**Action packed photos of decoying Eiders!!

I invite you to take the time and look through these last 47 postings loaded with action photos, stories, and videos. I hope you enjoy the small window view to this past season. One thing should be crystal clear; I produce hunts for my clients regardless the challenges! I hunt day after day, and work very hard to put my folks safely into birds. After 18 years of being a professional guide, you learn a thing or two about providing a fantastic hunt with results regardless of what the weather throws at you! I look forward to having you in my boat this season....

Captain Ruben Perez
East Coast Guide Service
www.SeaduckHunt.com

508.336.3755
seaduckhunt@hotmail.com
























In addition to harvesting boatloads of beautiful eiders, white wing, surf, common scoters, oldsquaws (long-tails for the PC crowd), brant, blackducks, goldeneyes, greater and lesser scaups, common and red-breasted mergansers, and a bunch of other waterfowl-- we had some highlights!

Bands Collected by clients: 32
Borealis Eiders harvested: 5 (one V-notch)
King Eider: 1

***Eider, brant, and bluebill hunt action videos!!!***

Here's a selection of hunting shows filmed with me for national syndication. Hope you enjoy the variety of hunts I offer...











***Once again we have been selected as the leader of delivering great hunts--- The national syndicated TV show produced by Browning Arms "Browning The Best There Is" has filmed with us and broadcast their show on The Outdoor Channel.***

In the past, I have been featured in several other Television shows…. Mossy Oaks “Whistling Wings” came to hunt and get the best sea duck gunning footage around.

Yet another appearance, my service was featured in was a sea duck hunt show that aired on the Versus Network. The show is called "In the Hunt". The show's host, Trevor Gowdy, son of Curt Gowdy (American sportsman) brought along as the "star" of the show Adam Vinateri, kicker from the New England Patriots. He kicked the winning point in the last two Super Bowls the Pat's have won!!!!

Other places you might have seen my hunts are in Mossy Oak "Whistling Wings 9" and “Whistling Wings 5” video with an eider hunt, and this additional appearance of eider and brant hunting--will be as exiting and action packed as the first!!

And let's not forget putting Dave 'The General' Gruber on his first sea duck hunt, on "Benelli's American Birdhunter".

**Carefully choosing a Sea Duck guide!!!**

When choosing a guide for your hunt of a lifetime, cost, should not be the only factor taken into account. I deliver quality hunts, with trophy quality birds, that are decoying to the gun. I offer the opportunity of shooting a variety of species like no other service can. Eiders, surf scoters, white wing scoters, common scoters, oldsquaws, brant, blackduck, along with other species, are the kinds of ducks you can expect to have an opportunity to harvest.

My unique location is a wintering ground for many of these birds, very few ‘other guides’ can offer this!

Be advised there's been a plethora of sea duck guide services cropping up in the last couple of years. Several "captains" claim they have been hunting ducks for X number of years, when in reality, that's not the case. Keep in mind, like any other service or goods you purchase in life, you get what you pay for... don't have them learn how to be a guide on your dime! I have been in operation, and considered by several national sources as a premiere guide service for over 18 years. I am licensed by the United States Coast Guard, and fully insured for your protection.

When window shopping for a guide, keep all this in mind--ask a lot of questions, and buyer beware! You can tell quite a bit from the photos the guide service let's you see. If their website only has photos of the guide, his friends, or shabby looking birds, you know what your in for. In contrast, I show you hundreds of images, and several videos so you can feel comfortable this is not my first rodeo. Looking through this blog, or my website, you'll see lots of happy customers with piles of beautiful birds.

You have read me mention in the previous post of National television show appearances I have made... Please note these shows are not self produced infomercials like other sea duck guide services are starting to do. Frankly, since their hunts do not have the quality of hunts to attract major National television shows to film them, they forced to do the filming themselves. When a nationally syndicated Television shows films a hunting show, they want to make sure they will walk away with great footage for their time investment. Getting these hunts in two or three days of filming is not a simple matter if you don't have the abundance of birds, or the ability and knowledge to produce good hunts.

These "new sea duck guides”--are finding that it's not as simple as they thought to be a guide, and they will take a whole season to film a promotional DVD making it appear that you can expect an abundance of birds during your hunt with them. You decide who you want to book your hunt with-- a seasoned professional guide that has "been there and done that" and knows where to find the ducks, or a new 'guide' that is learning the ropes on your $$$?

