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An old article I wrote on reading birds

matt hougan

Junior Member
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Dayton area
Reading birds


What is reading birds? (Now the following is just my opnion and not gospel!)

To me reading birds is judgeing a birds reaction to your calling. Hitting birds at a distance and guaging their reaction for example. Turn it up a notch if they do not respond so on and so fourth. I always start off easy. Hit'm too hard too fast and you'll never get them back. You can always turn up the heat but you can't go back if you blow them out of the air. Thing is, you have to have another notch if they don't respond to previous attempts to change thier course. If you only have one sound, more often than not you're not going to be very successful. Many people think contest calling is for city boys, wrong. Being a contest caller forces you to continually come up with new sounds. Practise for contests for a summer or two and you'll have a much better vocabulary for hunting. A vocabulary the hunter down the shore does not have. The key here is to be observant to the birds reaction. I've heard callers tell seminar attendees "Yeah, when the geese are 100 yards away make this sound" etc. Thats bad advise. Better advise would sound like this.... If the geese/ducks are 100 yards away and doing XXX make this sound taking into account the wind direction and velocity etc. My main point is always be observant to how the birds are reacting to your calling and adjust accordingly.

There are a ton of factors the play into reading birds and calling to them appropriatetly.

What are the birds doing?
Listen, if the birds are coming your way then just sit there and watch. Never amazes me to watch guys catch a glimpse of birds all bowed up over the decoys. Whats the first thing these guys do? you guessed it they grab thier call. Good luck pal, my hands are firmly wrapped around trusty rusty! If they are flying adjacent to you hit'm, if the continue hit'm harder. If they turn toward or away from you then back off a touch and pull them in. If they come in, take a look, and then start heading out hit them real hard and keep on them until you can't see them. But if they are comin in let'm. Look for an individual bird, there will be one bird in the flock that wants in. Thats the bird I call too normally. If I can get that bird on the ground or water, my chances of pulling the other into gun range is alot better. The main idea here is to not be overly aggressive if the situation does not call for it or the birds are not liking what your saying. You will begin to see birds react positively to one sound, volume, cadence, etc or another.

Wind:
Wind is huge with respect to calling. Light wind usually means light calling. On heavy wind days you may not be able to call loud enough. Pay attention to wind direction in relation to the birds. You should have set up with the wind at your back so in-coming birds would be down wind. Be careful not to call too loudly when they get close. The second day of my annual Arkansas trip this year we had 40 mph winds. I started off as I normally do with light calling. That didn't work so I called much harder. By the end of the day I was blowing in my duck call as hard as I could until someone killed the bird. I thought my lips were going to fall off. I literally needed aspirin after that hunt my head hurt so bad. These were decoying ducks in a partially flooded rice field. They were breaking thier necks following the source of the sound sailing in on the death glide. We were 70 yards from the rest of our hunting party. They had the decoys and the vortex.........and they never had a chance.

Number of decoys:
If you are hunting a little pothole with a half dozen flambeaus you may not want to sound like a hundred birds. Try to match the hatch if you will. When hunting fields for geese and mallards fly over, why does everyone reach for thier mallard call? Geese are far more vocal than are mallards and certainly more visible in a corn field. Three out of four hunters should make very light subdtle honks etc while one maybe two guys work the mallards. Keeping mind you are not trying to call the ducks with the goose calls. You are selling an illusion. Feeding geese could not care less about mallards, your goose calling should be that of content feeding geese. Feeding murmurs, half honks (If you were a contest caller you could do feeding murmurs and half honks). BTW geese do not growl. the feeding or spacing call commonly called a feeding call sounds more like a cow moo'ing not grrrrrrrrrrr. Which leads me to my next point (man what a slick transition)

Sound like a duck/goose:
I hear guys all the time talk about going to the park and listening to the birds. Thats great, now apply it. Attempt to make duck/goose like sounds. Consider not only the quality of sound but also the cadence of sounds or rythums. Try recording a few birds for only a few seconds. Go home and mimic thier sounds note for note and tone for tone. Then go back and record a different sound.....so on and so fourth.

Understand thier language:
This has more to do with geese than ducks. Understand geese are only social to the extent there is safety in numbers. If theres going to be trouble chances are you'll get eaten and not me or my family is their frame of mind. Understand the geese on the ground are not inviting the birds in the air to come eat. it's the exact opposite. They are saying to the flight birds "you come down here and there will be a fight" Ever wonder why birds land short of your decoys? Landing zone is too small. Flight geese are afraid of a fight so they land short! Listen to the birds in different situations. You'll start to notice certain consistancies. Feeding birds will get quite for flight birds except for a few ganders that get really aggressive with the clucks. Hens assemble thier babes with whistleing murmurs keeping them out of harms way if a fight breaks out . Listen to the vocalization of the birds resting on water in relation to incoming birds. Write down what you observe and practice what you heard until you can match not only the sound but the cadenses.

I also hear frequently that calling is over rated!
You set up over there and I'll set up over here. Same decoys, same blinds etc. the control is you cannot call and I get to do as much calling as I like. Bring a note book, school is in session! Calling adds realism which sells the whole deal. You cannot complete the illusion without appealing to as many of their senses as you can. Additionally, it usually works out, that the hunter that gets their attention first gets first crack at them. I too have had ducks and geese pile in without a note. In that case you have what we call the "X". This is the place in the field or water where birds would have landed with or without you. Maybe a big "X" or a little "x" In that case you needn't any decoys for that matter. Just sit there with Bo Whoop!

The art of knowing when to call and when not to is only half the deal. Knowing when to make what sounds or not to make and at what volume is just as critical. It can never really be mastered. Just when you think you have them figured out they throw ya a curve ball. Keep in mind that duck hunting is unique in that it is passive in terms of setting up with decoys and waiting for birds to come, but at the same time it can be just as proactive with quality calling. Regardless duck hunting is not complete without all the elements decoys, blinds, camo, and my favorite the horns!
 
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