Bird I.D.

[aggiechiro]

so anyone ever mis-ID a bird. and by mis ID i mean badly, not thinking a bluewing was a greenwing. i mean like the time in teal season i saw this old guy try to convince a game warden that a mottled duck was a "greater bluewing". or the fellow that thought a tree duck was a greater cinamon.

although i think the 'winner' in my experience, was a group of 4 guys who showed up at some public land without a liscense among them. luckily their luxury cars allowed them to make it to town and back in time to still hunt, and lucky me, they picked the spot right by us. i got to see them take decoys, waders, and guns out of the boxes. the 4 of them fired over 300 shots on the morning, because their guns had a 200-300 yard range in their minds. the one bright part was the crippled snow i retrieved because they made no effort on it when they sailed it.

the best part was leaving at the sametime and them asking what they killed, because they didnt know. i admired the their birds. the 5 pintails(limit 1/person), 6 coots, and 3 ibisis. i made sure to tell them they had to check out at the station, and proceded to watch the fun.

[huntall6]

"greater bluewing"

[Pete-pec]

Were they greater Ibis?

[goosehunter64]

Lots of people shoot Swans for snows....

[David]

I've seen quit a few people shoot wood ducks and gray ducks during early teal season. I really can't understand how anyone can mistake a wood duck as it's coming at you making that wood duck sound or a gray duck quacking at you for a teal.

[aggiechiro]

I've seen quit a few people shoot wood ducks and gray ducks during early teal season. I really can't understand how anyone can mistake a wood duck as it's coming at you making that wood duck sound or a gray duck quacking at you for a teal.

i could see mixing up a woodduck and a hooded merganser, in the dark, at a distance, it they werent making any sound, but a woody and teal?

[aggiechiro]

Lots of people shoot Swans for snows....

that reminded me of 1 more. on what was probably the second foggiest morning i have ever hunted. we were doing good, but it was hard, you had less than the spread as a visible area so if a bird wasn't comitted no warning, because nothing was talking that day. about 9 or so we hit the jackpot, a big group of snows coming over low and slow. as soon as we saw they we raised up, and all started yelling not to shoot. they were white pelicans. we had a good chuckle as they drifted down the coast line to the next blind.

a couple minutes later we heard a gose call followed by a bunch of shots, then a splash and someone wading out. then we heard what sounded like some guys packing up with the speed of an indy pit crew.

[Rick Hall]

I've seen quit a few people shoot wood ducks and gray ducks during early teal season. I really can't understand how anyone can mistake a wood duck as it's coming at you making that wood duck sound or a gray duck quacking at you for a teal.

Lot of folks mistake low woodies for teal, but I'd doubt that many were squealing. Whole lot more woodies are seen than heard. In our area, spoons vie for "most often mistaken for teal" honors with the woodies. (And it's pelicans, rather than swans, that catch the "snow goose" heat.)

Decades back, I was checking out after a lottery hunt on what may be WVa's only waterfowl management area, when a couple fellows came in asking for a boat to recover a "wood duck" and "teal" they'd shot, and I volunteered to recover them with the waterfowling setter I then had. Turned out to be a grebe and a woodcock, which I figured an honest, if dumb, mistake for a couple squirrel hunters lucking into a duck hunt and wasn't going to report. But then our heros couldn't stand not bragging on their "trophy," a protected Canada culled from the area's first transplants to establish a resident flock. That was no mistake, and I ratted them out to the friend then managing the area. Clever fellows apparently foresaw that possibility and had changed its hiding place, but not well enough to escape the setter's nose.

[breckenmore]

Dove hunting in Mexico a few years ago I pulled up on an incoming bird. Noticed it was flying a bit weird then I noticed it was green. Turned out to be a parrot and no I never shot but the birdboy wanted me to.

[bayouboy]

But then our heros couldn't stand not bragging on their "trophy," a protected Canada culled from the area's first transplants to establish a resident flock. That was no mistake, and I ratted them out to the friend then managing the area. Clever fellows apparently foresaw that possibility and had changed its hiding place, but not well enough to escape the setter's nose.

that's neat, your dog doing some detective work.

where i've hunted the past few teal seasons, in the marsh, the wood ducks are thick. come november, they're gone.

i've seen some mistakes.

[daffy...]

its terrible around here for the first 2 weeks. all the hill billy brown hunters (deerhunters "brown its down") are out in full force. they set up anywhere, with 10 guys (30 pack a piece) and shoot at everything flying. sea gulls, crows, shags, cranes.

one time after they left i went over to where they had been sitting and it was a war zone. dead birds of all kinds were floating around, mixed with beer cans, chew cans

i wish theyd crack down on those kinds around here. keep them on the highlands

[aggiechiro]

Dove hunting in Mexico a few years ago I pulled up on an incoming bird. Noticed it was flying a bit weird then I noticed it was green. Turned out to be a parrot and no I never shot but the birdboy wanted me to.

i had a friend who did a couple years of mission work in central or south america...i forget which. but he said the only hunting he got to do during that time was parrots with a 20 gauge, claimed it was legal and fun.

