Upland Birds and Waterfowl

Edmonton, Alberta has long been renowned as a duck and goose hunter’s paradise. For those of us raised in the states, too often familiar with playing the waiting game in small farm fields, marshes and flooded timber; the stark difference just in the number of birds seen makes this Canadian trip a rare experience indeed. 

How to fine-tune your public land waterfowl plan.

Goldeneyes (also known as whistlers, for the whistling sound their primaries make as they rocket overhead) are sporting enough for just about anybody.

Conventional wisdom about duck hunting can put you at a disadvantage.

Respect the ringneck’s big game-quality defenses with a low-impact approach that really puts roosters in the game bag.

I smiled as the rocketing ruffed grouse dipped and made its signature hook to the right before disappearing into the mystery of the northern Minnesota buck brush, knowing it would touch down less than 100 yards away.

To outmaneuver runaway ringnecks and force them to flush, you need a sound strategic plan, which should be fully developed long before your boots hit the ground.

Come every October, like clockwork, I find myself in the same, shameful routine.  I dig into a beat-up, plastic bin that’s been hiding on a dark shelf somewhere, stuffed with all the pheasant gear I dropped in exactly ten minutes after I ended my last hunt of last season.

Renewing old friendships, tailgate lunches and hearty wisecracks about missed shots of yesteryear are a big part of opening day. That wasn’t the case during my youth.

Gordy Krahn's story of Arkansas's tradition of bountiful waterfowl hunting.  During the migrations, the flats of Arkansas's Grand Prairie compose the world's greatest concentration of waterfowl.