You make the call. Black or Mottled?

[Leak-Free]

pntailhtr, you just flunked. go to the end of the line. we may even have to hold you back a couple of years. Ha! Double click on an image to enlarge. I do think that it's a hybrid mottled/black.
This pair came in alone and unannounced. My buddy Quackfeind called to em one time when he spotted em 100+ yds out and they came in with feet down. Lucky for me he was using a new gun for the first time or he would have doubled. I woud have thrown up, literally. When he saw them my calls had got stuck in the blind material and didn't know if I was even going to get a shot. Will post hen wing close-up in just a few.

[Leak-Free]

Ok here are the hen wing close-ups.

[quack fiend]

Looking more and more like katrina-refugee mottleds to me, still a trophy/rarity for us in sw ms. That drake will make a nice mount, gary. And for you "non-hen killers" out there who would give me grief, well, i'd kill her tomorrow, too--not that i really had any idea exactly what she was anyways, as it happened so quickly and our vision was limited (i was thinking a pair of grey ducks for a minute).

[Alex]

definitely mottled ducks shot a pair of them this morning.

[legends of the lower mars]

Mottled Ducks...

[Leak-Free]

Any you guys got pics of them mottled ducks?

[VICKSBURGBOB]

Looking more and more like katrina-refugee mottleds to me, still a trophy/rarity for us in sw ms. That drake will make a nice mount, gary. And for you "non-hen killers" out there who would give me grief, well, i'd kill her tomorrow, too--not that i really had any idea exactly what she was anyways, as it happened so quickly and our vision was limited (i was thinking a pair of grey ducks for a minute).

Anyone who claims to be able to tell the difference between a drake mottled or a drake black duck and a mallard hen on the fly is... well my daughter says I shouldn't be confrontational so let us just say it is impossible. I agree with quack friend with so many gadwalls, black ducks, and mottled ducks and so few mallards around this year not much sense in holding back.

[sportsman450]

Anyone who claims to be able to tell the difference between a drake mottled or a drake black duck and a mallard hen on the fly is... well my daughter says I shouldn't be confrontational so let us just say it is impossible.

Don't know anything about Mottled Ducks, but a Black Duck flyin with a flock of Mallards, sticks out like a sore thumb.

[hencutter]

Looking more and more like katrina-refugee mottleds to me, still a trophy/rarity for us in sw ms. That drake will make a nice mount, gary. And for you "non-hen killers" out there who would give me grief, well, i'd kill her tomorrow, too--not that i really had any idea exactly what she was anyways, as it happened so quickly and our vision was limited (i was thinking a pair of grey ducks for a minute).

Anyone who claims to be able to tell the difference between a drake mottled or a drake black duck and a mallard hen on the fly is... well my daughter says I shouldn't be confrontational so let us just say it is impossible. I agree with quack friend with so many gadwalls, black ducks, and mottled ducks and so few mallards around this year not much sense in holding back.

gotta agree , Mottles are much more predominate in my area than Mallards, my first instinct would be to think "mottled"

[redneck22ms]

heres a pair of mottleds i took last year

[the doctor]

Looking more and more like katrina-refugee mottleds to me, still a trophy/rarity for us in sw ms. That drake will make a nice mount, gary. And for you "non-hen killers" out there who would give me grief, well, i'd kill her tomorrow, too--not that i really had any idea exactly what she was anyways, as it happened so quickly and our vision was limited (i was thinking a pair of grey ducks for a minute).

Anyone who claims to be able to tell the difference between a drake mottled or a drake black duck and a mallard hen on the fly is... well my daughter says I shouldn't be confrontational so let us just say it is impossible. I agree with quack friend with so many gadwalls, black ducks, and mottled ducks and so few mallards around this year not much sense in holding back.

I have had the rare fortune of taking a black duck and there was no question what species they were and we knew it before we shot as they worked and flared and we worked em back to the decoys....so I say not impossible, difficult maybe but not impossible and to me it is easy to make the distinction bw true blacks and mottled

the doc

[bamahunter]

Anyone who claims to be able to tell the difference between a drake mottled or a drake black duck and a mallard hen on the fly is... well my daughter says I shouldn't be confrontational so let us just say it is impossible.

It's very easy to pick out a black in a group of mallards while flying especially when you have the sun at your back. Also, by the time they get close enough to shoot you definantly should be able to tell the difference or your taking long shots.

[quack fiend]

Anyone who claims to be able to tell the difference between a drake mottled or a drake black duck and a mallard hen on the fly is... well my daughter says I shouldn't be confrontational so let us just say it is impossible.

It's very easy to pick out a black in a group of mallards while flying especially when you have the sun at your back. Also, by the time they get close enough to shoot you definantly should be able to tell the difference or your taking long shots.

naaah, when i call at 'em they commit immediately and come in so fast you're lucky to identify them as a wood duck vs. big duck, much less grey vs. black vs. mottled

[VICKSBURGBOB]

I have been looking at the pictures on this web site of dead ducks and can't tell much of a difference in the three. Maybe I am colorblind, (not maybe I am), but all the brown spotted ducks with color splotches on their wings look the same to me. Don't get me wrong, if it is obvious what I am working, Drake vs. hen for instance, I choose the drake, but if they jump me from behind, or pop down from just over a tree line and I don't have a whole lot of time to choose, its the last one in line for me.

[Mean2Green]

Being from NC I've killed a fair number of blacks and even a couple in MS and several Mottles in SW LA. I would guess mottles on these two. Blacks are definately darker than mottles and I have a drake of each on the wall. I think the easiest way for me to tell is the mottles seem to have a more green speculum than the dark purple of a black. Just my .02