Waterfowl Photos

[Waters]

Few pics from the last few days southern mn

[Deet]

Last Friday.

Did the same saturday except the ringers were replaced with bluebills.

[FishandFowl]

Here are a few from Manitoba in October

FnF

[Matt Breuer]

Was fortunate enough to get out with the local diver freak and had a 4-pack of scoters buzz us. We each dumped one. Awesome memory!

Following morning we lit up the ringers with a few hoodies and bluebills mixed in...

[shortfatguy]

Matt, Is that Tim on the right?

[Matt Breuer]

Yup, and another Tim on the left. Equally poor shooters... Kidding.

[CANOPY SAM]

That second pic is cool, but you guys must have held your breath for a long time to stack all those ducks under the boat!

As always, great pics Matt. Glad to see your still chasing waterfowl!

[Bryce]

Nodak 2012 is a wrap.

[Kettle]

Awesome photos Matt, hopefully those divers make it down my way soon Congrats on the scooter, thats a big one. Happy Hunting

Kettle

[Ray Esboldt]

Bryce,

Good to see Jez is still in action. Diamond retired - arthritis. Pepper - the replacement dog - (middle of the 3 below) is doing very well in her first season.

A day in Nodak 2012:

[mrg]

divers here!

[TonkaBass]

I see that Matt shot a nice scoter, and I thought I would post the one I got last year. Looks different but for sure a scoter. Any ideas of what type?

[luckycrank]

ruddy duck ..maybe not look a bit large and bill looks wrong for a ruddy

[poutpro]

looks a lot like a ruddy duck

[dan z]

Ruddy in my eyes also

[TonkaBass]

Nevermind, I found it. It's a Black scoter hen. It was larger than a canvasback, so that rules out ruddy.

[TonkaBass]

The orange inside the nostril is almost blaze when they are freshly killed. You can kind of see the orange nostril on the duck in the photo on the top.

[TonkaBass]

Also, ruddys average 1.2 pounds and black scoters average 2.5 pounds.

[the man]

The look and the upright tail feathers tell me it's a ruddy. They are cool ducks though.

[luckycrank]

still leaning ruddy .... come to faribault theres about 100 scoters then I am no sea duck expert . however I see your case size and nasel post still not that of a scoter.

but bill and size doesent really match a ruddy either . scoters are not that un common throughout Mn I have seen a couple killed ..evan took an oldsqauw personally last fall in southern mn. and nephew took a surf hen last fall also 50/50 on the matter

[TonkaBass]

I remember seeing you killed an oldsquaw. That would be awesome! I have killed plenty of ruddys though and I am 100% sure it is not a ruddy. I still have it in the freezer and I can take a picture of it next to a goldeneye, and you'll see how big it is. It is more than two ruddys put together. It is bigger than a mallard. I'll try to get some more pics up. Ive had it IDed by a couple "experts" already though...

[TonkaBass]

I was originally told it was a white wing scoter, but it looks like a black scoter hen to me. They also shoot one in the video "border patrol" with the Keller brothers and they mention in that video that they basically look like a ruddy on steroids. I see where you guys are coming from though. But I have shot my share of ducks, and although I know it isn't a ruddy my sea duck ID isn't 100%. My buddys and brother however go on actual sea duck hunts annually and have shot plenty. I should bring it to Flyway and have Jerry ID it for me. Im curious. If it is a ruddy, it's the biggest one on the planet earth! lol I can also weigh it on my rapala scale.

[TonkaBass]

[TonkaBass]

[Note from admin: Your post has been edited. Please read forum policy before posting again. Thank you.]

Looks like this isn't the first time this issue has popped up on a hunting forum...

[TonkaBass]

Here is a pic from that hunt. As you can see we were trophy hunting, and passing on bills, redheads, buffies, and whatever else came in to kill Goldeneyes. We did shoot some drake mallards though in hopes of a band, but passed on tons of them too. I remember when yelling "scoter" before we shot because even though I have never seen one before we knew what it was. They are big and look nothing like a ruddy in flight or in hand. I still say Black scoter hen.