Spoke too soon, more SNOW!!! Safety is paramount.

During your hunts with me, you will be gunning out of a new 21 foot Bankes Goliath boat powered by a Suzuki 150 HP, just added to my fleet... This vessel offers plenty of room and safety, in the big waters we hunt. I also have a fleet of layout boats by MLB Layouts that we use from time to time, for in-your-face action. Two one man Kevlar, and one Kalash one man, knows as the 'Cadillac' of the layout boats.

I also advise that you book at least three days. (The norm is Mon-Wed or Thursday-Sat.) The major reasons are twofold. In New England, the weather is turbulent. Winds can kick up, making the gunning a challenge. In the past five years I have not asked a group to stay in the Motel and wait out a storm. We always have a great place to hunt. It's just better that after the travel, lodging, license, and other expense, you should have at least one fantastic perfect day. Last year two parties were here during a Nor' Easter (winds 45 mph, gust to 60 mph) and had a great time. They said it added to the atmosphere of the trip. I say it only added gray hairs to my head.

Although the gunning was challenging, to say the least, only one hunter came one bird short of his limit. With eiders, we have a great success ratio.

More sun... more blacks and brant....

My hunts were also featured in a recent issues of Gray's Sporting Journal, Ducks Unlimited Books "Divers and Sea Ducks" by Gary Kramer, and “Misery Loves Company" by Bill Buckley. In several articles of DU Waterfowl Magazine, Waterfowl Hunter and Wildfowl magazine.

The Bird Hunting Report, a premier magazine, publishing updated critiques of guides and their services, has glowingly recommended my service several times.

Again, why do I mention all this... well my guide service produces great world class hunts, the kind that you read about and see on national television shows... the producers, writers and photographers coming on a hunt spend quite a bit of money and time to cover these hunts. They would not come with me if I didn't produce. There are dozens of guides, some good, some with instant expertise-- that they could have chosen. But as you see, they come to me.... and so can you. As mentioned unlike other guides that film their own hunts and show a biased image of their abilities… here you’re getting it from an independent source… and not something they can control and film throughout the season and make it look as good as they want. All the TV shows shot with me were on a 1-3 day hunt, just like you will experience.

We shoot banded honkers too.... and the usual suspects...

Wow, sun....

Brant, Black, Brant, Black, Brant, Black....

Another Guest Blog.... Another Big Thanks To Ruben!!

Well this last December I did my first sea duck hunt on the east coast. I used East Coast Guide Service. Ruben came highly recommended for good reason. The man knows what he is doing when it comes to hunting big water. Mother Nature dealt us a bad hand when we were out there, but it didn't stop us from piling up the birds. The 1st day of the hunt we had 30+ mph winds which limited us where we could hunt, but Ruben pulled a few tricks out of his hat and got use into to some birds. That day we ended up shooting 9 plumaged out eiders, 3 dandy drake oldsquaws, drake goldeneye and a Black duck. 2 of the eiders that we shot were very special, one was a banded hen Eider that my best friend shot and the other was a drake Borealis which are very rare in those parts. I asked Ruben out of rare birds to shoot out there to only way to top those two birds would be to shoot a King Eider. So I thought we did pretty well that day and I got what I wanted 2 dandy old squaws.

Guest Blog by happy client.... BIG Thank You to Ruben!

We (myself, wife, and great hunting buddy) returned recently from our trip out east to case seaducks with East Coast Guide Service. Weather was an issue, but Capt. Perez stuck with it, found, and put us on birds. We were accompanied by another gentlemen from Wis. as well.

Day 1 was tough. We hunted in steady 30mph winds with gusts 40+. Although we had to cut our hunt a little short due the weather, we still managed 5 birds. 4 Eider and a Brant. We had plenty of opportunity to take more birds, but our shooting was less than stellar. Unfortunately we did not take a group pic this day, which we regret. With all the wind we just didn't have our head in the game after getting off the water. Following is a pic of our portion of the groups take.



