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Day 2:
First day on the salt…. The goal- barrow goldeneyes. Not that hard of a goal on a normal day, but when the temps dip to 5 degrees and the wind kicks up to 20mph it can become harder. We tucked ourselves up into a cove deployed 3 dozen goldeneye decoys and a dozen harlequins in a separate group just incase some blue birds wanted to stop by. I normally would put out a couple more dozen decoys, but with the wind coming in strong we figured better have an easier pick up then spend too much time with the seas getting rougher.
After we got setup things were slow. As with most sea ducks up here we see flights all at once and then slow then action and so on. It did not take too long, the first flight came about ½ hour after setting up. We had a few groups of doubles to 5 goldeneyes bombing in to the decoys. Barrow’s just love to decoy. Most of the time it is hard to keep them out of the decoys. But on some days they just don’t want to stop. This day was a mix. After getting a few goldeneyes in we saw a new duck coming. A drake harly all alone. He turned and cupped into the decoys. Ryan made quick work of bagging his first harlequin ever. Although it took a few rounds : )
We had hoped in the afternoon we could move to a new location and target harlequins more, but with the wind still strong we decided to stay put until the next day. We end the day with a getting more barrow’s, buffleheads, and a couple common mergansers. The common mergansers were another first for Ryan & Brian. A real trophy : )
  
Day 3:
The goal…. Harlequins. The forecast, not good. One thing that I have learned in my travels is NAOO has some amazingly accurate forecasts and some very bad forecasts. Valdez is one of those places where you just don’t know if it is going to be on or not. Makes it part of the fun. The forecast called for calm winds, so it was to harly beach we go. A quick turn out of the small boat harbor and we see the forecast had a little too be desired. But it was not bad enough yet to stop us from trying. We headed to our favorite harlequin spot. The tide was coming in and almost near its peak, not bad conditions, but I prefer a little lower and going out. In the winter time in Valdez we see normal tides in the 8-12 foot range. Making knowing where to place the decoy and boat a must else you find yourself sitting on the bottom before you know it.
We setup at the stop with our tail end of the boat almost on the beach and our decoys out in front. Two gunners would be sitting in front with two of us sitting in back to film and take pictures. Then we would switch. The decoy spread for harlequins is not big, only a dozen are put out. As ever duck hunter will tell you if you are where they want to be they will come. We do put a group of 6-7 barrow decoys out also, for the black and white birds that fly over.
We started off with more barrows than harlequins. You got to love when the birds throw you for a loop. We were sitting in about 1-2 foot chop, which is more then we normal have in this spot. It seemed for this reason the harlequins seemed to be avoiding it. Then we got a couple of flights for drakes harlies coming in. Nothing like a little blue duck cupped into to the decoys 15 yards out. With a single shot Brian had got his duck he came to Alaska for. So we switch shooters to let Ryan add another to his bag. Well a bunch of rounds later, more than he and Corey would like to admit, we had another drake harly and a couple of barrows.
The wind was starting to kick up more and forced us off the beach for the afternoon. We decided we would head back and do some scouting and possibly shoot some mallards in the afternoon.
Our normal mallard hole was frozen shut, something that I have not seen in the last couple of years before Dec. 16, the end of the season. So we scouted some new water for some sea ducks. This is when scouting pays off. Pulling up to a bluff we looked out to a raft of a few hundred birds, made up of scoters, old squaw, barrow goldeneye, common goldeneye, bufflehead and mallards. We normally see and shot some scoters, but not huge numbers. Well we found where they like to sit. Tomorrow we would setup for some sea ducks.
  
