The pond next to our house has 21 "pet" mallards including the two albinos. They are fully flight capable but just too lazy to leave here and try to make a living elsewhere. The various diving species of ducks are rare.

We have a pair of Honkers that visit every day but rarely stay overnight after they had their nest raided by yotes or coons two years ago. In addition, we get "wild" mallards, Woodies and an occasional Gadwall stop in for a day or two and then they depart.

This morning we had these guys and gals drop by for a visit ...





By the way ... Cappy sends his thanks for all of the kind words of support and encouragement. He wore the little Ninja Doodle plum out this morning! They are both being very good with and for each other.

Nice picks.

Poor Capster. My dog got kennel cough really bad when he was a young lad. The vet did a brain scan and his head was shaved like that. Makes me sad to see Cappy like that, prayers for a full and speedy recovery.

X2. Poor dog. Hang in there. I am sure it is tough dealing with that.

Wow, that looks bad...

Wish Ole Cappy the best...(both ya')

We will keep ya'll in our prayers...

J.J.

Nice ringers! I'll shoot them if that is all there is. They are ducks ain't they?

Cable ... When one gets old enough and they often lose the reluctance to admit past transgressions. Case in point: Shooting Ringers is, in my opinion, akin to when I was a teen 50+ years ago ... on a Saturday night a fat girl would work if nothing else became available. Know whut I mean, Vern?

Well, I was going to say that "dogs" don't know the differance between a Mallard and a Ringer...

But obviously Brandy does...

J.J.

One of my fav birds.

Fat girls have their place in this world. Just like black jacks...

And sawbills, apparently.

Fat girls have no place in my world, but Ringers always will.

cool pics, I think those ringers need to leave, before they pollute yoru pond

I ran up on about 100 of them the other day in a flooded hay meadow on Yeague Creek. They really are a very pretty bird. Especially now that they are sporting the ful plume. The whites on them were shining like a new nickel. Saw a lot of greenhead and pintails in the next cove up. I was neat to run the boat through them. They all stayed right there until we got really close. They picked up and went right back in there after we got across the meadow. Man it was a great day on the water Sunday.

Here are some pics I took of ringers while canoeing in Minnesota last summer. Pretty drab compared to what they look like at the current time of the year.

cool pics Cable

good luck to the dog

On the THF hunt Stephen kept asking me if I was going to shoot the ringer that had passed me 5 or six times. I told him I didn't plan on it. He goaded me into shooting at it but I didn't try very hard.

Later in the season on my last hunt...



I wasn't going out with a skunk.

Prayers for Cappy

Not sure why you dont see them alot around ivanhoe, ringnecks are very common north of honey grove and compose probably 30% of what is on the ponds during the season. hope your dog is doin well.

Need to read my original post more carefully. I said: "THE POND NEXT TO OUR HOUSE".

Got to agree with pigpen on this one Cappy. We hunt the same area and divers are not that uncommon. Perhaps you just haven't noticed them before or possibly did not realize they were divers.

Sorry MuleMan ... I'm afraid you and pigpen attended the same sub-par reading class. I not only realize what divers are, I've been killing them long before you and pigpen were even born ... maybe even your daddy. We do see and shoot divers on our other property, just not here at home. Capice?

What I said was it was rare to have them IN THE POND RIGHT NEXT TO OUR HOUSE as seen below. There's too much highway traffic and buildings adjacent to that pond to have more than the occasional honker or puddle duck stop by. The 21 mallards (out of 24) that are here now and stay year around were bought from Ivanhoe Game Bird Farm as juvies. We clip their flight feathers and then release them in that pond. We feed them year around as well, that's why 75% or more stay over into the following year.