By Kelby Morgan

Photo credit: Duck Hunting Traditions via Wikimedia Commons.

At 5:30 p.m. on January 31, Virginia’ duck hunting season officially ended, and after my successful last hunt in an impoundment in the corn field of a property off of the Pamunkey River, ducks filled the skies. This was a depressing moment in the duck hunting community, knowing that the season was finished, and it would be another eight months until the waders get buckled up again. 

Over the course of the season, my father Kelby Morgan, Sr., and his close friends Lee McGeorge, Chris Williams, and Collegiate parent Henry Shield found themselves on adventures to multiple hunting spots spread all throughout the East end of Virginia.  

After a successful duck hunt in Chester. Photo credit: Kelby Morgan, Sr.

Since I was five years old, I have been tagging along, slowly learning the sport. I have been fortunate enough to be able to hunt with this group of guys all over the state, and especially eastern Virginia, from Chester on the James River to a historic farm on the southside of the Pamunkey River. Morgan, Shield, and McGeorge own properties all throughout Varina and Quinton on smaller creeks and on the Chickahominy River. These properties offer a great variety of places to hunt, contributing to many successful hunts. Hunting on the James River one day, and then the next day on the Pamunkey, allows the hunters to space out the hunt and not scare away whole flocks. After the hunt, the ducks always get cleaned, plucked, and normally breasted. The meat is all taken home and eventually eaten; none goes to waste. 

Duck season is divided into time periods called splits. The opening split, one long weekend from October 6-9, is a warmer split, which consists primarily of shooting wood ducks and teal. The next split, November 15-26, consists of a greater variety of ducks due to the northern part of the country continuing to freeze. By the last split, December 19-January 31, there are many different species available to hunt. Pintails, wigeon, gadwall, and others all begin to migrate now that Canada has gotten cold enough for the water to freeze. This leads to duck hunters’ greatest successes. 

After a successful season, I interviewed my father on how the season went. What he originally thought was going to be a slow season turned out to be quite successful. Morgan, Sr., said, “This season came around to be a lot more eventful than expected… We even got to stick around to see the pintail come in.” Being able to see pintail ducks migrate from the North was something incredible and extremely rare, and I am grateful that I was able to be a part of this experience.

On the last day of duck season. Photo credit: Kelby Morgan, Sr.

Younger duck hunters closer to my age are too young to own any of their own private land, or have no private land available to hunt on, so they hunt on public land—Virginia state land that is open to the public. This allows more people to have access to duck hunting. 

I personally experienced a public land hunt in West Point for the first time this season. The group had to arrive at the hunting hole much earlier, since anyone could come, and we wanted to get to the spot first. The spot was also about a mile long walk through woods, swamp, and muck, making it very tiring. 

Once we arrived at the spot, we found ourselves waiting for about an hour, only to see one duck about a mile in the sky, and we shot shells at the decoys for not working. My friend Harry Parsons, a Godwin High School student, talked about how his season went. Parsons claimed for the whole season that, “It was an absolute waste of gas and tread on my tires, but spending time in nature is sometimes better than killing birds.” Parsons seemed disappointed about the lack of success on public land, yet he said that., “I really enjoyed hunting with my buddies and making memories that will last a lifetime.” Duck hunting is a great way for hunters to bond and make memories with one another.