Goldeneye
Goldeneye ducks. Striking, beautiful black and white ducks that migrate into our waters from the Boreal forests of the North. We enjoy two species of them in the West– the Common or American and the Barrow’s Goldeneye. Common’s are plentiful in the rivers, lakes and tidewaters of our state with wintering populations in the tens of thousands– Barrow’s are a special Western bird — far less plentiful than the Common’s with 8-10,000 of them wintering on our Coastal waters here in Washington. We start to see both species of Goldeneye after Halloween, mostly juvenile birds and hens arriving first– then as the breeding areas get frozen up North a better push of birds start showing up November thru the late season. The older drakes arrive in our wintering areas already sporting their best plumage. 
We just wrapped up a few days hunting with repeat clients from Mississippi that wanted to target both species on their hunts with us. Cliff had never shot a mature Goldeneye drake before last season and was lucky enough to take a hybrid Common X Barrow’s last December as his first– what luck !
Barrow’s X Common hybrid
Good hunts were in store for them again this season as both Cliff and Will took some fine drakes of both species over the past few days. They will look great on the walls of both their trophy rooms. It’s shaping up to be another fantastic Goldeneye season around here !
David and Tiffany Drewry | P.O. Box 763, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0763 | (360) 379-0906