Day 2 was a little less windy....20-25mph and steady, no gusts. We set up once again for Eider and had a fantastic shoot. Although the wind made of a bit of an awkward setup, the birds worked us well and we managed out limit of Eider, a couple Brant, and 3 long tails.
We did loose 1 eider....it dove, never to return to the surface



Day 3 we opted to target Brant. This was our nicest day weather wise with wind only around 10-15mph. The Brant worked us well, and we took 10 and a Mallard. We called the hunt early, although had we stayed, I'm certain we could have filled our bag.



The best part was Capt. Perez lead me to my first band. I was lucky enough to take a banded Brant on our last day. I'm still waiting for the info, and will share when I receive it.



We truly had a great hunt and adventure. Capt. Perez did a fantastic job in guiding our hunt. If anyone is thinking of an east coast adventure, be sure to given Ruben a chance.

BLING--BLING-- SQUAW! Banded seaducks!

Had a group of longtime regulars get into some nice duck shooting. Weather has yet to give us a break-- so cold that the water bottles froze in a couple of hours. Wind was so strong that our hunting locations were limited, to just hunt a safe spot. Had lots of birds come by, but with a tailwind... gunning was hard to say the least.

Good thing this group did not let the conditions get in the way. Two of the eiders were sporting jewelry-- a first for one of the hunters. And a very nice long-tail was taken... only bird the hunter wanted

Couple of days of hard gunning!!

Young couples brave the extreme weather....

Had the great pleasure to guide two young couples these last few days. It was great to see them hunt together, and I have to admit, I was a bit jealous at the fact that these fellows had their ladies hunt with them. Heck, not only did they hunt, they hunted hard. In fact one day, the snow was coming down so hard; it was difficult to see 100 yards in front of you. We were in white out conditions!! The day before, was no better. The North West winds were whipping the ocean so hard, that the spray from the waves would be scattered like rain by the gusts! It’s fair to say, we were hunting in 3 footers, and when they became 5 footers plus-- the hunt ended! … NOT FUN! They had lots of opportunities at the eiders, but the pitching boat, the fast flying birds, with a good strong wind helping them get out of dodge quickly, made it a challenging hunt. Didn’t stack them, but did get some great prime birds.

Funny highlights of the snowy hunt… one of the huntresses shot a mallard that is a bit odd of sorts… two in the party are wildlife biologist, so they know better than the average bear if this is a hybrid or not… so I thought. Well, let’s just say there was some interesting discussion if this mallard was a Black/Greenhead cross. I’ll just say I stayed out of it… LOL.

The other funny part was that one of the ladies had never shot a bufflehead. I had joked with her that she better not shoot any of the ones that kept bombing our spread… Well, at one point, I had to take the boat to pick up a cripple that had sailed several hundred yards… When I returned, she had a prime buffie drake floating in the rig, and she was sporting a great smile. Hey, what can I say to that… it’s her hunt!

It was great fun having them in my boat. Their enthusiasm, at the face of extremely hard weather, made it bearable. They managed to harvest some great trophy birds, in fact, on the snow day, their total of 19, included brant, blacks, mallards, goldeneye, and oh, yes a buffie.

I would be interested to hear the experts in this forum chime in on the status of the maybe hybrid mallard… I'm not familiar with these funky looking ducks.

First day back and--- Another BAND!!!

Back from Christmas vacation with my family, had a grand time visiting friends, and getting them on some nice hunts!!

First hunt with clients... father and son team... and the son, brought down a nice eider sporting Christmas jewelry!!

One of the drakes still had a mussel coming out of his beak.


Not bad...

Hard time finding sea ducks!

I'm spending some quality time with my family, taking our annual deer hunt trip! Visiting some great friends, and from the looks of it, missing some dandy snow storms....

This hunting is like hitting Disneyland, but much better!! I want my daughters to love to hunt, and appreciate the great outdoors.

Here are some photos of my girls with their results!! All three shot some dandy deer (all one shot kills), saw bigger ones, but could not get to them.


BTW, from the bit of blood on the eight year old, you can imagine, it's her first deer, and was she proud of it!!

Will this WIND ever STOP!!!

Well winds were rough once again.... and the crew wanted EIDERS!! With any other sea duck as bonus

Oh well, you got to do, what the clients want.... as long as it's safe.

Eiders, Squaws, and Brant-- Two days of gunning

Well, just wrapped up the hunts with my party from MI, same hunters that shot the banded eider, and Borealis drake!

