"Looking For What You Can't See"
July 2006
The problem begins on those days you’re hunting and everything seems, or should be, just right. Your decoys look great; maybe they’re even new. Everyone’s well hidden and there are a lot of birds using the area. You’ve done your scouting and you know what the birds are doing and better yet, when they’re doing it. You were so excited you arrived early; just to be sure everything was in order and ready to go.
As those pre-dawn moments come to a close and shooting time is minutes away, the first group of birds makes a couple of small passes and land right in your decoy spread. As your hearted thumps, your faithful retriever starts to whine with excitement and the birds flush. Within seconds another group makes a similar swing and it happens again. Finally shooting hours are here and within minutes another group makes the swing, their wings are cupped and their feet are down, it’s HammerTime! You’ve done it, it’s going to be the day you hoped for, but then it happens. As the sun clears the horizon the setting is complete overcast and little to no wind, but the birds are still there and within a matter of a few more minutes you spot another group in the distance. You hit the call and they head toward your spread. It’s going to happen again … or at least you thought it was. As the birds got closer, instead of committing and coming in like those earlier groups, this groups seems to hang up just out of shooting range. They make a few circles, getting a bit higher with each pass, inspecting your decoys and looking everything over with their remarkable vision and then they just seem to leave. They didn’t flare, but they sure didn’t like what they saw either.
After a scenario like that happens to me, I’m up looking around. What did they see? Who moved? Did I hit a bad note or did I over call or under call? For those of you that regularly read my column, have heard one of my seminars or hunted with us, you’ve heard me cuss and discuss this very problem over and over. Anyone looks good on those days when the birds want to be where you are, but the key to consistency is being able to adjust on the tough days … the days when everyone seems to experience trouble. It’s like I said earlier; “I know something is wrong and I’m going to see what it is so I can correct it”, but now it makes more sense. It’s not what the birds have been seeing, it’s what I’ve been “looking for and can’t see”. Seeing and/or understanding the problem is where Dr. Milan Jeckle, the modern day scientist, steps in.
Science and technology are wonderful and certainly make life easier for most of us. Some of the technology and related research have lead to what I feel may well be the turning point of modern day waterfowl hunting. It wasn’t to long ago Ornithology (The branch of Zoology that studies birds) textbooks claimed birds were not particularly adapt at detecting the ultraviolet end of the spectrum as a part of their color vision capabilities, but now they know different and what a change that will make.
First, we’ve known for quite a few years that some fowl can see 3 to 4 times better than a human. Translated, that would mean a duck could look at another duck ¾ of a mile away and tell the species of that duck … yet we’re trying to get them right in our face. Next, most of us have long understood the need for realistic decoys and last but not least, we all should realize the need to be well hidden … but now there’s more. There’s one more thing I think we will all be considering in the very near future. UV or Ultraviolet Light is, and apparently has always been, a contributing factor.
Technological advancements and research have made it possible for scientist to determine; birds do see UV light. Humans cannot see UV rays and the closest wavelength to UV they can see is similar to the color of a black light. You know, the funky purplish lights that make the white in your shirt shine and lots of other colors glow. Well that’s the closest humans can see to what birds see with UV light in their vision spectrum. Not only can birds see UV light, your decoys reflect the UV light and do so in unnatural colors that are often considered alarming by waterfowl. Not only do your decoys reflect the UV light, so does your clothing, a lot of blind materials and of course your skin does as well.
To help counter the problems hunters and fisherman are experiencing with UV light, Dr. Jeckle developed his line of products. The easy to apply liquid went through field-testing for waterfowl last year. The environmentally safe formula is odorless, non-greasy, non-sticky, will not stain and can be easily removed with soap and water and it will adhere to your decoys, clothing and blind materials. Dr. Jeckle has had a formula for fishing on the market for a couple of years and it’s really catching on as well, but fish need help seeing your bait underwater. Since waterfowl absorb most of the UV light themselves, as hunters we need help eliminating the massive reflection of UV light we have on our decoys and gear and that’s where Fool-A-Bird comes in. While you can’t see the UV light itself, you can see the dramatic effects of Fool-A-Bird in your own test. Take a black light and a white handkerchief. Place the handkerchief under the black light and you will see the eerie blue glow. Spray the handkerchief with Fool-a-Bird and let it dry. The handkerchief will not be discolored, but when you place it back under the black light the bluish glow will be replaced with a dull brown look.
There’s so much technical information related to the Fool-a-Bird and Fool-a-Fish line of products and UV light, I can’t get it in my column, but it is something for every waterfowler, turkey hunter or bird watcher to consider. I’ve been wrong about a lot of things in life, but I know waterfowl and I’ve experienced most of the problems associated with hunting them. With that in mind I predict, “Use of Fool-A-Bird will increase to the point it may well revolutionize waterfowl hunting as we know it. When technology permits, you will begin to see it incorporated in the manufacturing process of a variety of fowl related products.” Still have doubt, then I suggest using this URL code to go to the shortest testing information I have found using mallard ducks and start reading on the second page, where the first full paragraph begins. http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v098n03/p0627-p0628.pdf
I’ve done my research and I’ll be using Fool-a-Bird this season, as will my staff. It will help make your decoys look realistic, even to the real birds, on the days when the UV light index is at it worst. My question to you is simple; will you take the steps and check out the details to see if you’ve been …"Looking for what you can’t see"?
Charles "HammerTime" Snapp
Email: snapp1@sbcglobal.net
Website: www.arkansaswaterfowl.com |
