There’s a second that stands out vividly in my early days as a duck hunter. One sunny morning on a hunt with buddies in California’s Sacramento Valley, hiding in bulrush as a flock of geese got here in, I noticed a blinding flash of white on the wings of one in all them. A buddy dropped the hen cleanly. It was a good-looking male American Wigeon, a duck that might make excellent desk fare.
It was a watershed second for me, as a result of I had by no means been capable of establish a duck’s species whereas it was rushing by within the air; till then I’d relied on my mentors to inform me what I might shoot to remain inside authorized limits. However from that time on, I knew that daring, white flash meant drake wigeon.
Looking geese could also be in your “nope, by no means” listing, however the identification methods hunters use are value studying.
Earlier than I let you know how I establish geese, although, you may need to know why I need to shoot them. At the beginning, searching is how I put wholesome, sustainably sourced meat on my desk. It additionally offers me shops of inventory that beats bland, over-salted store-bought broths, and rendered fats that we use in recipes year-round.
But it surely’s greater than that. I really like all the pieces about searching. It begins with loving the marsh and all its denizens. (I don’t know a hunter who’s not enchanted by the Marsh Wrens that chatter at us as we attempt to conceal, or who fails to gasp with delight when a flock of Pink-winged Blackbirds sweeps inches over our heads.) I reside for the moments all the pieces goes proper—when geese reply to my name and fly inside gun vary—as a result of more often than not, they outsmart me.
I’m additionally proud that hunters are a serious power for conservation. Waterfowl are a cheerful asterisk within the in any other case alarming declines in hen populations, due to a long time of wetland conservation funded largely by searching license purchases, taxes on weapons and ammunition, and charitable contributions. Fashionable searching rules in North America are designed to place the brakes on searching properly earlier than it would threaten a species, and the outcome has been that no recreation species has been endangered or extinguished because of searching beneath this technique. We fortunately tax ourselves to avoid wasting, restore, and preserve habitat.
For hunters, having the ability to establish a species earlier than we shoot is critically essential: Along with a normal every day “bag restrict,” some species have decrease limits. Others, akin to mergansers, simply don’t style good. Our window of alternative to shoot may be transient, so we should make snap judgments. Right here’s how I establish the commonest geese I see on my hunts. I’ve omitted geese as a result of whereas I do hunt them, they’re much simpler to establish on the wing.
Is it a duck?
It might sound apparent, however the very first thing a duck hunter should be taught is the distinction between a duck and different waterbirds present in the identical environments, akin to coots, cormorants, ibises, grebes and shorebirds. Birders can use the identical cues.
Most geese have roughly potato-shaped torsos, egg-shaped heads, and lengthy necks. Whereas physique dimension varies amongst species, the potato-to-egg ratio is an effective approximation, so long as we’re speaking Russet, not fingerlings. (Geese have equally formed our bodies, however larger, so it’s extra like a football-to-egg ratio.) Other than mergansers, geese and geese even have rounded payments, not pointy beaks like many different waterbirds.
Geese even have a particular wingbeat, even from geese: There’s no flap-glide-flap-glide; these wings cease flapping solely throughout a descent, at which level they cup like an umbrella and the birds glide down like Mary Poppins in a rush.
When coming in for a touchdown, their legs dangle down, and that is the one time we are able to clearly see the webbed toes, as a result of geese hold their toes tucked near their our bodies in flight.
The not-duck more than likely to be confused for a duck is an American Coot, as a result of they use the identical habitat as geese and have comparable proportions. However coot toes dangle behind them in routine flight, and coots have pointy white beaks, not rounded payments.
What sound is it making?
I started figuring out most geese first by sound, as a result of it’s simpler to discover geese that means: My eyes might see solely what was in entrance of me, however my ears might detect something round me. My research useful resource was the Geese Limitless identification web page.
Amongst dabbling geese—those who are inclined to feed slightly below the floor with their butts within the air, versus diving geese that feed farther beneath the floor—hens typically quack, and it may be difficult to differentiate between them. The exception is the feminine Inexperienced-winged Teal, whose quack sounds just like the cackle of the Depraved Witch of the West, on helium.
