o s a r c dux - Sea Duck Hunting

     Coastal New England offers the unique opportunity to hunt sea ducks. Their name is literal as these birds spend the majority of their lives on the ocean. Rhode Island is the winter home to five common species of sea ducks: common eider, oldsquaw, black scoter, white-wing scoter, and surf scoter.  Equipped with large bills for crushing mollusks and crabs, and large webbed feet positioned far back on their body for diving deep to get them, these birds certainly look different than the average duck. They can often be seen near shore in large flocks or rafts along rocky stretches where food is readily available.
     

Surf Scoter

Common Eider

White-wing scoter

Oldsquaw 

Harlequin ducks are a species commonly seen off the coast of Rhode Island, They cannot be hunted on the east coast due to low population numbers.

      Hunting these birds is a different ball game and a far cry from chasing wood ducks and teal in beaver ponds. Dealing with the ocean's currents, waves, and sometimes bad attitude makes sea duck hunting a different kind of challenge.  The most common way to hunt them is setting a boat near shore or in open water where the birds usually feed, then setting several lines of decoys to lure the birds in close. They generally decoy readily and offer exciting wing-shooting. Because of this there has been a boom in the popularity of this type of hunting in the past several years. Our crew doesn't hunt them very often anymore, but we go a few times each season. 

An early morning flock of black scoters.

The traditional way of hunting sea ducks involves setting long strings of decoys parallel to each other to resemble a raft of birds feeding.

Common Eiders approaching the decoys.