Funding for the First Duck Pin was provided by the Oregon Waterfowl Festival. Young hunters can receive a First Duck pin by sending a letter detailing their first duck to:

Worth Mathewson
PO Box 130
Amity, Oregon 97101

Photos are much appreciated! You can also send your story and photos to : firstduck@deltawaterfowl.org

My name is Jacob Cutchall. I have been hunting waterfowl with my dad since I was 3 years old.

On September 23, 2006 I went on the Pennsylvania Youth Waterfowl Hunt. We were hunting along a small run when a wood duck drake came into our decoys. I had missed several other wood ducks earlier in the morning, but was lucky to get this one.

Respectfully,
Jacob Cutchall

Just wanted to send you a couple pictures and briefing of our third year taking youth hunters out to experience waterfowl hunting.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been the host to a youth duck hunt in Huron, SD for the past three years. During these hunts we average approximately 20-25 youth hunters (50% of parents attending) , the youth hunters are grouped up in 3's and 4's with a local waterfowl guide, and provided some type of snack sack. This year shells and duck calls were donated as well as the usual lunch when the hunters returned. After we broke into our groups, we headed for fields and marshes throughout the County. Youth hunters were given the chance to be part of setting decoys and arrangement, hunting blinds, waterfowl calling, dog handling, safety, and waterfowler ethics. A lot of the youth hunters have never had the opportunity to be part of something like this; a marsh awakening in the early hours, or witness the first flock of incoming ducks into the spread of decoys. Many of the youth shot their first duck and hope that they will be send letters and stories into Delta Waterfowl to receive their first duck pins. I think this is a great job you guys are doing with this program and we can not do enough to get our youth out to recognize the importance of carrying on this passion of waterfowl hunting and respecting the habitat.

Thanks to the great job Delta Waterfowl does throughout all of its programs.

Chuck Pyle
Wildlife Biologist
Partners For Wildlife Program - Huron WMD
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

All in all the three boys were on cloud nine as we packed up the dekes and they helped me carry all the stuff and their ducks .

Thanks again
ERIC PAYNTER

Thanks again
ERIC PAYNTER

Thank you
Eric Paynter

The weekend of September 2nd, 2006. I went to a Mentored Waterfowl youth hunt. It took place in Delta, Manitoba, Canada.

There were roughly 45 youth hunters (boys and girls). My youth partners name was Cole, our mentor's was Ron and his dog.

On Saturday morning. We rolled out of bed at 4:15am. Then we had breakfast . After breakfast we loaded our gear into Ron's truck. Then we headed for the marsh. On the way we saw a large porcupine in our headlights. We got the canoes ready. In my canoe was Ron, his dog, and me. Ron and his dog sat at the back of the canoe. I was at the front of the canoe. My friend cole was in the other canoe. We paddled for about 10 minutes. Then we had to make a little portage. Then paddled a bit more to reach our destination. When we got the canoe into the flagreeds, the canoe flattened the flagreeds as we pushed it in. We set up the duck decoys in front of us in the water. We then postitioned ourselves in the flagreeds. We bent down the flagreeds that blocked our vision into the pond. The sun was starting to rise behind us. A soft breeze was at our backs. I was tired but i was ready for that first duck. Ron was calling for ducks. It was about 7:00am. There was a duck coming in. Ron told me it was mine. I shot it once it didn't go down. It started flying away from us and I shot again I thought I had missed but about one second later it went down about 500 meters away from where we were. Ron's dog couldn't go that far. So we waited until we were done shooting then i went out in the canoe to collect it. I was very happy. I had shot my first duck - a mallard hen. This was a great experience. I would love to do it again.

David Stelck

Attached are pictures from our family's annual Thanksgiving Day hunt this past Fall (2005) in Blairstown, MO (near Kansas City). Pictured are Taylor (age 10), Megan (age 6) and Abby (age 8). These are three of my FOUR daughters. The "traditional" hunt was started 5 years ago, with our then 5 year old, by my father-in-law when it became apparent to us that the only way were going to get to go duck hunting on Thanksgiving Day for the foreseeable future was to start a "family tradition." Well, the "tradition" as held, we've gone five years in a row and expanded the group to include 3 of my four daughters - the fourth is age 4 and will come next year. While our hunts haven't produced tons of duck (yes we've shot some) they have produced great memories with grandpa, lots of breakfast cooked in the blind, and even a snow storm one year. Our girls look forward to joining the First Duck Club and becoming members of Delta Waterfowl.

Keep up the great work you do for the ducks!
Bruce Breckenridge

Tommy Condon

We were hunting in a rice field and a teal landed on Mathew's end of the blind. His Dad helped him get his shotgun up and shot the Duck.The duck then flew into the decoys and Papa helped me aim my 410 and I killed the Duck. Papa said we both killed the duck and gave both of us feathers to put in our hunting caps.

Please send pins to both me and Mathew.

Thank-you, Henry Traylor age six

thanks
- rich sheffield

It was a cool dark night in the Florida Everglades. As I recall it was last year when I was twelve. I woke up at 3:30 in the morning for my first ever duck hunt. I had only hunted before in South Carolina for a youth turkey hunt. I was using the same gun that I hunt duck with till this day. It is a 12 gauge Remington 11-87. We were hunting in an overflowed part of the Everglades off of the road. I put on my waders for the first time since they were bought. The bugs were bad so we sprayed plenty of repellent. We waded out through the marsh until we found a good slew. We set out our decoys and found a good blind in front of the open water. We both knelt down or sat in the water which was just past my knees. The sun was just rising and the air was cool smelling of burning sugarcane. As the sun began to rise my Dad told me to be aware of the sky, sounds, and movements around. It was 15 minutes before legal shooting time when a duck swooped in and landed in our decoys. I was afraid that he would fly away before legal shooting hour. The minutes crept slowly by as the duck dipped down to feed on the aquatic plants on the bottom not giving notice to the decoys being plastic. It was now legal shooting time. I asked my Dad what I should do. He told me that I could shoot it on the water but it would be more sportsmen like to shoot it in flight. I said that I would kill him in the sky. We waited for him to take off but he seemed to be content with feeding. My Dad told me he was going to scare it off of the water. He began to quack into his call but the Shoveler gave no notice to the awkward noise. My Dad clapped his hands but the Shoveler again ignored it. He then told me he was going to get out of the blind so I should be ready. He then left the blind. The duck saw him and began to swim toward the sawgrass. My Dad yelled "Bang" in a last effort to scare up the duck. He jumped up into the air only to be brought down again by a hail of steel crumpling him in a heap of feathers. I then waded out to collect my long sought after prize. It was a hen Shoveler and my first duck.

This first prize was breasted and fried. It was the beginning of a whole new hunting experience and fun hobby. I dislike it when a person who has never hunted in their life comes up to me and tells me how inhumane hunting is. They don't understand how it keeps the population in place. I don't hunt just for sport; I also hunt for the pride and the thought of knowing that a duck won't starve from loss of food. If the population isn't kept at bay the ducks will overpopulate and they will eat all of the food causing them to starve and die. I am a member of the Delta Waterfowlers Association. I read in the magazine that you would give first-duck pins to a young Waterfowler who would write about their story.

Thanks to the Oregon Waterfowl Festival I can show other hunters my story!

Your fellow hunter and friend,
Jed Crist

Thank you so much for allowing us to share these first birds with you,

Kelly Swihart

Steve Leonard

-Cody Metcalf.