I think that duck hunting season is finally over at Occoquan Bay. It has been somewhat jarring in recent weeks to have my photography expeditions to the wildlife refuge interrupted by volleys of shotgun fire, sometimes at rather close range. In addition to some fixed blinds in the water that look like tiny cabins on stilts, hunters also use small boats like the one featured in these two images. The two hunters in this boat were so close to the shore that I had to zoom out to about 250mm on my 150-600mm telephoto lens to be able to fit them into the frame.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I prefer your method of shooting, Mike.
Our duck season just ended, too. The thought that underlies such things as season length and bag limits is part of what allows populations to thrive while hunters enjoy their sport. While I don’t hunt, I know people who do, and they’re better conservationists than many realize.
Love the photos. Out of curiosity, do you know if these men had set out decoys?
They in fact had set out a whole bunch of decoys. I had an interesting conversation with a birder that same day about duck hunting and he explained to me some of the rules that govern it. I grew up in the suburbs of Boston and hunting by in large is utterly foreign to my experience.
One has to wonder how on earth bird populations and other animal species managed all by themselves until hunters turned up and shot them … all for their own good, of course.
Maybe ET will show up one day and do the same for our spcies?
Yikes.
The problem is that encroaching civilization removes many of the bird’s and other species natural predators which removes the “natural” elements of population control. That is why for many years (the 80s – 90s) when traveling through Pennsylvania on Interstate 81, the interstate was literally littered with rotting deer corpses. Greatly restricted hunting caused an uncontrolled surge in the deer population … which caused many problems for the deer themselves.
Overpopulation of deer in our area is a problem too and there is an active “deer management” program in many of the wildlife parks in our county. I am ok with that personally, in part because the alternative is starving deer or deer that end up as road kill, as you described.
Hi Mike. Do you know if anyone shoots ducks for food or are they in some way pests and thus do they deem it “sport”?
I really don’t understand anyone who feels the need to go out and shoot another living thing for “fun”.
I don’t know the motivation for sure, but I think it is mainly about sport. Oh, I’m pretty sure that the hunters consume the ducks they are able to shoot (and some of the ones I saw had dogs with them to retrieve the ducks from the water). I understand that there is a conservation aspect to this, however, and the absence of natural predators could lead to overpopulation. I prefer, however, the challenge of shooting the ducks with my camera.
I’m with you on preferring the camera to the gun. It is a strange thing indeed when we damage ecosystems and then feel the solution is for us to step in with guns, but at least if they are retrieving them to eat, I can be more forgiving. Those who go hunting things like elephants or lions should probably be hunted themselves. 🙂
NZ is interesting in the way there is a national drive to try to restore native species by removing introduced predators such as rats, possums, ferrets and stoats which devastate bird numbers; and control cats and dogs. This is done by poison or trapping or hunting (and also includes deer). So hunting again becomes a solution. Conservation is based on killing ultimately.
Imagine what the world could be like if we lived in harmony with nature to begin with…
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