We had to deal with strong, heck VERY strong winds--rain, ice storms, more rain, fog, oh yeah, more wind still managed getting into the eiders, and brant, with some looong tails to boot!

The hunters were great, took the weather in stride, and shared some great laughs.

BLING and funny looking Eider! In spite of SW winds gusting to 30 Mph. Seas 4 to 6 ft.

Weather was NOT fun for sure... But we got into the ducks! Oldsquaws with some nice tails, Eiders with BLING, one sporting an abnormality (BOREALIS BaBy!!!), and a goldeneye with a blackduck chaser can’t get them by staying home....







BOREALIS!!! NOTE THE LOBE!! We were fortunate to have several taken on my boat this year...

Lady has jewelry....

Among some dandy Eiders... one of the ladies had some leg iron!! My party from Minn., and Texas, was thrilled to say the least!!

Although it took them the greater part of the morning to get the bead down "on those slow looking white birds, that are flying a lot faster than we think" .... They still had a great time.







Here's some photos that Taxidermist Todd Huffman did for one of the hunters.... Nice scene of the varied birds we have.







It's cool to see the end results of three days of hunting!!



.

Nasty weather Ducks.... the theme continues!

I cannot remember a longer run of bad weather Wind, wind, more wind...

Fortunately the ducks came to give us a jingle

Family fun times...

Well, my crew from PA had hundreds of sea ducks flying by, and at times re-enacting scenes from the movie Matrix.

They shoot, Eiders, would swing around the shots

Anyhow, they ended shooting their limits of eiders (4 each) (lost 3 crips, birds that looked stoned dead-- and then came back to life, we gave chase for several minutes, and lots of shell shot at them -- but they never came up. They being sportsman, counted them to the limit)

Like they said, they were there for the good times. You see, the gentleman on the far left is 70, and this is his b-day gift from his daughter, her husband, and his brother!!

They had such a great time being abused by the speeding ducks, and the heavy winds, not to mention rain-- that they already re-booked for next season.



Eiders and scoter....

Wind gusting 25, Raining Cat's and dogs... Results...

Brant, Brant, Brant, Brant--- Duck... Black Duck!!

Very wet, but Very Happy crew today! Another 70 year old hunter and his family!!

Wind, Rain, NOT a good Day for seaducks!!

But these fellows are die-hard, and even after I tried to discourage them from hitting the water, and letting them know we would get a soaking.... hey they wanted to give it a try....

I found a protected hunt for them, so we were at least comfortable....

here's the result!!

Surf Scoters, Common Scoters, White Wing Scoters --- SCOTER SLAM!!! With Eiders to boot!!

Trophy hunt continues....

Father and son team from TX, and the two hunters from Minn. were off on a trophy hunt.... A few species were checked off their trophy list!!

Brant, Surf Scoter, White Wing Scoters, and bonus eider

Sea ducks!! Hunter in his 70's and still smacking them....

Father and son team from Michigan... Dad, I think said he's 73-75? Regardless, the man did not look it!!! His gunning was superb. Hope God blesses me in such, when I get old.....


They got into some brant, eiders this day. And some oldsquaws and scoters another....Take note of the Dandy Borealis taken on this hunt!!!

Lady Luck ????

Cali couple continues collecting the sea ducks!! They shot all they came here for... and then some!

More Cali Love....

Second day the Cali couple wanted some prime Eidah..... so here's the result...

It's great to have ladies so some shooting....!!

Brant limit with a little bit of Love....

I had a husband and wife team come up from California and do some gunning... we targeted the brant, but as you can see, the eiders wanted to join in on the party !

Eider, Scoter Photos... Color reference!

Though some of you might enjoy some photos of freshly taken sea ducks for color reference. I have noticed some different colors used for the bills, in particular , for Eiders-- than I'm used to seeing in the field.

If you mount your own, or do work for clients, or your having your Taxidermist mount one for you, hope this helps...

So close, yet.... a Taxidermist culling the bag!

Looking over some of the photos I shot this year after hunts, I recalled that I had a unique drake eider in the take.... and from the comments from another well versed refuge member, maybe so.

But if that's the case, take a look at the photo of the client, a GW and taxidermist; looking over the take for good mountable birds....

he is not paying much attention to the bird in the bottom frame with the V-notch under its chin

Maybe he should have...

