Texas Waterfowl Brigade

A few weeks ago, I attended the third battalion of the Texas Waterfowl Brigade. The Texas Brigades is  a four and a half  day camp where you learn almost everything you need to know about five different topics. Those topics are Buckskin Brigade (deer), Bass Brigade (Bass), Bobwhite Brigade (quail), Ranch Brigade (cattle), and the Waterfowl Brigade(ducks and geese).

This building is where the cadets slept.

The stomach/gizzard contents of a duck

The first day that I was at camp I took my hunter's education quiz and attended a short orientation. We also broke up into flocks. Then I participated in a get to know each other activity, which was very fun. After that we went outside and took a quiz on ducks, wetlands, feather types, hunting laws, plant species and much more tricky information that I did not know about. If I was scored on the test, I would not have passed. Luckily for me though, that test was just to show how much you didn't know and at the end of the camp you would retake the quiz to show how much knowledge you gained.

After that, each flock went out on the porch and performed necropsies on ducks. The importance of this was to study the duck's anatomy, learn what they ate, and their age. The duck that my flock and I worked with had been eating seeds, millet, and small pebbles. Other ducks had eaten corn, peanuts,and fish. The purpose of knowing what they eat is so that we know how to attract them and how to help them survive. After that each flock took turns visiting different stations. One station talked more about duck anatomy,one about duck breeds, one about wing identification, and so on. My favorite station was when we got to learn  about the bones and skeletons of ducks. After that, we listened to a few presentations inside and ate dinner. After we ate, we cleaned up, and went outside to participate in team building activites. After that we listened to
another talk, and went to bed.

Even though the Waterfowl Brigade was only four and a half days long, it covered too much information to explain day by day. Instead I have posted more of a summary of what I did on my 1st day at the camp. If you are interested in attending any of the Brigades you can go to their website at http://www.texasbrigades.org/  

I would highly recommend this camp to anyone who enjoys nature, animals, biology, ecology, watefrowl, public speaking, or hunting.

Colton, my assistant flock leader and I. 

Being mocked interviewed for media practice.