Ep. 597 – Calling Ducks with a Whistle

Host Chris Jennings is joined by Beau Brooks, digital marketing specialist for Higdon Outdoors, to talk about the highly popular whistle. Brooks specializes in calling ducks with a whistle. He explains his best practices calling teal, wood ducks, wigeon, pintails, and mallards. Listeners are sure to pick up a handful  of helpful tips as Brooks details how, when, and why he uses these species-specific calls.

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Chris Jennings

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Ducks Unlimited Podcast is a constant discussion of all things waterfowl; from in-depth hunting tips and tactics, to waterfowl biology, research, science, and habitat updates. The DU Podcast is the go-to resource for waterfowl hunters and conservationists. Ducks Unlimited is the world's leader in wetlands conservation.

Chris Jennings: Welcome back to the Ducks Unlimited podcast. I'm your host, Chris Jennings. Joining me on the show today, we have Beau Brooks, the digital marketing specialist for Higdon, MoMars, Power Calls. Beau, welcome to the Ducks Unlimited podcast, man.

Beau Brooks: Dude, thanks for having me on. I'm pretty stoked.

Chris Jennings: That's awesome. We're fired up to have you. We've kind of done some of these different calling, uh, you know, different shows. We've had, you know, Brooke Richard, we have Kelly powers. Um, you know, we've kind of gone through the list of different calls and different types of calls. Um, we had Jim Ronquist on, we did an hour almost on just the feeding chatter with him, which was cool. Um, but, We wanted to bring you on because you're kind of a, I don't even know how to describe this, but like a whistle master here. You know, you spend a lot of your time, you're from the Pacific Northwest, you're probably calling a lot of widget, a lot of teal, a lot of pintail, and you really know how to, you know, use a whistle. In your case, you're using the power call static whistle, but you're also, we'll get later in the show, we'll discuss you know, about how you're kind of making whistles, which is cool. But before we get well into that, I kind of just wanted you to introduce yourself to our audience. We do this with all of our new guests, just kind of let them know who you are, you know, what you do, and you know, maybe even a little background in your hunting out there in Pacific Northwest.

Beau Brooks: Absolutely. Well, my name is Beau Brooks. As we said, I work for Higdon Outdoors, MoMarsh, Power Calls, Riven. And man, I'm a burdener in short terms. I grew up my whole life out there. I was from Washington State. I was born in Oregon, lived in Washington, right on the Columbia River. So I consider myself a little bit of both on that because I was back and forth so often. But, man, Pacific Northwest runs deep for me, and running rivers and chasing ducks has always been… People know me for elk calling and turkey calling. I would guide and work all year saving up money so I could go duck hunting all winter. And duck hunting is something I got to do with my dad. I mean, it's really, truly what lit my fire for hunting in general.

Chris Jennings: That's a great area out there too.

Beau Brooks: I've been fortunate to hunt all over the country with Higdon, and I just click my heels together in the winter and there's no place like home. You know what I mean? And I think that's for everybody, but I love hunting ducks at home. the variety. And I mean, we can be hunting sea ducks, to divers, to wigeon, pintails, mallards, teal, pretty much anything, excluding the whistling ducks and black ducks, pretty much at any time. Especially during the heat of the season, you can take the time to go find them. And so, I've been super, super blessed in that and then be able to travel around and see what all the other types of duck hunting have to offer. You learn a lot, but Like I said, I love the Pacific Northwest and I love calling. And all these different species, I've just kind of spent my time honing everything. At my house in Washington, we have a five acre corn complex that we built when I was a kid. And I'd sit there for hours at a time and listen to the night feeders and call and practice. I've heard about every sound that a duck could make, you know, with 5,000 to 10,000 ducks in there every night. That's awesome. Yeah.

Chris Jennings: Yeah. I think, you know, we've talked about you on a whistle and you mentioned elk hunting and turkey calling and you've got quite the reputation of being pretty handy with the call. But I think I remember the first time I met you was at, like, the Wings Over the Prairie Festival. Oh, yeah. Gosh, it had been, I don't know, seven, eight years ago, maybe, and you were calling in the speckle-bellied goose calling contest. And I think you won it. Did you not?

