Ducks and Dinosaurs

[Fowl Play]

Two weekends ago it got really cold here in Florida and this white stuff started falling from sky. Decided to go chase some wood ducks.

For those who have ever hunted these rocket ship, aerial aerobatic devils you’ll know that it is typically a very fast and furious hunt with the majority of the birds piling in when there is just a glow of light in the morning. The hunt can literally start at legal shoot time and be over by sunrise.

First time I have ever experienced it, but snow covered trees make it MUCH easier to pick out these dark colored birds as they come barrel rolling in. It was awesome!



As we got up to go retrieve our birds, this loud bellowy hissing sound came from literally 2 feet behind us. Wayyy too loud and long to be a moccasin, honestly the noise could have been used perfectly for a dragon in a cave in some King Arthur movie or something.

It was fun to find out that we had literally been sitting above an approx 8 foot gator all morning. Who… was none too happy that we had awaken them from “hibernation”. Terrible picture of just the tip of the snout, but maybe I’ll try to post the video. This thing had made itself a little den about 10 feet from the shoreline. Florida never disappoints.

 

[Ironeyes969]

Woody's in the snow in FL is pretty cool! Didn't snow down here on the East coast but we got plenty of "ducks n dinosaurs"

 

[Rogue Bay]

Wood ducks are such cool, unique birds. I’ve shot quite a few of them in the past here in Oregon, but have always wanted to do a dedicated wood duck hunt. That’s such a cool hunt with the rare snow. Not sure how I’d feel about gator encounters while duck hunting, though.

 

[Loper]

Two weekends ago it got really cold here in Florida and this white stuff started falling from sky. Decided to go chase some wood ducks.

For those who have ever hunted these rocket ship, aerial aerobatic devils you’ll know that it is typically a very fast and furious hunt with the majority of the birds piling in when there is just a glow of light in the morning. The hunt can literally start at legal shoot time and be over by sunrise.

First time I have ever experienced it, but snow covered trees make it MUCH easier to pick out these dark colored birds as they come barrel rolling in. It was awesome!

View attachment 1012004

As we got up to go retrieve our birds, this loud bellowy hissing sound came from literally 2 feet behind us. Wayyy too loud and long to be a moccasin, honestly the noise could have been used perfectly for a dragon in a cave in some King Arthur movie or something.

It was fun to find out that we had literally been sitting above an approx 8 foot gator all morning. Who… was none too happy that we had awaken them from “hibernation”. Terrible picture of just the tip of the snout, but maybe I’ll try to post the video. This thing had made itself a little den about 10 feet from the shoreline. Florida never disappoints.

View attachment 1012005

That’s awesome. Very few people have hunted ducks in the snow in Florida. What part of the state? Panhandle?

I’ve also never seen a gator den like that before. He’s pretty tucked in there.