what is this duck?

[Ellensburg]

And I was just kidding. Only 1 pinny

[Stickerbush]

hey stickerbush, I think it might be a columbia river swan?

oh I was thinking snowgoose  

[ridge line]

                 And this is what the drake looks like

[Ratdog68]

In other words... a "Gutaguk" (sp?).  In my dad's language (Inupiat), the pintail was named for the sound it made "Goo-ta-guk"   

[Nimrod]

14 that's alot of pennies for two guys 

[jordano]

Pintail hen.  100%

[goober]

You really should learn to identify those ducks BEFORE you shoot them, especially since you are only allowed two. Being new is no excuse, it is the responsibilty of the hunter to know what he is shooting. Game wardens love guys like you.

[ducks55]

You really should learn to identify those ducks BEFORE you shoot them, especially since you are only allowed two. Being new is no excuse, it is the responsibilty of the hunter to know what he is shooting. Game wardens love guys like you.

True but a hen pin on the river is a wtf? duck. They are veryy rare down there. Good chance it bounced there after the hard freeze up of the smaller water around the area. Oh well youre perfectly legal and next time youll know. Nice job. 

[Stickerbush]

You really should learn to identify those ducks BEFORE you shoot them, especially since you are only allowed two. Being new is no excuse, it is the responsibilty of the hunter to know what he is shooting. Game wardens love guys like you.

well its not like it would have been illegal to shoot one of these anyway. We know the regs and that you can only shoot 2 per day, obviously the hen looks a lot different from the drake and hens are sort of generic looking when flying at you with the sun in your face. But yea if we thought it was a gadwall or something then we might be in a bad spot if we shot seven of them. I been at it for a few years now shot pintail but never a hen

[CoryTDF]

You really should learn to identify those ducks BEFORE you shoot them, especially since you are only allowed two. Being new is no excuse, it is the responsibilty of the hunter to know what he is shooting. Game wardens love guys like you.

JESUS CHRISTO!!! why is that the waterfowl thread always turns into Jerry Springer? I will look dead into the eyes of any waterfowl hunter and call him a bald face liar if he tried to say he has NEVER shot a duck that he was not 100% what it was before he shot. I'm not saying this is a good thing but it happens. In the early morning light many of the smaller ducks look similar I.E. hen pintail, hen shoveler, gadwals. I quit posting and following the waterfowl thread because of all the drama. It takes time and experience to be able to identify birds in the air and even the best make a mistake once in a while. In order to get to that place people sometimes need to make their OWN mistakes. If it is a habitual thing then the law will find them in due time. Don't bust a guys balls for asking a question about shooting a duck. If you cant ask fellow hunters who else is there. If it was a picture of 7 hen pintails and the question was " Hey what do you think these are?" I could see how that would warrant a little bashing. Give a guy a break and lighten up this waterfowl section is like going back to 7th. grade.

150% Hen Pintail and you will find they are more common to the Columbia river and it's drainages than some may tell you. I have shot them from Thorp to Clarkston and everywhere in between.  Look for the long necks and pointy curved wings when they are in flight it's a dead giveaway. Go get em and have fun it's a learning curve and the only way to do it is to just get out and hunt.       

[teal101]

You really should learn to identify those ducks BEFORE you shoot them, especially since you are only allowed two. Being new is no excuse, it is the responsibilty of the hunter to know what he is shooting. Game wardens love guys like you.

True but a hen pin on the river is a wtf? duck. They are veryy rare down there. Good chance it bounced there after the hard freeze up of the smaller water around the area. Oh well youre perfectly legal and next time youll know. Nice job. 

Not if you know where to go.  They congregate with the mallards this time of year to hit the corn.  Find where the corn eatin mallards are and you will find pinnies.  Pinnies are big water birds primarily.  I know of a bar on the Columbia where they sit in the early season, it's very hard to hunt though.

[ducks55]

Yeahh well they are no where near as common as mallards so dont give me the if you know where to go they arent because yeah you can go to specific little spots and target one species all the time but the main stream of birds on the columbia does not consist of pintail. It consists of mainly divers and to someone who is targeting divers and a pinnie comes in I promise you they will say what the !@#$

[woodywsu]

Pintails on the Columbia are not rare with these conditions. Nice bird and good luck in your future outings.

[DUCKDOWNER]

You really should learn to identify those ducks BEFORE you shoot them, especially since you are only allowed two. Being new is no excuse, it is the responsibilty of the hunter to know what he is shooting. Game wardens love guys like you.

JESUS CHRISTO!!! why is that the waterfowl thread always turns into Jerry Springer? I will look dead into the eyes of any waterfowl hunter and call him a bald face liar if he tried to say he has NEVER shot a duck that he was not 100% what it was before he shot. I'm not saying this is a good thing but it happens. In the early morning light many of the smaller ducks look similar I.E. hen pintail, hen shoveler, gadwals. I quit posting and following the waterfowl thread because of all the drama. It takes time and experience to be able to identify birds in the air and even the best make a mistake once in a while. In order to get to that place people sometimes need to make their OWN mistakes. If it is a habitual thing then the law will find them in due time. Don't bust a guys balls for asking a question about shooting a duck. If you cant ask fellow hunters who else is there. If it was a picture of 7 hen pintails and the question was " Hey what do you think these are?" I could see how that would warrant a little bashing. Give a guy a break and lighten up this waterfowl section is like going back to 7th. grade.

150% Hen Pintail and you will find they are more common to the Columbia river and it's drainages than some may tell you. I have shot them from Thorp to Clarkston and everywhere in between.  Look for the long necks and pointy curved wings when they are in flight it's a dead giveaway. Go get em and have fun it's a learning curve and the only way to do it is to just get out and hunt.       

[goober]

Go ahead, fire away, weinies! Sure, we all mistake a bird in the air once in awhile, but at least we know what it is once it gets to our hand. Its my belief that you shouldn't be in the field until you can identify what you're shooting at. If you're not sure, don't shoot. Jeez, no wonder this sport sucks these days. Hey, I got it....if you're not sure if a bird is in range, just shoot at it. If you don't knock it down, it probably wasn't. I'm sure all the whiners about skyscraping will love that mentality.