Celebrating with my birthday mallard

Back in the early 1970’s, the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Maine at Orono had strong ties between the two wildlife management schools within the universities. Without going into much detail, I think that’s one reason I was accepted for graduate school in Maine after graduating from Fairbanks.

After I arrived in Maine to begin my studies, I met a recent graduate of both UAF and UMO who was working at the Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit at the university. He oversaw research projects involving migratory birds, primarily woodcock, but also helped with waterfowl related work.

Since we both had graduated from UAF with our undergraduate degrees, it just seemed natural for Bill and me to hit it off. I remember long discussions and stories about faculty, course work, and, of course, we swapped hunting stories from our time in Alaska. One series of stories that always got my attention was when Bill would talk about the times he was able to get out to the Susitna Flats to hunt waterfowl. He made it sound like there were birds flying everywhere and, if you tired of shooting ducks, there were always the thousands of geese moving through the area.

After I found my way back to Alaska and finally landed in the Mat-Su, I began to hear about the Susitna Flats and waterfowl hunting once again. In fact, one of the guys I worked with on occasion in Fish and Game had a duck shack (I think it was a trespass cabin) over on the flats where he and his family would usually spend opening week of the duck season hunting waterfowl. I hinted a lot but don’t remember ever getting a serious invitation to go hunting with him.

That all changed recently.

My wife inherited a Cook Inlet commercial setnet permit when her mother passed and she wanted to sell it. I have a friend who is a Northern District setnetter who was looking for a permit to expand his developing fisheries business. Everything worked out to both parties’ satisfaction. I had jokingly said that now my friend had to take me duck hunting on the flats where his fish camp is located. He agreed!

We recently spent three-and-a-half days chasing ducks and hoping for a crack at some geese over at his fish camp. The weather ranged from windy and raining (great duck hunting weather) to sunny and cold. We saw lots of birds but didn’t get many shot opportunities. The other guys with us had better luck getting shots and harvesting birds, but there was a reason.

I was the old guy in the group and with “old injuries” to my left ankle and right knee, couldn’t walk the distances necessary to really get into the birds. The two others could hike back and get set up in their chosen location much faster than I could even walk. My friend stayed with me, set decoys on the shallow ponds about a half-mile from his fish camp where we hunted and did the calling, which I appreciated.

We did have some shot opportunities. In several instances, my reflexes were too slow to allow a shot when the birds suddenly appeared out of nowhere and went blitzing by. My friend often got a shot or two but I couldn’t convince him he needed to add more lead in his swing on the flying birds.

I enjoyed my 68th birthday sitting on a log next to one of the ponds watching for ducks. As it turned out, I got a smaller duck (a lesser scaup I believe) and a nice mature mallard drake in full plumage that day. I hadn’t said anything to the guys about my birthday until after harvesting the two ducks. When they found out, the one duck was proclaimed to be my “birthday mallard!”

I’m normally not a big fan of having to deal with a lot of hunters. We saw a few other guys from neighboring camps also hunting ducks; however, I could count that number on one hand for the time I was out there. When the birds came by, we got one chance and the birds were gone. More hunters scattered over the entire area would have kept the birds moving back and forth between groups.

I had an enjoyable time with great conversations, however, I did notice a generation gap. One guy said he wasn’t born yet when I asked if he remembered the 1970’s global ice age scare!