A duck-hunting post on Whitetail 365? I know. Sorry. I couldn’t help myself.

I’m just feeling so badly for Bourjaily and DiBenedetto . Those poor guys. And it just so happens that this morning I took F&S Managing Editor Jean McKenna to my favorite local marsh, which was lousy with woodies and teal the day before she came. (Just as the turkeys were gobbling like crazy just before she arrived this past spring. And the deer were feeding early just prior to her showing up last fall.) But as Jean drove north with her camo and waders and usual tough luck, a sleet-and-snow storm deposited a couple inches and sent the most of those early ducks packing.

But not this woodie—possibly the last one we’ll put in the bag this fall. We also managed to take a mallard, although the shooting was pretty slow. It was a nice break from the treestand, though, which brings me to deer hunting. I think it’s safe to say that there are more whitetail specialists (folks who focus solely on whitetails in the fall) today than ever before. It sometimes seems that such specialist even dominate the scene. But I don’t think so. I suspect that the vast majority of deer hunters—even hardcore deer hunters—still enjoy getting into the marsh or the uplands. What say you?