Drake dabblers in North America, although, have very distinctive whistles. Right here’s what they sound prefer to me:
Mallard: zshwee, zshwee.
Northern Shoveler: tsibit, tsibit, tsibit.
Gadwall: a nasal meep meep.
American Wigeon: a whistley whoo-WHHHEAT-who.
Inexperienced-winged Teal: a high-pitched prrp prrp (with a bit of trill)—suppose police whistle briefly bursts.
Northern Pintail: a deeper, slower, fluty prrp prrptrill; additionally, a slide-whistle sound that’s a bit dolphin-like.
One other species we generally encounter, the Wooden Duck, is from a unique genus (Aix) than the geese above (Anas), and appropriately makes very totally different sounds: the drake a humorous zeet zeet that rises and falls (once more, suppose slide whistle), the hen a rising squeal described as oo-eek.
As soon as you recognize these sounds, when you hear them coming from a solo duck, you’ve got a definitive ID. If it’s a drake with a hen, the hen is possible to be the identical species, however you’ll need to look onerous to confirm visible traits. When you get the dangle of drakes, you may deal with the subtler distinctions of hens.
However when you hear it coming from a gaggle of geese, make no assumptions. Geese are extremely social and can fly in blended teams. Simply since you hear an American Wigeon doesn’t imply each hen in that flock is an American Wigeon.
What does it appear like?
The visible cues that duck hunters choose up on can range broadly from hunter to hunter, as a result of it’s all about what catches your eye. I are inclined to see distinctive feather patterns; others see physique form and wingbeat.
Colours stand out once we hunt in sunny climate, however not a lot when it’s overcast or raining. Below these circumstances, I search for patterns of distinction, not colours. Right here once more, we key in on the drakes at first, as a result of hens are principally brown, although their silhouettes can present clues as properly.
These are the options on drakes that stand out to me:
American Wigeon: A medium-size duck with reddish coloring. I look ahead to an enormous white rectangle patch on the wing that appears sq. in flight. Others key in on the white racing stripe on high of the pinnacle and the petite powder-blue invoice.
Gadwall: A principally brown duck with a a lot smaller white rectangle patch on the wing. It additionally has a small black invoice and a medium-large physique with a daring black butt. (I by no means discover the butt, however a lot of my buddies focus on it.)
Northern Shoveler: I house in on its white shoulders and rust-colored stomach. It has a medium-small physique however with an absurdly giant spoon-shaped invoice on its darkish inexperienced head.
Mallard: A giant duck with physique colours reverse of shoveler: rust-colored shoulders and pale stomach. It additionally has a inexperienced head.
Inexperienced-winged Teal: A small duck whose erratic flight—our bodies typically gyrate round always-upright heads—makes it onerous to see feather patterns clearly. I search for a cinnamon head on a physique of grays and browns.
Blue-winged and Cinnamon Teal: These birds are small like Inexperienced-wings, however with large powder-blue patches on their wings. Cinnamons have a particular deep-red physique. The hens of those two species are extraordinarily onerous even for a lot of biologists to distinguish.
Northern Pintail: This species sports activities a chocolate head, lengthy giant physique, lengthy neck with a white swoosh pointing towards the pinnacle, and lengthy, pointy tail feather. (It’s really a number of feathers, however seems like one.)
Wooden Duck: Search for a particular “hood” and a colourful invoice with pink, yellow, white, and black. In flight Wooden Geese’ tail feathers look blocky and sq.. The hen, principally grey, is simple to identify due to the white teardrop form round her eyes.
Mergansers: These fish-eaters—Frequent, Hooded and Pink-Breasted—have distinctive slim “sawbills,” however these don’t actually stand out in flight. As a substitute, my buddy Chris Nicolai, waterfowl scientist for Delta Waterfowl, says the trait he keys in on is that mergansers’ up-and-down wing strokes are rather more shallow than different geese’.
When the geese aren’t speaking, these visible cues can present a definitive ID. And whenever you mix each sights and sounds of a solo duck, you may be ok with your evaluation. Whether or not your purpose is placing meat in your desk or increasing your information of waterbirds, there’s one thing deeply satisfying about having the ability to confidently establish a fast-moving hen.