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The picture shows the distinct hybrid plumage of the blue-winged teal and northern shoveler cross between a blue-winged teal and northern shoveler. (Submitted Photo/Courtesy of Grosse Savanne Waterfowl and Wildlife Lodge)

Rare ducks provide mixed bag for Louisiana waterfowl hunters

By JOHN K. FLORES Outdoor Columnist

The morning started out slow for the two hunters Bobby Jorden was guiding on the next to last weekend of the coastal zone duck season. The 2014-15 season had been a good one for Grosse Savanne Waterfowl and Wildlife Lodge. But now it was late in the year, which meant if they were going to kill their limits of ducks, they’d have to be patient.
The hunters managed a couple of birds early but nothing else. Periods of inactivity while duck hunting in the Louisiana marshes sometimes seem like an eternity.
Jorden, who normally works as the Eco Tour manager for the lodge, was guiding to help out with an overflow of guests and starting to become concerned. Always affable and someone who has a way with people, he used the time to get to know his hunters better and enjoy the sunrise. That’s when things took a turn for the better. Around 7:30, the group started getting their ducks.
It was the first time Jorden had his wirehaired German pointer in a deep-water retrieve situation. The dog performed flawlessly and after counting 15 ducks his dog brought to hand, not including the three knocked down behind the blind, Jorden called the hunt. If he could find the three ducks, each of them would have their limit.
Sweet Lake Land and Oil Company Land Manager Doug Miller had dropped the hunters off at their blind early that morning. He and Jorden took the boat behind the blind to pick up the three downed ducks.
“When I laid eyes on one of the ducks, I knew there was something different about it,” Jorden recounted. “Doug said I had a Cheshire cat grin on my face and immediately asked me if it had a band on it. I told him no, it didn’t have any bands but was way cooler than that. It was a hybrid duck.”
The duck Jorden picked up turned out to be an obvious cross between a blue winged teal and northern shoveler.
Each year there are stories reported and now shared on social media that spread the word of an odd crossbred duck showing up in a hunter’s bag, so much so, it often seems common place.
In all actuality, out of millions of ducks harvested annually and unlike what seems almost a momentous occasion when getting a bird with a band on its leg, it’s extremely rare that a hunter in his or her lifetime will ever kill a hybrid duck.
By contrast, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Waterfowl Study Leader Larry Reynolds says the annual reports of hybrids are so commonplace he doesn’t get too cranked up about them.
The same weekend Jorden and his group of hunters harvested their hybrid at Grosse Savanne Lodge, south of Lake Charles, coincidentally, another blue-winged teal northern shoveler cross was harvested in Gueydan by Matt Arceneaux.
“Every year we see some, so the ‘wow’ factor is lost on me. However, most are not as clearly discernable as the ones reported during the weekend of Jan. 17 and 18. Some hybrids are so common that we keep track of their harvest like black duck and mallard cross. Others have characteristics enough that they have names of their own, like ‘Brewer’s duck,’ which is a mallard and gadwall cross,” Reynolds said.
For an understanding of how hybridization occurs among populations of wild ducks, Reynolds suggested reading an Internet link, consisting of research conducted by Dr. Sievert Rohwer at http://hybridduck.blogspot.com/p/shot-hybrid.html.
The link titled, “Why Do Waterfowl Hybridize,” points out rape as a source of hybrids, as well as brood parasitism, and shortages of mates due to high female mortality rates.
Jorden, who grew up duck hunting in Little Chenier with his father and plans to have the bird mounted, said, “I personally had never seen a hybrid of any kind until now. I knew it was pretty rare, so it was a pretty cool feeling.”
Reynolds said annually he gets reports from Louisiana hunters who harvest ducks that aren’t hybrids, but rare to the region. This past season hunters have taken long-tailed ducks (aka: old squaw) and black scoters. Foreign species such as ringed teal and mandarins that in all likelihood escaped from aviaries also have been killed.
DNA evidence is important in Rohwer’s studies.
An anecdote that Reynolds shared quoted Rohwer saying, “You guys in Louisiana kill a lot of hybrids, but you sure don’t want to part with them.”
To which Reynolds says, “He has to remember that we kill these birds in January when the plumage is good. On his blog for his hybrid study, the ducks are not very distinctive. Hunters here want to keep and mount these unusual birds. He’s going to get the carcass from the taxidermist who is mounting one of the shovelers taken this year.”
For those interested in booking a waterfowl hunt, fishing trip or eco tour with Gross Savanne Waterfowl and Wildlife Lodge, visit www.grossesavanne.com.
If you wish to make a comment or have an anecdote, recipe or story to share, you can contact Flores at 985-395-5586 or gowiththeflo@cox.net or visit www.gowiththeflooutdoors.com.

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