Late Season Tactics for Divers

I am sure most have heard of the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. This is a medium sized reddish dog that attracts ducks (mostly divers) by playing near shore while the hunter hides nearby a shoots the ducks that come in to look at the dog...This technique will work using a Lab as well, about 15 years ago I walked up to a large pond with my chocolate lab, Molly and to my amazement a group of about 20 bluebills which were about 4 gunshots offshore started swimming towards the dog.. I quickly took cover and kepted tossing the dog small sticks and rocks to keep her in view... After about 15 minutes the birds were in shot and I got 5 with 3 shots!! Ever since then I use this method to pick up those last few late season birds..Over the years I found the big ponds in my area that are the last to freeze, where the divers like Bluebills and Goldeneyes seem to raft-up before they head to the saltwater for the winter..The birds will not always toll to the dog, I have found over the years it works about 70% of the time. The colour of the dog does not seem to matter, I started doing this with a choclate, but I have had a yellow (Jenna) for the past 9 nine years and she is an expert at it!..As anyone experienced this?

Off-Season Activities

Last Winter a friend of mine showed me a small set of plans for a Goldeneye nest box that he got from the net (just type 'goldeneye nest box'). Goldeneyes need old-growth forests with lots of tree cavities to nest in and because most forest areas have been logged, nesting areas for these birds are getting scarce..So I bought a coupe of sheets of plywood and built 6 nest boxes, snowshoed in to a few of my duck shooting ponds and installed the boxes. I checked them in June on a trouting trip and found 2 empty, 1 was shot to pieces , 2 hornet nests and 1 goldeneye nest!! I was POed about the 1 that was shot up but I was very pleased about the nest...I am going to make another half dozen this winter...I will post some photos as well..Be carefull of the hornets if you decide to try this!