Drab Drakes
10-07-2008, 07:44 PM
#1
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Southern Wisconsin
Posts: 452
Drab Drakes
Went out for the opener this past weekend and did decent. 2 ducks and a goose on saturday night and me and 2 buddies shot 6 on sunday morning. All of the ducks we shot were mallards, and all but 2 were hens. Ever single one of the drakes were identical to hens in flight, and when we picked them up you could probably count the number of green feathers on there heads on one hand... Are all drakes like this at this time of year? Right after they molt? It makes me think they're all juveniles with their lack of curles....you would thinkthere has to be some feathered out drakes somewhere out there. It just is a little dissapointing walking out to pick up a duck and knowing that, hen or drake, it'll look basically the same.
10-07-2008, 09:28 PM
#2
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: down in a hole
Posts: 1,441
RE: Drab Drakes
Thats "eclipse plumage" working for ya. It gets to me because during early teal season, even though i didn't get out that much, i still shot a couple of greenwing/bluewing teal drakes. I know they would have been nice mounts in their winter plumage. But nonetheless, a duck is a duck.
10-09-2008, 06:08 PM
#4
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Mukwonago,Wisconsin
Posts: 108
RE: Drab Drakes
ORIGINAL: DuckHuntin247
Went out for the opener this past weekend and did decent. 2 ducks and a goose on saturday night and me and 2 buddies shot 6 on sunday morning. All of the ducks we shot were mallards, and all but 2 were hens. Ever single one of the drakes were identical to hens in flight, and when we picked them up you could probably count the number of green feathers on there heads on one hand... Are all drakes like this at this time of year? Right after they molt? It makes me think they're all juveniles with their lack of curles....you would thinkthere has to be some feathered out drakes somewhere out there. It just is a little dissapointing walking out to pick up a duck and knowing that, hen or drake, it'll look basically the same.
Went out for the opener this past weekend and did decent. 2 ducks and a goose on saturday night and me and 2 buddies shot 6 on sunday morning. All of the ducks we shot were mallards, and all but 2 were hens. Ever single one of the drakes were identical to hens in flight, and when we picked them up you could probably count the number of green feathers on there heads on one hand... Are all drakes like this at this time of year? Right after they molt? It makes me think they're all juveniles with their lack of curles....you would thinkthere has to be some feathered out drakes somewhere out there. It just is a little dissapointing walking out to pick up a duck and knowing that, hen or drake, it'll look basically the same.
10-10-2008, 05:56 PM
#7
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: down in a hole
Posts: 1,441
RE: Drab Drakes
Ducks have to molt twice a year... once in the summer to get their "eclipse plumage," and then a shortly after just in time for the migration they molt to get their "breeding plumage." This link should answer all of your questions: http://www.greenwing.org/teachersguide/summer01/summer01moreabt.html
