50 Nebraskaland • October 2020
A hen pintail fl ushed, no more than
20 yards away, and I muff ed the shot.
Suddenly, a near-deafening "whoosh"
fi lled the air to my left. When I turned,
my mouth was agape as more than 300
mallards burst into the air. The sounds
of wings and calls fi lled my world as
I pointed toward the great fl ock as
it buzzed over me. Yet there were so
many that I couldn't even pick out a
bird.
I quickly sloshed my way through
the ankle-high water toward a patch of
grass on the edge of the cattails, then
ducked in to see what would happen
next. If I had decoys, this was when
I could have quickly done some real
damage.
Luckily, they didn't need decoys
to sit back down, and for the next
20 minutes, I watched greenhead
after greenhead cup its wings toward
the water. I was so awestruck that I
didn't even think of raising a camera
to photograph or shoot video. I'm not
sure I've ever been that mesmerized
while hunting before.
When they all fi nally sat back down,
I didn't know what to do. Sixty yards
away, they were not in shooting range
and there was nothing between us. So
I took a chance. I stood up and slowly
walked toward them, knowing that
the overwhelming majority of ducks
would fl ush — which they did almost
immediately.
However, because I've spent a
lifetime jump-shooting ducks and
mourning dove, I knew that every bird
wouldn't get up. There is always one.
This time, it was a greenhead that
let me get to 20 yards before he fl ushed
from behind a clump of grass. He was
Poorly prepared, I was not ready for the massive amount of ducks trying to work their way back into the wetland where I was
hunting, so I used ducks I had shot as rudimentary decoys to lure birds back to me. It worked well.
These cattails are an excellent reason why you should never hunt the Rainwater
Basin alone. It can get dangerous fast.
