i was on one pond, buddy on another. first light comes around and he is blazing away. half our goes by and i still hadnt fired my gun. well, must have been hundred or more birds at the end of the pond and for whatever reason they all got up at once and went 100 different directions. first wave came by me but nothing in range. then out of nowhere i see a duck about 10' off the water coming straight at me. with the light, distance the bird was, and the darkness of the feathers, looked like a drake mallard coming at me. i popped up, fired twice, and bird dropped on land behind me. i ran over to it thinking ' heck yeah another greenie' when i realized i had no idea what the heck it was! i text a pic to another buddy who primarily hunts salt flats and asked him what the heck it was. he told me scoter so i looked it up right there and sure enough it was! no idea how it got that far inland. was by itself. then last year hunting the columbia around crescent, i saw a flock of three more white wings 10' off the water. im getting pretty good at identifying birds on the wing and at a distance and knew exactly what they were from 150 yrds away. could see wing pattern and how they flew. quite a ways away from the salt again, but cool. same day i saw the lusistic(?) hen mallard. was in the cove we were hunting but 100+ yrds away. never got a shot at either. figured i better get this one mounted as i have never sea duck hunted and dont know when i will get the chance. plus John and Alyssa do such great work, ihad to get it done.
