Roost Hunting, it's Taboo
Corey Mulhair for SPLIT REED
Roost (rüst) - noun; 1a: a support on which birds rest / 1b: a place where winged animals and especially birds customarily roost / 2a: a group of birds roosting together.
Roost (rüst) - verb; 1a: to settle down for rest or sleep / 2a: to settle oneself as if on a roost.
As waterfowl hunters, the idea of a roost is a simple one. It’s a body of water that ducks and/or geese consider a safe place to sleep overnight. They may even loaf on it when they aren’t feeding, staging to feed, or loafing elsewhere. The idea, however, to hunt a roost… well, that’s not as simple. It is by and large a cultural ‘no-no’ to hunt a roost. Most hunters know this but with the many newer hunters in our community these days, sometimes it needs to be discussed.
It’s more of a ‘dick move’ than pass-shooting birds as they’re way off of water to a feed that some guys are hunting (think South Dakota and how guys can legally shoot from the ditch- I’ve seen guys set up between a roost and a cornfield feed, and it’s ridiculous), and it is worse than swing shooting birds working another spread on a public hunting area. The big difference is that roost hunting has longer and wider implications.
When roosts are hunted, it generally happens either because the hunter(s) a) doesn’t know it’s a roost, or b) the hunter(s) knows it’s a roost but doesn’t care or understand why it’s taboo. Why is it a taboo? There are a few reasons, and that’s what we’re going to talk about here. What would you do if you found a pile of birds on a body of water and not much elsewhere, or couldn’t get permission to the feed they were using? What would you say if someone invited you to hunt a roost? Better yet, what would you say if someone invited you on a hunt, and when you arrived realized it was a roost?
Photo of a Duck and Goose Roost. These birds roosted during the night on this water, but also returned from morning feeds to day loaf on the roost. Photo courtesy of Ben Buchholz
A Day as a Duck (or Goose)
Let’s begin with a typical day that a duck or goose might experience. The birds start the day by stirring around some before sunrise, they’re waking up from a night on the roost. They start stretching their wings, quacking and sounding off here and there. The sun is not yet risen but begins peeking from across the Eastern horizon. The first ducks take flight off their giant waterbed roost and head to another piece of water to stage, or directly to their morning feed. As the morning continues on, the geese begin to ready themselves for the morning in the same manner. Once the birds have had their fill of grain or other foods, they return to water, be it another staging area or day loaf, or will return back to their roost to loaf during the day. Something out of the normal daily pattern, such as inclement weather, full moon, or exceptionally high winds can change the activities of birds during a morning or the daytime. As daylight wanes, birds will often again leave loaf water to feed again. This time, the geese will likely leave first to feed, followed by the ducks sometime later. Again, the birds will eat their fill and return to water, this time to roost overnight.
A morning winter wheat large Canada goose hunt. We found these birds coming off a river/sandbar roost and flying about two miles to this field for a morning feed a couple of days in a row, and then set the trap. Photo courtesy of Ben Buchholz
The Day as a Hunter
The modern waterfowler often targets ducks and geese (and cranes) at feeds. Field feeds such as corn, barley, wheat, soybeans, peas, millet, and so on are highly sought after feed type hunts. Others target birds on smaller day loaf waters such as rivers or ponds, or will hunt moist soil fields or wetland areas. The idea is to scout an area during the morning or afternoon/evening hours for field feeds or to find birds on small waters where they stage or loaf before or after feeds, then target them the next day. A good way to know you aren’t hunting a roost is to actually sit and watch a roost, and as birds get up to feed or stage/loaf, you follow them in your vehicle to a field or wetland that you might be able to hunt. To verify the water they are coming off of is a roost, you can follow them back post evening-feed to water, and if large numbers congregate- that’s likely where they are roosting.
Scouting is an all-important part of a successful waterfowl hunt. I would say it is the defining piece of work in order to fund success. Hunt where the birds want to be and you’re likely to have a good chance at shooting a few, or so. Scouting for roosts allows you to get an idea of the number of birds in the area and the species of ducks or geese you’ll be targeting (not on the roost though!). Scouting fields to find feeds allows you to make a hunt that is likely going to go well without bumping birds or leaving them weary, as does scouting smaller waters or wetlands to find loafs.
Keeping Birds Comfortable in an Area
The thought of hunting a roost for me is a hard-pass for a number of reasons. The first that comes to mind is that if you hunt a roost, the birds will leave the roost and they may not return. If the roost is building and growing, that tells me this is a strong roost, a piece of water that birds are drawn to and that they feel makes a great safe place to call home. These roosts might be a stop that birds make year after year during their southerly migration, and as they stop each year the hatch-year birds learn about these places and the cycle continues forward. If the roost is typically used strongly year after year you can count on birds using it, and the act of finding the feeds those birds use allows you to hunt the same birds, in different fields, for an extended period of time without putting too much pressure on them. By allowing them a safe place, or a temporary sanctuary, you are more likely to keep those birds in the general area.