Committed Bluebills to the Layout !!

Here's a shot of some 'bills banking their approach to a MLB layout!!

Love the way these little footballs drop right in!!!


I chase more than eiders

Click on this smaller photo for a larger view...

MIGHTY BAND!!!

I recently had a special guest on my boat, MLB's owner Mark Rongers himself... here he is with a banded Eider.

No , not HIS, but mine... last shot of the day, on the last eider hunt!!

I had a TV show filming the hunt, so they gave me the option to have anyone I chose to hunt with on camera. Since Mark has planed for years to hunt eiders with me, I thought this would be the perfect time....

Getting the birds to decoy in, with two camera boats hovering just 30 yards away, and on the approach line for the birds, was something not easily done! But with luck, the birds were ready to land on us those two days!

Since we lost a day of filming to a Nor' Easter, (not good for the cameras ) I decided to treat the gang to a Blue Bill hunt. Man oh Man, they were on us for sure. Hundreds decoying to the gun! It was really nice to see.

Nothing But Prime!!

Some Prime Eiders, on the way back to the ramp after a neat sea duck hunt!!

Hey , how did the lawn dart get in there...

Cold Duck!!

It's been a bit chilly out there.....

Three Generations....

For the last three days I hosted a group consisting of son, father, and grandfather... Very cool!! They were great hunters, and fun to have on the hunts....

here's pix of them after a quick brant hunt!!

What happens when you’re not looking!!!

A client sent me this photo ... My dog Bo, takes the opportunity that I'm busy talking and not looking, to do some balancing act as the boat cruises at 35mph ... he decides to perch himself on a small platform step


If he looses his grip.... he'll bounce for some time

Band-band-band...rare Eider Band Story and Photos!!

Cha Ching!!-- Cha Ching!!-- Cha Ching!!


After my clients limited out the other day and they went off for a lobster lunch, I decided to do some scouting for the next day’s hunt… Well, it was Bodacious’ one year birthday, so knowing spot eiders, squaws, and scoters frequented, I decided to throw some dekes out and have a fun hunt with him. I don’t get the chance to shoot much, since client’s good times come first. My gun stays in its case for most of the season, but even a guide needs to do some gunning some of the time….

Soon after getting the rig set, birds were already landing in the spread. Only looking to take a couple of drakes and a hen mounting and not wanting to educate big groups, I just let the big bunches pass on by or work the rig. All of a sudden, here comes this nice drake Eider, so white and beautiful; it seemed to glow—and best of all, he was by himself. So as he set his wings and glided to the dekes, I sat up and shot. He folded, I sent “Bo” to make the retrieve. Taking the birds out of his mouth, I realized it had a band!! Awesome. Eider bands are hard to come by, but this year I’ve seen four in my boat already, all shot by clients. All these bands were taken in the last couple of week!!

Ready to shoot again, a drake and a hen comes in, following a group of 20 birds. As the large group gives the spread a look, they continue on, the pair locks in and so do I, two shots, two more in the bag. I send Bo out to make the retrieves. Bringing back the hen I notice a shine to her leg, band two, oh man, what a day… as Bo brought back the drake, sure enough, I was looking for leg irons at this point!! No such luck.

Regardless, the drake was beautiful beyond words! With one last eider to my limit, I almost picked up and left, thinking two bands how much better can it get, specially on Bo’s birthday!! Large groups were working the rig at this point, not wanting to spook them, I sat it out and waited for a lull so I could pick the dikes and go…

Well, out in the distance I spot this drake coming in on a shoestring… as he gets to 20 yards , I sit up and shoot, missing the first shot, and folding him on the second. In my minds eye I thought I saw a band on his leg as well! No way, my mind is playing tricks, and I’m getting greedy I thought. I tell you what, as Bo get’s close to the boat, I’m looking at legs…. Man-oh-man!!

B-A-N-D!!!!


Three banded eiders out of my limit of four!! What a day…

So, in the last two weeks-- total of seven banded eiders have seen their way in my boat!! What a season…..

Eider Down!!! Photos!!!

Have a series of photos for you of a nice Drake Eider flying in to the decoys!!

Thought I'd share photos from yesterday's hunt.....


You'll see the shots, then the hard landing; he then gets another water swat, but still comes up with his head up... As some of you that hunted these hearty ducks know, they have a tendency of being bullet proof....