Beau Brooks: Yeah. Yeah, that was pretty wild. I had speck hunted a little bit and was not proficient at all. I mean, to the point I'd almost not even call out them. And I sat down with Brooke one day, when I first started working here, I said, hey, I want to call up this contest they're having. It was the first Max Prairie Wings speckled-bellied goose calling contest. I said, we're going to it. I want to learn. I want to win. And so I practiced for about three hours a day, every day for about three, three and a half weeks and ended up winning it. So.

Chris Jennings: That's awesome. I'm pretty sure I still have some videos of your routine because I went over there. That was back when I did a lot of social media stuff for DU and I shot some videos of you guys all calling on stage. It was, it was pretty awesome.

Beau Brooks: It was super fun and it was even more fun. Jim Ronquist handed me the trophy and he said, well, where are you from partner? And I'm like, Washington state. He said, you're a long way from home.

Chris Jennings: That's awesome. Well, that's cool, man. Let's go ahead and get into just kind of the whistling. And, you know, a lot of hunters have a whistle. I have them. I'm actually a really big fan. I stay on mine a lot of the time, even when guys are you know, heavy on the hail calls and, you know, they're really hitting calls hard. I'm a big fan of utilizing that whistle just because you have so many different variant species you can target with that one whistle. But, you know, as we go through this, I want you to kind of demonstrate each one as we kind of talk about it. And I know we've done this a little bit, but, you know, If, uh, if you have to pause or whatever and take a step back, that's perfectly fine. Um, and use, use the whistle trying to get the sounds as, as high quality as possible for our audience. Uh, but let's start out with the one that everyone knows and, and what most people are accustomed to. Uh, and that's the Northern Pinto. And, you know, I know you've got, that's probably one of the first ones you got knocked out, specialized and perfected right off the bat, I'd assume. Cause that's what most people do, but, you know, kind of talk about that whistle. We'll hear it a little bit and let's talk about how you use it.

Beau Brooks: Yeah, so this is a pin tail. And so what I'm doing too, just so I know I can't show it right now, but what I do is I take my, you know, all the whistles are very similar, right? I take my, I guess this would be my pointing finger, and I turn it, I put the tip of my finger in the bottom of the hole, and I slightly bend my finger up. So it's covering it, but not all the way. So if you bend all the way, you're going to get But I want it to more of a pop. So about, I would say three quarters of it's covered. And I'm just doing a slight burst of air, you know, rolling my tongue. If you can't roll your tongue, there's other ones out there that count. A lot of guys in California actually make the one that little rattle ball on it. Sounds great. But this has more volume. So I'm just And I'm adding just a little bit of just, not necessarily voice, it's kind of like a line, this little short breath of air. When you hear a northern pintail, you hear, it's fairly sharp, you know what I mean? It's not drawn out. You'll hear that sometimes, it's more, it's just, they're cutting each other off, they're happy, and a lot of times you'll be sitting there and you'll hear. I'm like, and I look up and there'll be 20 landing in the decoys, so.

Chris Jennings: That'll work. If you do that a couple times, you get 20 in the decoys, we're doing all right.

Beau Brooks: Yeah, absolutely. And it's a lot of times when I see the pintails leading into how I'm hunting with it. There's a lot of time, man. The only people from the West Coast would truly understand this, and a few people in Louisiana, and then also in the Missouri and Arkansas rice fields. The frustration that comes with having pintails around and hunting them, everywhere else in the country, they're the holy grail, right? And so, as far as for how I've learned, I've learned, I do not, unless I'm in Canada, I do not mallard call Adam. I always am hitting that that pintail. These are so weary. And what I've learned also, you know, is in conjunction with that, you know, I have one guy on the pintail whistle, I'll also speckle belly call out or a goose call out him. And I'm not kidding you. It's like you hit him with a Mallard call at times. That's interesting. And that's where, you know, it's kind of funny. I go all over, I talk with Brooke and I've talked to a few other people and I'm like, you know, I said, well, at home, I cackler call at the, at the, and this was years ago, you know, that I, I've kind of, I've since met a lot of people, but there's like, well, we spec call at them. And I'm like, see, now it makes sense. Cause I, they get in with the cacklers, they follow the cacklers around to get in the fields with them. And then they do the same thing, the specs in Arkansas, Missouri, and Louisiana. And so, you know, I'm very weary with hitting that Mallard call. I couldn't tell you how many times all this hit a… and they just blow up, right? They truly are one of the most weary birds out there, unless you've got your limit.