If you find a couple-hundred birds on water and they are spending the night there, it is apparently where they are roosting. But, as long as there are alternative water roosts around, I wouldn’t consider something like that ‘taboo’ to hunt. Yes, those birds will come back when you kick them off in the morning and you’re likely to shoot a few limits. But, they may not return again for some time, so if you are going to hunt that you just need to know you’re likely going to burn the (relatively small) roost, and neither yourself nor anyone else will likely have a great hunt on that again for a number of days. The upside is you haven’t burnt the roost for all the birds in the area, just the ones that were on there the night before you hunted it. And hell, the birds you didn’t shoot will likely return after 5 or 7 days provided they do not find an alternative roost or make their way further along in their migration.
Easy Limits and Special Birds
The hardest part about saying no to a roost hunt might often be because of what you see at the roost. Sometimes it’s just the sheer number of birds, the thought of everyone shooting a limit and feeling a sense of “wow, what a banger!”. Sometimes you see a special bird- maybe a band or a hybrid or some sort of color phase and think, “well, we could set up and be picky, or shoot damn near a limit and then hold off for a band or quill or something else unique to show back up”. These are just another couple of ethical conundrums to take into account when deciding if you’re going to blow a roost. Again, for some it’s easy, and for others a tougher decision.
With that in mind…
When birds are blown out of a roost, the effects are not felt by only you and your hunting partners. Think about the other folks in the area who are on the same mission as you. Sure, they might be in some sense your competition (though you should hope the best for them and they the same for you, out of solidarity)- but the possibility of ruining other hunters chances by hunting a body of water that birds are roosting on is simply put; a dick move. During my time in North Dakota living and hunting as a resident for three years, on more than one occasion I’ve had hunts ruined where I’ve found a feed and set up in the field only to be blanked by the birds. When I’d call the hunt over and packed up, I’d drive by the specific roost the majority of the birds using that field were to be coming from. More than once I’d check it out and find a group of non-resident hunters set up on and hunting that water. I understand they’ve driven from out of state to hunt the prairie pothole region, and they want to shoot piles of birds, but that never lessened the sting of knowing they’d blown the roost with disregard to other area hunters. As a local you feel pretty upset, and even when you try to talk to the guys they don’t seem to give much of a shit about your thoughts and feelings on the matter. After all, they ‘have the right’- and they’re there to kill birds.
I’ve kept those encounters close in my freelance trips over the years. The last thing I’d want to do is hold my experiences at a higher regard than others by shooting a roost. Sure don’t want to be at the bar that evening and have another group of hunters recognize my pickup and come tell me their hunt was ruined because I was shooting the roost.
On the other hand, knowing the difference between a true roost and a loaf is important, too. You don’t want to take this kind of article so serious that you don’t hunt a piece of water with 500 ducks on it because it might be a roost. That’s really why scouting is important and how recognizing roosts can potentially be the difference between having a hell of a hunt or being a jerk.
Image of a roost which we had permission to hunt by the landowner- but we had no intentions of shooting birds here. Rather, we would wait for these birds to leave for the afternoon feed, follow them to a corn pivot and target them on dry fields the following afternoon.
It Can be Hard to Say No
Listen, I know how hard it can be to see 500 or 5000 ducks or geese on a piece of water you want to hunt, or even have permission to hunt. But we’ve covered a few things to keep in mind. If there are feeds around that the birds are hitting (there really ought to be), or other water to hunt such as loafs or wetlands, focus on those things. Take advantage of those opportunities. If you can’t get permission for any feeds or alternative water hunts, you find yourself in a predicament. At that point you may think to yourself, “hunting that roost is my only chance at those birds”. Then you need to decide if you’re going to hunt the roost or not. I’ll tell you right now if it were me, I would opt-out. For one, a roost hunt is likely to be hardly any kind of challenge- and two, a roost hunt is going to hurt the hunting of other folks out there who may have a chance to get on those birds on permissions they have.
Like in so many other situations in life, you need to decide who you’re going to be. For some, the darn near guaranteed pile of birds will be worth the negative backside effects. For others, it will be tough but their gut will tell them to pass. Legally there’s no right or wrong here. There is no general law in the fish and game handbook that says you can’t hunt a roost, although I know of some states that allow no hunting on certain bodies of water because they roost birds in large numbers.
To me, hunting is for everyone, not just me. If you can’t find a feed or a loaf or some kind of non-roost body of water, it’s the same as setting up on a field feed and blanking. It happens. It’s just part of the deal. You win some, you lose some. I for one do not want to be the reason that other hunters outside of my group to lose.
A real thought experiment is to ask yourself and your friends this: Would you hunt a roost on the last day of the season? That’s where I might grin and say something like, “gimme a minute to think about it..”
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