Not this time... the gets another, and then Zoë is sent to do her work!!!

Sea Duck Slam....

Thought you might like to see what a New England sea duck slams looks like.... Eider, White Wing Scoter, Surf Scoter, and Common Scoter.

Layout gunning action picture....

You all are probably going through end of season blues... so here's a pix that I shot during this past season of a client in the layout , gunning for eiders... in one of my MBL boats!!



Hope you like....




Wide shot.... gives you an idea of the numbers of birds we typically get to decoy....

First Bling of 2008-- Banded Eider Shot by 12-yr.-Old!!!!

Well, here it is, first hunt of the New Year, and one of my clients, a 12-year-old young man, shot the first band of the year, a banded Eider!!

Let me tell you, this young man Could Shoot!! He was great to have in the boat, along with his dad, and a friend!! They quickly limited on eiders, and shot a brant to boot!! Cold have shot their brant limit, but heck, folks were exited...


Great hunt, with great folks! Hope you all have a wonderful New Year!!

King is in the room, taken first shot of the day...

Neat hunt today, a SPECIAL eider (albeit a young KING drake eider) nonetheless was taken today by one of my clients-- a very happy one I might add.

Well, now it's time to get one of the plumed boys I recently saw...

Double Banded Brant- AGAIN!! The streak continues...

Wow!!

Same party, today they wanted to shoot a blackduck, and possibly brant! Well, one of the other gunners shot another double banded brant!!

I was very happy for them... this last three days, has been outstanding. They have shot, a juvie drake King Eider, and two double banded brants!! Along with several trophy eiders, brant, goldeneyes, and blackducks!!

Guess it was the days to be out on the water.....

King Eider yesterday, today a double banded Brant!!

Well, the great hunting continues a full bag of eiders, and a full bag of Brant, along with a Double Banded one to boot!!

Let's just say, the client that shot this, had his goal set on bagging a Brant, especially after 5 years of failing to connect with one in the West Coast!

He called me and asked that I put him on a good Brant hunt... well, I figured, why not some Eiders as well!!

Then he goes and shoots a double banded one.... Happy guy for sure!



Conditions have been brutal, the ducks not co-operative, but heck, can't beat the results.

Borealis - OR--Northern Dresseri - too Close to tell....

Well,

Hen's , for me, are harder to tell apart in regards to being Borealis - Northern Eiders

Or

Dresseri - Eastern or Atlantic

but if the hen this gentleman shot is indeed a Borealis-- he shot himself a mate to the Drake he shot last year... Now that's Cool

Last year, I could not take him on a hunt due to being booked solid, so I sent him up to Patrick who treated the client to a great time... well this year , we had the chance to hunt for two days... this is what he came up with.... on the second hunt...

Yes, same hunters that got the New England Grand Slam with me on the other post.....

He thought he got a Borealis hen, to make the pair-- if so, even better for him.....




Close-up.... where you can see the difference between the lobe on the middle hen, versus the hen on the far right....

New England Seaduck Grand Slam!!!

Had a couple of clients get into some shooting with me here in Cape Cod....

They shot the New England Slam.... Eider, Oldsquaw, Surf Scoter, Common Scoter, and White Wing Scoters!!

Guess they are happy

Skunkheads, White Wings, Squaws and Eiders --PHOTOS...

Hunted clients that wanted Surf Scoters, White Wing Scoters, and Oldsquaws, and possibly a bonus Eiders, for their collection. I decided to take my two dogs for the retrieving. Bodacious and his mom Zoë, had quiet the work-out! Lots of birds, and retrieves, in some challenging waters…

Blood in the eye Seadukin'-- photos.... part 2

More photos of the Surf Scoters, White Wing Scoters, and Oldsquaws, and some bonus Eiders, hunt. Decided to take my two dogs for the retrieving. Bodacious and his mom Zoë, had quiet the work-out! Lots of birds, and retrieves, in some challenging waters…


Here one of the young eiders shot, was very lively, and decided to give Bo a run for his money....

Sea Ducks are Coming!!

Days are shorter, nights are colder. Soon, the sea ducks, eiders, oldsquaws, and scoters will be migrating in force. Die hard sea duckers will be chasing their favorite quarry, enduring the elements, for the thrill of getting shots at these decoying speedsters.

