Rosy Billed Pochards

Before I went to Argentina for the first time I really had no idea what species of ducks they had down there. I had heard of Silver Teal and Rosy Billed Pochards. Reading on the different outfitter's websites I saw the names of a bunch of other ducks. My hunting partner, Kelly Murphy, made me some old timey flash cards so I could identify the ducks. Put a color picture and a brief description of each of the species that she could find down there. It worked out great. Each day I pretty much knew what I was shooting right from the start, and that was important to me. Unfortunately, my first year I didn't kill any Rosy Billed Pochards. The most famous duck in South America and I didn't get any. I did see a flock of about 15-18 but they didn't come close to my decoys. Out of our entire party of 7 hunters only one Rosy Bill was killed, and it was a hen. Didn't seem to make any difference to the other hunters. They were more interested in the Silver Teal and the Cinnamon Teal. Both pretty birds, and I killed a bunch of both of those. I really liked the Chiloe Wigeon. They are a nice big bird, the drakes are larger than our American Wigeon. Very similar to ours, very pretty birds. They also decoy quite well. I would have to say that after 4 trips to Argentina I would rather shoot the Wigeon than anything else down there. When I started taking a Mojo decoy down there with me it almost made it a slaughter on the Wigeon. I honestly had several flocks of up to 8-10 Wigeon that I killed the entire flock. They would just keep circling and circling that Mojo decoy till I killed them all. Maybe even started to cross the line of being sporting.

Anyhow, back to the Rosy Billed Pochard. The second year I went to Argentina we shot around a big lake near Bragado. There were plenty of Rosy Bills there. My first morning shoot I killed a couple pairs of Rosy Bills and was impressed. They are a big duck, the hen looks almost exactly like a hen Canvasback. The drake looks like a gigantic drake Ringneck, but of course had the red knob at the top of the bill, that they get their name from. But they fly and decoy like puddleducks. You would think you had a flock of Mallards or Black Ducks working your decoys. So all in all, I see why a lot of rich hunters say they are the finest duck in the world. They are also delicious on the supper table, so a fine bird all around.

That evening, Jorge took Dave Thomas and I to a little pothole in the middle of a cornfield. Probably a half acre of open water then another acre of flooded corn around it. Never in my shooting experiences have I seen anything like the way the Ring Teal and Rosy Bills poured into that pothole that evening. The first half hour we were there the shooting was good, then as it got later the shooting picked up like I have never seen. Dave and I had been gunning together out of a small temporary blind. When the shooting picked up I moved out of the blind and just stood in some bushes about 7-8 yards from Dave. It gave us a little more elbow room, but it also sort of divided the shooting in half. He took what was on his side and I did the same.

After a short while, we both agreed that we had enough and we wanted to get the birds picked up before it got dark. I had finished up with 55 straight Rosy Bills in the last 12 minutes we shot. It was extraordinary. The bird boy that stayed with us was totally amazed at the way I had shot. To my right there was 3 distinct piles of birds. The first pile was where the birds I'd killed with my first shot had fallen, the second pile was from my second shot and so on. I had killed about 70 birds and only one or two were not piled up in the 3 neat little piles. I certainly hadn't done it on purpose, but the birds on my side were all passing the same way. Every time I stood up to shoot it was an identical pass. Wish it had been light enough when we finished to take a picture of it, although nobody would have believed it anyway, it certainly looked like it had been staged.

I haven't had any other shoots where only a couple of species were killed. But that evening we only killed Rosy Bills and Ring Teal. It was pretty cool. I was glad to get that opportunity to see all those Rosy Bills up close and personal. They are truly a fine duck, worthy of all the praise I've heard about them.