[agengo02]

Just about every year I mistake snipe for teal. Never shoot, but it gets the heart pumping when a group of 20 swing in across the dekes. Also had a buddy smoke a coot running across the water. Only been duck hunting a few times but he "thought it was a teal."

[G K Chambers]

agengongo02-
When the conditions are right we like to walk up snipe on the way out from teal hunts. The seasons overlap and It makes the morning last a bit longer.

Never seen a woodduck in the salt marsh but the duck I see most commonly mistakenly shot during Teal season is juvenile Spoonbill hens.

A small brown duck comes clipping across the marsh and sucks right in to the decoys flashing blue on it's wings right before it pitches in....and is shot and stomped.

Not defensible but it happens.

The weirdest bird I've ever taken during Teal season over decoys was a gallinule. Strange bird and in season. THe dog will give you a hard look after the retrieve though.





The worst case of bird ID I've ever heard about was from a retired GW buddy I hunt with and he claims that he was out checking hunters the opening day of the whitewing season in the Valley and he checked an old boy on a fenceline. Asked him how many he had? Five.....and the guy did have five......five mockingbirds.

[agengo02]

The worst case of bird ID I've ever heard about was from a retired GW buddy I hunt with and he claims that he was out checking hunters the opening day of the whitewing season in the Valley and he checked an old boy on a fenceline. Asked him how many he had? Five.....and the guy did have five......five mockingbirds.

Hahahaha I guess he donated a pretty penny to the state of Texas after that one

[TNducks]

This was a pretty funny one . . . after the end of last season my buddy and I were talking to this other guy that we know that I would describe as a duck poser (talks a lot, is on a DU committee and has lots of gear, but only hunts a couple of times a year and doesn't know @#%@). We were asking him how the last weekned of the season was for him and he said, "well, I didn't kill anything, but saw quite a few birds - they were either teal or pintail, not sure which". Neither of us could contain the laughter. I'm still not sure that guy realizes why that was so funny and that there couldn't possibly be two more different birds!

[goodkarmarising]

Have had guys snow goose hunting with me start to pull up on specks during the spring conservation order...Had to yell not to shoot. Don't need anyone paying a hefty fine on them.

[aggiechiro]

Have had guys snow goose hunting with me start to pull up on specks during the spring conservation order...Had to yell not to shoot. Don't need anyone paying a hefty fine on them.

we knew better so it wasn't really an issue, but year before last we did 1 major conservation hunt, 10k rags/dekes/... we didn't see a single snow all day, but had specks and cacklers landing nonstop. they know when their own seasons are.

[Underradar]

I've fooled many a game warden with a spray can of pale blue paint.

[David]

I've fooled many a game warden with a spray can of pale blue paint.

They thought you were a smurf?

[Rick Hall]

Have had guys snow goose hunting with me start to pull up on specks during the spring conservation order...

Wasn't a conservation season hunt, but after we'd filled on specks one foggy morning, I reminded my guns just to shoot the white birds if in doubt, and one told me "This ain't my first rodeo." - about 30 seconds before he capped a speck.

(Anyone saying "This ain't my first rodeo." about anything may as well be saying he's about to screw up, 'cause sure as sunrise, he's gonna. It's apparently a Law of Nature.)

[Runin'N'Gunin606]

A few times over the last couple years i often would mistaken hooded mergs with ringers or goldens. I dont know why but a few years ago in early december i dumped my second mallard of the day and my dad went out in the boat to get it. so i sat there and looked to my right and coming strait in was what i though 8 ringers. they put the flaps down and i picked one out and the second shot dumped it, then swung on another hanging one in the wind and crunched him, well he carried a little ways and dove under the ice down lake. My dad had a great time with that. he got the one deadone in the blocks and threw it at me. confused i picked it up and it was a drake hoodie. the said thing is i doubled them too.

[pgquackstacker]

Saw a couple guys dump a cormorant thinking it was a speck. Me and my buddies were laughing our asses off. We don't really make any mistaken bird id's but we don't have early teal seasons or anything like that we just have a speck closure that starts in december in some places.

[diggerduck]

I know this isn't an ID story, but I brought a new buddy out for some ducks....We had a good day busting greenheads, then along comes a buffie hen. One shot one kill later, my buddy picks the bird up and in the most elated tone asks, " so is there a size limit on these ". I tried to explain the difficulty with catch and release duck hunting, leaving him feeling a little foolish.

[crispy8034]

That's funny.

I've mistaken hoodies for buffies in the fog on one of the lakes I hunt. We call them pterodactyls, and I really hate gagging them down in an effort to teach myself a lesson.