As you can imagine, I'll be there!




Here's a guest entry from a great southern brother and hunter:


More Eiders
Contacted Capt. Ruben Perez back in July, checked our calendars and made travel arrangements, never dreaming it'd be an unseasonably warm 80 degrees in Mississippi while we were hunting Cape Cod area for eiders.

The rain and unseasonable warm Mass weather wasn't ideal either, but all things considered it was probably better than blustery single-digit temps, gale force nor-easterly winds and ice-encased everything more common to the area in mid-January.

We quickly located a quiet family restaurant where the locals go to eat seafood in a tourist town. My kind of restaurant, too. Lobsters, $11. Decided I'm not a real big fan of steamed clams; didn't even try the scrod, though later learned it was fish.

Winds were about 15-20 mph out of the SSW when we left the dock the next morning. The salt water spray and all was fine. It was when I lost sight of the lights on shore while the boat was on the bottom side of a 5 ft swell that I realized we weren't in Kansas anymore! Capt Perez knew his way across the dark water, and before too long we were in a relatively quiet protected area, clipping decoys on long lines that had first been anchored. By shooting time we were situated off the the side of the spread, having clipped the boat's bow to the upwind decoy line; rocking along in the waves and watching trading seaducks immediately.

First thing you notice about sea ducks is this: you're looking for them right above the water, not up in the sky. All but a few of the thousands of birds we saw the entire weekend were just 5 or so feet off of the water. The second thing you realize is that they're easy enough to hit but, built like German tanks, difficult to kill - keep shooting until they're dead.

Determined to shoot only quality birds, Gator and I took turns on bright white adult drakes and pairs of ducks, passing entirely on decoying flocks. The first morning we each selected a nice, brick-red hen eider, maybe one of the most beautiful of hen ducks, from a pair. The second morning we stuck with drakes only.

I've always said I'd rather be lucky than good. First pair that came in sailed into the decoys and a single shot dropped them both. Perez's chocolate lab, Bo, retrieved the hen first and was then sent for the drake. As he was returning with the drake and about 5 feet from the boat gator jumped up pointed at the bird and excitedly yelled those two very special words - it's banded!

Day two was similar to day one except that the ride in was a lot easier, it was pretty much raining and we held out for drakes only. Again took turns shooting; complimenting the hits and ribbing over a few misses. And I can tell you this - they're a whole lot easier to hit flying than when shooting cripples on the water. Something about 3 foot chop makes it difficult, if not downright folly, to aim down the barrel at a cripple on the water!

There were a few scoters closer to shore, but mostly just thousands of eiders. Ruben offered to move us on day two to shoot scoters, but we opted for eiders again. That's what we were really after.

No bands, but it was another great hunt. We were again finished by about 8:30. As we were picking up decoys, a couple pair of oldsquaw rocketed past and we realized we'd have to get them on another trip somewhere, someday. Eiders aren't really as big as they seem, wearing a #7 band same as a mallard, but they weigh half again as much and are surprisingly hefty in hand.

Mass doesn't allow hunting on Sundays, so after breakfast we checked out and drove over to Rhode Island in the rain. We had to get the birds and wet gear packed up and catch a flight mid-afternoon so we opted to shoot brant and maybe a few other waterfowl in another bay.

Always wanted to hunt Atlantic brant. About the size of mallard drake, they're beautiful little birds that make a living along the shorelines of the Atlantic coastline, feeding on kelp and sea lettuce.

We pitched three dozen cork decoys into the black water and settled in against a remotely located, dilapidated pier for cover. As unlikely as it seemed, it worked like a charm.

Atlantic brant come in low over the water, hugging the waves like sea ducks, making a distinct purring sound. They decoy better than most anything I've ever seen. With a limit of only two birds, it's not hitting them that's difficult but picking shots and not hitting too many!

With 3 shooters in the boat, we shot 3 from the first flock of six that swung into the decoys and finished on the next flock. A few black ducks got the better of us by flying from behind us and getting out of range before we knew they were there and a beautiful drake golden eye cruised right over the decoys when, as always happens, we weren't paying attention. A raft of about 1500 brant amassed a few hundred yards away as we were picking up blocks at about 0730.

Great trip and we plan on visiting Capt Perez again.






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