice to have handy


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## water_swater (Sep 19, 2006)

Opening weekend last year I had this field scouted out, it was way out in the middle of no where, I couldnt get close scouting but there was about 1500 birds in it, I was happy. Well we setup first flock comes in, if you've ever hunted woodies they are outta control and like spinners. Needless to say we had two flocks of about 150 woodies come in then our day was over, the entire field was woodies not a mallard in the bunch. I was embarrased I hunt enough I should have known better but the closest I could get was a half mile away, plus i never would have guessed there to be that many in a field!!!


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## Shu (Oct 21, 2003)

That is a cool story Old Hunter. Hope I see it someday.


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## carp_killer (Nov 24, 2006)

99% of the ducks ive killed have been woodies seems that all we ever see if we get a flock of teal its nice just to mix it up never have killed a duck other then those 2 species. almost had a shot at a mallard last year. it would be nice to actually see something other then woods even though there are beutiful.


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

hey trapper, you ever come out to ND I'll show you greenheads no problem.


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## carp_killer (Nov 24, 2006)

i have a feeling next year i might have to go to nodak since ill have a DL then finally


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

Bring your gun and shells, I'll get you on them. You can use my decoys. When the time comes just ask where.


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## D&amp;D (Sep 14, 2005)

Our early wood duck/teal season was last week (13th-17th). My wife and I were out in the kayak the weekend before the opener (she didn't realize we were scouting!) and went into a small slough that I hunted many years ago. It hasn't held birds recently, but man did it ever this year. We sat there right before sunset and watched two good-sized flocks of blue wings come in along with more woodies than I could count. Needless to say, I limited the first morning in about two minutes. No teal that morning, but I went back Monday afternoon and got two more woodies and a blue wing drake.

We're blessed with plenty of woodies down here, so if any of you guys ever come to southeast TN, just give me buzz. They're a blast to hunt and can make even the best wingshooter look silly!


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## Sd snow goose killer (Jan 20, 2007)

I noticed about 500 wooducks in a wheat field last week and i got to looking with the binocs and they were all drakes.. i thought that was pretty weird.
Must be some sort of migration because now they are all gone. i was hoping they would be around next weekend when seoson opens but i guess that changed.


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

There was a taxidermist on here a couple weeks ago said waterfowl shot in the fall was not worth mounting. There is no spring season when they are at their prime, how is a person supposed to get a decent wood duck mount legally?


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

We shot one last year in mid October and the taxidermist said it was just fine. I think that the taxiderist said that some birds you can mount early but not all of them


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## D&amp;D (Sep 14, 2005)

That theory shouldn't apply to woodies. All four drakes I took last week were in full color and any would have made a nice mount.


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

I honestly didn't and still don't think it was correct info from the taxidermist in the first place. Sure if the bird is immature there will be some issues but an adult bird should be good by early fall.


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## Methuselah (Sep 5, 2008)

Nothin like seeing a pile of big drake woods! I was fortunate enough to get a super mature drake woody last year. When I brought it into my taxidermist he said he usualy doesn't do ducks but after he looked at this one he said he would because it was the nices woody he had ever seen. It was late November up in northern MN when I shot it. There was even ice along the edges of the pond. Never seen a woody that late in the year. Ever.


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## the professor (Oct 13, 2006)

the area i grew up in and still hunt quite often is producing more and more wood ducks each year. last year early goose season, we had hundreds of wood ducks pouring off their roost into the cut corn we were hunting. ive never had ducks come to a field during early goose before, none the less all wood ducks! i will be specifically targeting a few wood duck haunts next weekend for minnesota opener on my never ending quest to put two drakes on the wall.


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