Michigan's Duck Opener in the U.P.

[Jeff S]

Saturday morning was pretty slow, but fortunately one mallard made the fatal mistake of flying overhead. My 12 ga. "Right as Rain" A grade did the job.

[Jimmy Goodtime]

Nice job Jeff! Near 80 degrees today here in the Peach state, hard to think about duck season! I’m ready for cooler weather and ducks though. Is that a factory straight grip on your gun?

[jolly bill]

Atta boy Jeff.

Wishing you many good days ahead of you this season.

Jolly

[fox-admin]

I believe that's a hybrid black/mallard cross. We see them quite frequently in the eastern flyway.

[Jeff S]

Nice job Jeff! Near 80 degrees today here in the Peach state, hard to think about duck season! I’m ready for cooler weather and ducks though. Is that a factory straight grip on your gun?

Yes it is, and when I bought it 5 years ago there was a lot of discussion on this forum. It appears to be a factory straight grip, with a short tang. The production card originally stated "half pistol" and then it was crossed out and changed to "straight". The theory is that the the parts had been picked for production, and when the order was changed, they just used the short tang. I received a letter confirming that it shipped with a straight grip. A straight gripped gun with a short tang is certainly odd, but it shoots pretty good. Jeff

[Jeff S]

I believe that's a hybrid black/mallard cross. We see them quite frequently in the eastern flyway.

Really! Craig, I just figured it was a young drake, or one that was still in the "molting" stage, but I'm certainly not going to question your identification. We are allowed 4 mallards per day, however, no more than two can be hens. We just always figure that if the bill is olive drab, it's a drake, and if the bill is orange, it's a hen. I wish I had taken a picture of the mallard my brother shot. It really looked like a hen, but had a olive drab bill. Mine at least had the gray coloration of a drake. When you see mallard / black duck hybrids, do they have both white bands on their wings? So Craig, if it's a mallard / black duck cross, how should I count it for my bag limit. Hmmmm, could get sticky with a C.O. Jeff

[DarylC]

I think Craig nailed it. On the text photo you sent me I thought it was a hen because my little flip phone didn't show the detail that this photo did, Just put it in the freezer for 5+ years then send it to Toolguy for genetic analysis

Nice outing with your dad and family can't be measured in the number of birds but shooting a nice Fox sure adds to the experience.

[fox-admin]

Jeff that used to be the standard for ID, the color of the wing bars but I believe there are now back crosses that have different criteria. Our state biologists say it's up to the hunter you can call it a black or a mallard but is does count towards your daily bag. Anyhow, I may be incorrect but that's what I would ID the bird as.

[Jeff S]

Thanks guys. I didn’t realize that there was Black duck / mallard cross breeding. I hope that it doesn’t ultimately lead to the demise of the black duck. Daryl, I love your suggestion to save it for Toolman. He does prefer his wild game “aged”.

[Jeff S]

Thanks guys. I didn’t realize that there was Black duck / mallard cross breeding. I hope that it doesn’t ultimately lead to the demise of the black duck. Daryl, I love your suggestion to save it for Toolman. He does prefer his wild game “aged”.

[DarylC]

As I think back to the mid 70's to early 80's we hunted a property on MD's eastern shore which bordered Blackwater NWR and at that time the season was closed on blacks and in the pre dawn shooting light it was impossible to identify black or hen mallard. So to be safe we didn't shoot big ducks. But we did kill ducks like Jeff's only we really just thought they were just young mallard drakes. Our DNR at the time said that blacks/mallards did not interbreed. But back then we were on a point system with a total daily bag limit of 100 points. Mallards if I'm correct were 25pts, teal, widgeon and others were 10pts, so we focused on the 10 point ducks. Maybe Kevin can add to this.

[Jeff S]

Ha Ha Ha! "So to be safe, we didn't shoot big ducks, but we did kill duck's like Jeff's". Daryl, are you hinting that I only shoot baby ducks? Now that you mention it, I think I did see a little egg shell on it's back.

Just because we all love ducks, and duck hunting, it might be nice to write a newsletter article showing how to distinguish between mallards, black ducks and "hybrids. Perhaps Craig will invite me to the Vanderbilt Duck Hunting club so that we can collect some samples of each for the article. It would be a long drive, but I would be willing to do it for the Fox Fraternity.

[spyder]

Looks like a nice head shot!

Article on duck hybrids
https://avianhybrids.wordpress.com/2019 ... xtinction/

[Jeff S]

Spyder, thanks for the article.

[DarylC]

Duck ID on the wing is an aquired talent made more difficult by these hybrids. Thank the Lord they are far and few between. I try to simplify the process by picking out the drakes and leaving the hens alone. Sometimes it works and sometimes it don't But either way it's a legal bird and taste just as good on the grill.