Behind the Badge - Responsibilities
Responsibilities
District Game Warden Noah Raitz
One of the more common mistakes that waterfowl hunters can make is identification.
Especially in the early season when the duck’s plumage is a drab brown color, making it even more challenging.
With restrictions on species and whether it is male/female, identification is key to making sure you know what you are shooting and what you already shot.
The most common bird that I see misidentified is a hen pintail.
I have heard a wide range of answers when I ask hunters to tell me what they have shot.
It usually is identified as a mallard, gadwall, or even wigeon.
Sometimes the hunters won’t even try to identify the bird and just admit that they don’t know what it is.
There are multiple ways a warden can approach these situations depending on the extent of the violation.
One thing is for sure, trying to hide or cover up what you have shot is not the right answer.
I like the truth, and when the truth is covered up with a lie, it doesn’t sit right with me.
During the opening weekend of the resident waterfowl season, I came to the top of a hill when I noticed a large decoy spread about a mile away.
I pulled over and took out the spotting scope to see what was happening.
I was able to hear multiple bursts of gun shots and a few birds falling each time.
Dogs were running out to retrieve the birds and bring them back to the A-frame filled with hunters.
It sounded like the hunters were having a successful morning.
It was barely past 8 a.m.
and two of the hunters started walking to the pickups.
The other hunters started picking up decoys.
Usually once I see this, I will make contact with the hunters.
However, I saw one of the hunters doing something that caught my eye.
I watched as one hunter picked up what I thought looked like birds and walk away from the decoys and toward the standing soybean field.
When he got to the edge of the field, he tossed what he was holding only a few feet into the field, but far enough that I couldn’t see it anymore.
I immediately knew what was probably going on because typically hunters want to show off what they’ve shot, not toss it into a field to hide it.
I worked my way over to the hunters and started talking with them about their hunt.
They had a good morning saying that they had shot close to a limit of birds among the five of them.
All of the hunters had what they needed for licenses, the shotguns all had plugs, and the birds they showed me initially were within the daily limit for all restrictions.
If I didn’t know any better, it would have appeared as though they were doing everything right.
I then asked if they had any other birds because they were short of a limit by just a handful.
The hunters suddenly got very quiet and didn’t really acknowledge the question.
Asking it again, a few of the hunters said they didn’t have any other birds while other hunters stared at the ground.
At this point, I knew they were lying to me, and the game was over.
I then pointed over to the bean field and asked if I would find any birds laying along the edge.
I wanted to give them an opportunity to tell the truth but again, nobody acknowledged the question.
I stopped asking questions and informed the group that I had watched one of the hunters walk over to the bean field with extra birds.
At this point they admitted that they had more birds and showed me where they were.
It turned out that most of the ducks they tried to hide were pintails.
Adding the new birds to the pile, the group was over the daily limit of one pintail and two hen mallards a person.
Once the lie was up, they admitted that they had panicked because they were all shooting as birds were coming in and figuring out what was shot afterwards.
I had a long conversation with the hunters about identifying the birds before shooting and that each hunter is responsible for their daily limit of six birds.
Waterfowl hunting can have a lot of shooting in a short amount of time if you are set up on the “X”, but don’t let the excitement get in the way of your responsibility to identify what you are shooting.
At the end of the day, the hunters learned a lesson on identification and that when mistakes are made, the best option is telling the truth the first time.
Duck Identification Resources - Central Flyway website