The ducks will land headed into any wind that is present. It is desirable to take this into consideration when (a) setting out your decoys and (b) placing yourself for shooting the ducks as they come in. A lot of people will set out their decoys in sort of a C-shaped geometry, with the ends of the C pointing into the wind. It is expected that the ducks will come in and land in the open part of the C shape. You might suppose that placing yourself on the line of the wind as it intersects the middle of the C-shape would be a good place, as the ducks coming in would be relatively motionless -- with reference to movement left or right of their flight path -- but they would also be tending to look straight at you! It is better to position your self at a right angle to the flight path, to the side of the C-shape of the decoys. Be about 15 to 20 yards away from your decoys.

Ducks have very good eyes. When they are close or coming in try to avoid motion and generally try to avoid being seen. Wearing camo clothes is not a bad idea. Trying to avoid motion is a good idea. Beware of other things that will upset ducks, like bright reflections off of metal -- eyeglasses, gun barrels, wrist watches, etc. Some things you can't help -- shiny high gloss blueing on gun barrels -- but other things you can help.

Shoot at their heads. Try to shoot at them as they are coming at you, with their wings open and their bellies exposed. This is a more vulnerable attitude than when they are flying away from you.

The best hunting time is usually earliest legal shooting light and last legal shooting light. The hunting is often over by the time the sun is up on clear, cloudless days. If there is fog, mist, rain, or overcast the time period of good hunting will be extended. One of my most exciting hunting experiences was hunting with thick ground fog. We would hear the sound of the wind over the ducks' wings before we saw the ducks!!! Suddenly the ducks would drop out of the fog and we would need to be quick to shoot before the ducks were gone.