"Nearly" Impossible
On a hunt two seasons ago, we arrived in one of our traditional areas to find lots of water and plenty of ducks spread over wide areas. Over the years we've learned that in those situations, some good hunting can be had with a little scouting of the shallow, more easily accessed waters where a bag of decoys, a pair of waders and a good dog are all you need.

So that's the way we proceeded to hunt. But the birds were having none of it. These birds, apparently, had seen a lot of pressure on water, because they were incredibly decoy savvy and shy. We managed to take a few birds, but mostly we were frustrated by ducks that would approach the slough, make one high pass and settle in the end without the decoys.

One morning, as we hunted a spot with no hope we noticed a few birds drifting up a hillside and dumping into wheat stubble. We put an 'x" on the spot, called the landowner we happened to know, and left to return the next morning. Before dawn, we set up in the field and awaited our fate. A few birds started to filter to the spot, and with our best calling and some patience, we started to tally some birds. The hunting wasn't spectacular, but it was good. Singles and doubles were common, with a few small flocks mixed in, but the action was spaced, not fast paced. Still, over the course of a half day we were able to tally our birds. The ducks weren't pushovers, but they were huntable, which was clearly a victory considering the hopelessness of hunting water. The amazing thing was, we could clearly see the same slough we'd been nearly skunked on from our position in this field. Some birds took a look at us and promptly departed, heading over to dive into the slough, but we were chipping away at some pretty good hunting.

Lacking a better idea, and after fruitless scouting for a fresh field, we returned the following morning. The wind had picked up a bit and we tallied our birds even faster in the same spot. We reasoned that the birds we'd been hunting here were local birds, and that few if any new birds had moved into this area. The birds had had too much pressure on water, but by changing the venue, we were able to offer a new look that at least some hadn't yet seen.

Where They Want To Be
Can you "be where they want to be" and still be skewered by smart birds? Sure, it happened to us in the hunting described at the beginning of this story, and it happens commonly in places where the birds have been around long enough to know the drill. Many fowlers have learned the hard way that they can hunt the spot where ducks want to be all day, but if the ducks decide to feed only at night, they win.

This seems to be why migration and movement of waterfowl, both ducks and geese, is so important to hunting. Many of us live in places that don't produce most of the birds we hunt, so we rely on "fresh" birds to provide the action. Birds that have been around a while simply get too smart to reason with.

Growing up, I was privileged to hunt with a family of third generation fowlers who had the only duck camp on one of the best mallard lakes in Minnesota. This place was all about migrations, not a good opening day spot at all. The large lake held one long marshy point that dominated the hunting and there were few days that we didn't own "the point". Typically, it was the youngest hunters, us, who had to get up at dark-thirty to secure this spot while the elders got an extra hour or two of sleep. Sitting and freezing tail in the dark was the initiation fee handed down the line.

The spot was remarkable in that on a good day it was nothing to have flock after huge flock of mallards work to the point and set into the decoys. But they didn't all come in. Some flocks simply ignored the spot like it didn't exist. "College educated," we used to say about the birds we now know had likely been in the area long enough to know this game. If the weather patterns stalled for a while, hunting "the point" was no better than hunting anywhere else where birds avoided decoys.

Even fabled Alberta is subject to the trials of hunting educated birds from time to time. In 2005 the goose migration in Alberta stalled, and the place so fabled for its dark geese, so fabled for it's killing fields, was in a funk. Even all-star guides, some of the best hunters and callers in the world, had serious trouble killing geese and temporarily turned to duck hunting. We wrote about those travails in this magazine last year.

Educated birds? They happen. As an accomplished guide once told me, "The geese and ducks have to win once in a while." Sometimes it hurts, for sure, but it makes the good days that much sweeter.