Marten River offers amazing Waterfowl hunting (also called duck hunting, goose hunting, grouse hunting or wildfowling) is the practice of hunting ducks, geese, or other waterfowl for food and sport. In many western countries, commercial waterfowl hunting is prohibited, and duck hunting is primarily an outdoor sporting activity.
Many types of ducks and geese share the same habitats, have overlapping or identical hunting seasons, and are hunted using the same methods. Thus it is not uncommon to take several different species of waterfowl in the same outings.
Bird Small Game Calls
In old times, a duck call was a very simple woodwind instrument. It had a barrel, a sounding board and a reed. Hunters would grunt into the call while saying "hut", "quit" or "ut". With the improvement of calls and calling techniques the best callers are able to use no voice. The most prevalent and huntedduck in the United States, the mallard, makes the well known "quack" sound many associate with ducks. Other species make many different sounds, ranging from high-pitched whistles to very low, grunt-like quacks. There are calls for almost all species of ducks. Pintails, teal, wood ducks, divingducks and other ducks including the calls of both the male, or drake and the female, or hen.
In many species, the call of the drake (male) is different from that of the hen (female). Mallard drakes make a lower pitch, longer quack than the hen mallard. This call is often used while feeding and when a mallard drake is landing. It gives the other birds a heads up. The quack of a mallard drake requires voice and is replicated by humming into a special whistle-like call. This whistle is often called a 6-in-1 whistle, due to the fact that it can replicate six different duck species sounds.
In teal, the drakes make a call of short bursts of a high pitch whistle. The "teet! (pause) teet! (pause) teet!-teet!" or any other order of repetition. This call can be made by blowing short bursts of air into the "6-in-1" whistle.
The majority of duck sounds such as quacking that people have heard and are familiar with comes from females, or hen, mallards. Hen mallards are extremely vocal and this is probably why the number one call for duck hunting in North America is a hen mallard call.
Blinds
There are numerous types of structures that qualify as duck blinds. Blinds can be temporary or permanent. They are very effective at concealing hunters and making their movements un-noticed.
For hunting over water, the types of blinds are almost unlimited.
A blind may be constructed out of plywood. Many of these permanent blinds look like a small shack with an opening that faces the water and a portion of the sky.
Often creating a temporary, natural blind as a method of concealment is a hunter's best bet. This is done by using native grasses or marsh vegetation and natural material and simply hiding in a tree, clump of grass or a shrub. More sophisticated natural blinds may have large logs or branches leaned together or lashed together using rope.
Temporary blinds are common in protected and public areas where a permanent fixture is forbidden. Temporary blinds can be very simple and usually require a three dimensional enclosure to conceal hunters from circling flocks.
With the growing popularity of motorcraft such as boats in waterfowl hunting, many individuals have chosen to use boat blinds also known as pop-up blinds. Boat blinds are used to conceal a hunter when hunting out of a boat. Boat blinds can be hand made or are available from manufacturers.
There are two common types of blinds for land and field based waterfowl hunting: pit-blinds and layout-blinds. The pit blind is a solid structure that is placed into a hole in the ground or on the bank of a waterbody. Lay out blinds allow a hunter to have a low profile in a field without digging a hole. It is made of a metal frame and canvas. The hunter crawls in and lies down in the blind. When birds are coming in the hunter can sit up and shoot.