Day 4:
Scoters & Old Squaw (oops. Long Tail sorry). We normally only head out about 20 minutes before shooting time. Alaska is the only place you can sleep in and still shoot a limit of ducks. It helps that sea ducks like to fly later, but the main fact is sunrise is not until 9:30am in December. We decided to head out earlier and push the birds off their feeding spot and setup quick before they came back. Well it worked, kind of. The scoters took off, but landed about ¼ mile away and stayed there all day. On the good side the goldeneyes, buffleheads and old squaw could not resist coming back.
The old squaw were a special treat for me. We had seen them in the past, but we never connected with them. This new area seemed to be the key. The new location had a muddy bottom compared to the normal gravel bottom of Valdez Port. There is only a few location like this in this area. And they hold our scoter and old squaw population. I scored my first old squaw first thing in the morning. It was not a fully mature drake, but I was still very happy to have gotten one in the bag. Little did I know what would come.
One of the nice things about Valdez is the birds get up and move to gunfire. Normally when one bird comes in and a shot is fired birds pick up and move around. That was the case all day long. Every time we left anchor to go pick up birds more were landing in the decoys as we motored around. We were getting a mixed bag, by mid day we had old squaw, common goldeneye, barrow goldeneye, bufflehead, red breasted merganser, common merganser, and mallard. We were rounding off our species list for the trip. One of the highlights of the day was an old squaw flock that came in. Three of us were gunning and one filming. The flock was 21 birds (counted on video later). There were a few nice drakes in there. We each picked one to take. Right as the flock came into the decoys they converged into a ball. Seven shots were fired. 13 of the birds fell. I am never for just destroying a flock, but I have never seen that happen. I am trying to convince Corey to mount the whole flock!!
With three hours left of shooting we discussed heading to harly beach to end the day. The weather was suppose to be the worst today, but it ended up being the nicest. Since the forecast was good for the next day we decided we would end the trip with harlequins.
  
Day 5:
The Last Day. We hoped to finish of the Swampers trip with some more harlequin footage. We had relied on the forecast from the day before and hoped for calm wind for the morning. Heading out first light we encountered more wind then we had hoped for outside of the harbor. We decided to head out to the beach to give a try no matter what. In getting there the combination of the low tide and the wind made it hard to setup in a good spot. Sometimes things just don’t work out. The Swampers decided that they each had a couple of harlequins and we did not need to push the elements. Later in the day we praised this decision.
We decided we would head after scoters for the day. We setup along a mussel bed where we had seen hundreds of birds the day before. The temperature had gone down to zero degrees, the coldest of the four days. The wind also did not make it feel any warmer. We where setup a little late after our 10 mile detour into harlequin country. But we were setup and ready to go. Barely setup a pair of old squaw came up the bow and I was able to get shells in the gun fast enough to get one of the two. Starting off the day with an old squaw was a good start. Now more birds were up and moving. And when I say more birds and mean more birds. A good thousand mallards must have picked up off the tide flats behind us. They flew from the side of the bay we were on to the other side tidal flats. The birds continued for a couple of minutes almost consistently. None came down close enough to the black and white decoys to shoot, but it was an amazing display.
With the temperature being low there was a thin layer of sea spray hanging in the area downwind of the boat. Making hard to see any birds moving off in the distance, thus making it hard for the birds to see our decoys. This was making it a slow morning. But we finally saw two dark objects emerge from the fog. Brain was able to get his gun up fast enough and me get the camera on the birds. Brain dropped a nice double. It would be the first king eiders take out of my boat. You read right, a pair of kings, an immature drake and mature hen. Not the mature drake one would hope for, but still king eiders. Brain was happy man to add another bird to his life list.
The birds started to appear a little more regularly out of the fog after that. Or at least we were happy so the time between birds did not matter much. The next birds to show up where a few old squaw, which we made quick work of. Then our goal for the day finally decided to come into the decoys, scoters. A flock of surf scoter came by and Corey was able to get a nice drake out of them. This was one of his goal birds for the trip, so he was a happy man. We also were able to get a white-wing scoter before the day was over. Mid day while Brain was tapping a group of three birds flew out of the fog right for the decoys. They headed right in without even thinking about it. Ryan, Corey and each called a bird. Three more king eiders had shown up. Three rounds later everyone in the boat had a king eider to add to their list. Sadly none we mature drakes. The second group yield two mature hens and another immature drake. Corey was still excited to get some kings to mount up for his studio. Even though we are up here in Alaska it is not very common for us to see eiders down this far south on the coast. I wish the season stays open a little longer because more may be moving in if we already bagged five. We will have to see what next season brings. We did not end the day with a great number of birds, but we add three more species to the trip list- king eider, surf scoter, and white-wing scoter.
Overall the trip was lot of fun and The Swampers went home with some great Alaska style footage. We were able to get them 11 species of birds in four days.   
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