Show Duck Hunting in The Uintah Basin By Ammon S. Brown Everyone has a Mine happens to be duck hunting and what great sport it has been to spend a good part of the 1940 season In Roosevelt from where 1 set out in all directions to hunt and have found them in fairly large numbers even- Duck hunter and Ammon Brown and fat mallard ducks killed on Montez and where 1 have Coming here from Salt Laki City near the opening of the season October I went straight to Manila where the of the Manila C. C. C. camp had been watching the flight of large flocks of Canadian honkers promised me some good The big geese undisturbed by hunters came every morning to feed in certain grain fields in the Led by the camp superintendent a group of us arrived at the grain field early one morning before the geese tucked ourselves safely out of sight in the sage brush which grew up along the fence line bordering the field and sat quietly in great The setting was magnificent we faced the first rays of the rising sun which made the waters of the Green river to our east sparkle and glitter like Geese Came In Suddenly the whir of wings penetrated the silent morning air and we all held our As we listened the sound seemed lo fade and I same old the birds have outsmarted But hardly a min-had passed before the sound of wings came again and we sighted six big fellows flying right in to our It was almost more than we could do to keep down and quiet until they were within shooting but a miss would have been a great misfortune that The morning shoot lasted about one hour and we all had a goose to take back to A roasted goose dinner was a fitting conclusion to the hunt and if you've never tasted you've missed a real Epicurean's I will long remember that beautiful autumn morning and the thrilling excitement of the wild goose Fine Hunting- Area The success of the goose hunt was enough to satisfy almost any but the sport I have had hunting ducks around the Roosevelt section during the past two months has convinced me that the Uintah Basin and the drainage of the Green river could be made the finest duck and goose hunting area in the Many ducks are already here and all that is needed to bring them in ever increasing numbers is the development of more feeding and breed ing The swift moving waters of streams and rivers not always provide good because duck food is not given a chance to but much of it washed Some species of ducks in large numbers inhabit the grain in this section during autumn others of the shoal water variety are moss feeders while the diving duck like to and rest in ponds with deep liKe to dive for seeds ol certain On and Montez reservoirs I have seen ail varieties of diving ducks including the great and sturdy king of all the red the duck or blue the golden eye or the baffle head or the rudy and the fish and further what I thought to be a pair of snow geese over reservoir proved to my astonishment to be a pair of large trumpeter swans which at one only a few years were all but Rare Ducks Here One of the highlights of this year's season was the sight of a large flock of canvas back ducks on Montez creek In the hunting areas around Salt Lake particularly at the duck clubs west of the this variety of bird is very They are wild and powerful and fly at greater speed than other The canvas back ducks shot here were larger and fatter than tho The of Is the food thoy have been getting at the reservoir Of the shoal water ducks mallard and the pin tail are most numerous in the but in the sloughs and swamp lands along the Duchesne and Uintah 1 sighted nearly all other species including the large spoonbill and cinamon and green wing These ducks frequent the shallow waters and are found abundantly on the Duchesne river below on the river and sloughs near on the springy at the canals around and along the Lake Fork river through the upper All I have shot have been in excellent condition and the mallards and teal make particularly fine On the Increase There is no doubt that ducks arc on the increase I have noticed a great difference since my first visit to this country years With a little Interest and promotion work duck hunting could become an industry here and bring as many people to this section as the pheasant hunting This still land so far from population center and from airplane flyways is the finest spot in Utah for wildlife and when such excellent sloughs as the Leota bottoms and other natural resting and feeding grounds are you will see literally thousands of ducks and geese here resting on the little ponds along the highways and byways and feeding In the gram You will also see hun of hunters coming here for week-end shooting all ol whom will enrich this section and pay many times for the cost of developing wild bird |