How the settlers went about hunting ducks was mostly determined by the capabilities of their firearms. During the first years of settlement, Jamestown's most common gun, the matchlock musket, was used for both hunting and military purposes. By 1630, both groups of settlers were hunting with “fowling pieces,” or “fowlers,” designed especially for shooting waterfowl. To increase stability and range, these guns had long, smoothbore barrels and stretched out five or even six and a half feet in length. Most were designed with early versions of the flintlock firing system and had a range of about 50 yards, but both musket and fowler were a far cry from the modern 12 gauge. These primitive guns took minutes to load and did not always fire dependably.

With their guns' limitations in mind, colonists planned their hunting strategies accordingly. A long, heavy barrel meant shooters needed a shooting stick or some other rest to be accurate. This also meant that all shots were taken when waterfowl were relatively stationary—either standing in the marsh or dabbling in the water. Many waterfowl were likely bagged by hunters who silently stalked rafts of ducks or geese along the edges of lakes, rivers, and marshes.

Upon their arrival in America, securing adequate sources of food became a constant priority for the colonists and was frequently a cause for worry. In the first few years, the pilgrims struggled to grow enough crops for their needs, and Jamestown took even longer to become self-sufficient on agriculture alone. Although both colonies often found themselves surrounded by nature's bounty, this abundance was seasonal. Periods of rich plenitude were often followed by times of bleak scarcity.

Under these circumstances, it's easy to see why the colonists' attention would turn to hunting waterfowl in the fall. As an illustration of the good times, Thomas Morton bragged that it had become a custom in his house to serve a whole duck to every person at his dinner table. At Jamestown, John Smith recalled an episode when the fortunes of the colony were partially restored by the arrival of the first flight of migratory birds. In a letter to England, he stated that by October 1607 many colonists were afflicted by disease and fatigue and the settlement was within 20 days of running out of provisions. Fortunately for the men of Jamestown, they were able to barter with neighboring Indians for corn and were soon greeted by the first ducks and geese of the season. “There came such abundance of Fowles into the Rivers, as greatly refreshed our weake estates,” Smith wrote.

Watefowl and the Fur Trade

While the early colonies along the Atlantic coast were becoming more established, waves of European explorers and pioneers ventured farther into the continent's interior. By the end of the 17th century, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) had established itself throughout much of eastern Canada as a large trading outfit collecting beaver pelts and other furs and supplying a variety of Old World goods to trappers and Native peoples. It was in the employment of the HBC that Henry Kelsey, the first European to travel to Canada's Great Plains region, kept a journal describing his life as a trader and explorer in the northern woodlands and prairie.

Henry Kelsey's words clearly reveal the importance of waterfowling to the livelihood of York Fort, HBC's primary trading post located on the western shore of Hudson Bay in modern Manitoba. Journal entries from 1694 and 1696 show that inhabitants of the post and neighboring Cree Indians hunted geese during both the spring and fall staging periods. To hunt these large concentrations of geese, Kelsey and other traders would set up tents in the marshes surrounding the trading post and along the Nelson and Hayes rivers. These tents served as base camps and storehouses where harvested geese could be stockpiled before being taken to the fort.

From the last week of April to the end of May in 1696, Kelsey recorded that in 19 trips more than 400 geese were brought to the fort from the marshes. In return, supplies such as flour, shot, powder, and flints were shuttled from York Fort to HBC's men in the marsh or traded to Cree hunters in exchange for geese. Over the years, this annual operation helped provide a crucial source of meat for the trading post, which could only receive supplies from England in the summer when Hudson Bay was free of ice.