# hooded merganser



## Bhilly81 (Oct 18, 2009)

i am wondering how rare the hooded mergansers are around here i have heard there quite rare but this morning i shot my second one and so i figure that if i shoot more than one they cant be to rare around here i am still new to the sport and have shot few ducks so i am just wondering and so i now just need to get them to a taxidermist to get them mounted


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## Bears Butt (Sep 12, 2007)

Went out Wednesday and saw hundreds of them flying over. Had to be very sure of the duck before we shot. We don't like to eat them.


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## duck jerky (Sep 8, 2007)

hooded ones are rare around here I have gotten a couple hens over the years still looking to get my first drake. I have seen them just not got a shot at one.


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## duck jerky (Sep 8, 2007)

Bears Butt said:


> Went out Wednesday and saw hundreds of them flying over. Had to be very sure of the duck before we shot. We don't like to eat them.


Those are probably the common merganser or red breasted.


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## Dave B (Oct 1, 2007)

Bears Butt said:


> Went out Wednesday and saw hundreds of them flying over. Had to be very sure of the duck before we shot. We don't like to eat them.


Well if you saw hundreds of *HOODED* mergs flying around, I'll pay for the gas and sign a contract never to go back as long as you will let me shoot as many (7) as I can while we are there. :mrgreen:


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## Bhilly81 (Oct 18, 2009)

So I guess it is a rare thing to get 2 hooded mergansers I was completely shocked to come across this one this morning and I almost had its mate as well but I didn't place shot to swell they both came right into my spread and I hit them both the other one soared off and out a hundred yards or so


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## Gee LeDouche (Sep 21, 2007)

Pics? Is it a drake or a hen??


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## king eider (Aug 20, 2009)

Dave B said:


> [quote="Bears Butt":20ux95m5]Went out Wednesday and saw hundreds of them flying over. Had to be very sure of the duck before we shot. We don't like to eat them.


Well if you saw hundreds of *HOODED* mergs flying around, I'll pay for the gas and sign a contract never to go back as long as you will let me shoot as many (7) as I can while we are there. :mrgreen:[/quote:20ux95m5]

im with Dave here. ill buy breakfast before we go and dinner after we get back.


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## Bhilly81 (Oct 18, 2009)

i cant get the picture to download onto here with out it being cropped to small i could just get a small part of it in there if any if anyonelse knows a better way that could help me that would be great


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

I will raise the bid on the hunt, I will buy your shells! :lol: 

I use photobucket, I found it easy to use.

just go to Photobucket.com, create an account and follow the instructions to upload a photo to your account. Once you get it uploaded to your account, you can copy the Image tag code that appears at the bottom of the picture and just paste that in the window where you type your message on here. When viewed by a user it will show the picture.


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## Bhilly81 (Oct 18, 2009)

Well I guess I could take someone down there but its more of a dum luck that you actually get to shoot them although very rewarding to find them when you do get to them and should look great as mounts


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## Fowl habits (Dec 4, 2007)

BBBD----You are on lucky bugger, i couldn't believe that you knocked that one down when you came with GEE and I last year and now you have doubled up on it, I have been hunting almost 12 years now and i have only shot 2, you best be taken that luck to vegas


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## Bhilly81 (Oct 18, 2009)

oh yea i was in complete shock when i saw it i couldnt stop smiling and laughing to myself i just need to get them mounted soon i will try to get the pictures of both of them up as soon as i can


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## Bhilly81 (Oct 18, 2009)

ok so i hope the pictures work out and if they do then these are the mergansers that i have shot thus far


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## Bears Butt (Sep 12, 2007)

Well, perhaps we saw common mergansers and not hooded. They did have off white breasts and red heads. Do they have their "combs" up when they fly? The ones we saw had slick looking heads and there were a bunch of them flying around.


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## Dave B (Oct 1, 2007)

yeah probably red breasted unless they had green heads. Hoodies are actually one of the better looking waterfowl imo. smebody post a pic of the drake.


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Hooded_Merganser/id

Check these pcitures out, drakes are easy to tell, hens not so much.


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## Theekillerbee (Jan 8, 2009)

Those are just plain old common mergatroids. Nothing special about them, other than they taste worse than ducks! I personally have only ever seen 3 in the shooting wilds. My buddy (lunkerhunter) knocked down a drake and hen last year. They are smaller than the common mergs, in fact, they aren't much bigger than teal. When we saw them we thought they were teal, after he shot them, we thought they were teal. It wasn't until my dog brought the hen back that we knew we had something special!


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## hamernhonkers (Sep 28, 2007)

Here is a size comparison. The biggest fish if I remember correctly was 20" Hoodies are really very small ducks.


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## stealthwaterfowl (Oct 27, 2009)

Shot this stud yesterday mornin!

http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d111/ ... 085355.jpg

http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d111/ ... 084946.jpg


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## Honkin (Feb 11, 2008)

My boy and I shoot hooded mergansers quite often, but not in Utah. They are about the size of a teal, and fly like one.


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## Bhilly81 (Oct 18, 2009)

yea the one i shot last year was small like a teal but the one i got this year was as big as a mallard so i guess is it possible that its not a hooded merganser?


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## Gee LeDouche (Sep 21, 2007)

Yeah, its definatly a common, not a hoody.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

bigboybdub said:


> ok so i hope the pictures work out and if they do then these are the mergansers that i have shot thus far


Looks like red-breasted merganser to me, especially the bottom one. 
Female and sub-adult common and red-breasted mergansers look alike, but the red-breasteds have very whispy feathers on their head and there's not much white on the necks.

Utah bird watchers have observed above normal numbers of red-brested mergansers this year.

Nice bird stealth!


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## Guest (Nov 15, 2010)

i shot one the other morning on utah lake. i had never seen one before. i thought it was a teal also.


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## Billcollector (Oct 31, 2007)

Top pic is a hen common. Bottom pic is a hooded. Both ducks are on the opposite ends of the size scale


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## Bhilly81 (Oct 18, 2009)

Billcollector said:


> Top pic is a hen common. Bottom pic is a hooded. Both ducks are on the opposite ends of the size scale


ok that sums up my questions thanks guys i wasnt sure if i wanted to post the pics cause i didnt want to get tore up for not knowing what i am shooting at but i thought i knew what it was type of thing


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Billcollector said:


> Top pic is a hen common. Bottom pic is a hooded. Both ducks are on the opposite ends of the size scale


Yep, yer right. I didn't look close enough at the person's fingers in the pic. The bird is too small to be a red-breasted or common.

Good eye Bill. Please don't tell my birdwatching buddies!


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## RedNeck (Jan 6, 2010)

WOW THANKS FOR THE INVITE S O N !!!!!


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## RedNeck (Jan 6, 2010)

stealthwaterfowl said:


> Shot this stud yesterday mornin!
> 
> http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d111/ ... 085355.jpg
> 
> http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d111/ ... 084946.jpg


WOW THANKS FOR THE INVITE S O N !!!!!!


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## lunkerhunter2 (Nov 3, 2007)

Theekillerbee said:


> Those are just plain old common mergatroids. Nothing special about them, other than they taste worse than ducks! I personally have only ever seen 3 in the shooting wilds. My buddy (lunkerhunter) knocked down a drake and hen last year. They are smaller than the common mergs, in fact, they aren't much bigger than teal. When we saw them we thought they were teal, after he shot them, we thought they were teal. It wasn't until my dog brought the hen back that we knew we had something special!


That was one awesome day Brandon. First the fact they were hoodies and second the dog work involved finding the drake.
I think they are cool as all get out. Now i got a cinny to go with the hoodies and 15 other birds in my house. :shock:


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