Chris Jennings: Yeah, that's right. If you've got your pintails sitting in the blind, you'll have a thousand of them come in. But if not, they are extremely difficult to decoy on occasion. And when it's right, you better take advantage of it. Yeah, trophy hunt them. Yeah, the, you know, and that's cool that, you know, if you've got one dude in the blind, blown on a spec call, you're hitting the whistle or vice versa, however that goes. That's a pretty interesting tactic. That's a pretty good takeaway for some of our audience to go ahead and give that a try this fall. I know I'll probably add that speckle belly call in with when we, because hunting Arkansas, we end up with big wads of pintails pretty consistently, but they are very difficult to decoy. So, any new tactic you can throw at them is really beneficial. You know, and that's the awesome thing about the versatility of this whistle is as you're sitting in a blind or in the boat or whatever, and ducks are flying by, It's not always just pintails. It's not always just mallards. You know, a lot of times you've got several different species flying around and you can use that whistle and target all of them. So the next species we're going to talk about is teal. And really in Arkansas, we probably shoot more green wings than blue wings. Um, but you know, with that, with that teal whistle, you're really targeting those green wings. So, um, you know, kind of explain how you target those basically the same way you just did the pintails. Um, we'll do some examples and just how you're trying to target those teal and anything that you can think of that would be a benefit, uh, to some of our listeners to try this fall.

Beau Brooks: Well, what I've learned through the years is, with the Greenwing teal, man, is… So I use the… A lot of times when the teal are in my direction, they could be going to the side or whatever. I usually start them with the Drake teal sound. I'll hit it real quick. And as far as birds are concerned, you'll see them on the water. A single drake will be hitting that sound. Or when they're in a big bunch, you'll hear just like a pintail. And I use that a lot. The Greenwing teal whistle is one of the most effective tools I have in my bag. And if you watch any videos like on our TV show or anything, Kelly can't stand my teal calling. I'm telling you, I throw a wall of teal sounds, and I couldn't tell you how many times those birds, say they're in flooded corn, you're on a river, and they're going out and going long, and they just turn, you know what I mean? And they are actually one of those birds that are very, very receptive to calls. And especially as it gets later in the season, like January, I find that that Drake teal calls seems to work more because they're doing it more often and they're kind of yelling at each other. And I've had very good success with it. And so, you know, a lot of times and I this isn't what everybody would do, but I'll hit that. And I take my voice I go. And I do it with my voice. And a lot of times, that'll just… I mean, those big bunches will just suck right in. And a lot of those times, they'll be going right past everybody else's blind and they're hitting them with mallard calling, or they just try and… A lot of guys don't even have a teal call on them. So it just could add a little bit more of an edge. And with all these other subspecies, yes, you could kill them with a mallard call at times. There's a lot of times that you strike that chord with that bird and they're like, okay, we're down there. If that makes sense.

Chris Jennings: Yeah. And when in, in that being the case, when teal do it, they typically do it right too. So, I mean, that's a, that's a great tool to have in your bag. Now, what exact, what sound are you making when you're, when you're adding that, that vocalization? in on the backside. Now, do you think that that's more of just like an attention grabber? Like you make that and they just kind of maybe glance over there or they're like, oh gosh, what was that? And then hit him with the teal call again.

Beau Brooks: Well, that's it. That's, that's my turner. That's my big turner. So they're not coming towards me and whatnot. And I have a Mallard call that I, I actually plug the end of. I don't have it here that I do it with as well if I need it to be louder. And so what it does is when the birds say they came towards me, and they start to veer off, I'll just… One after another, and they'll just turn. You know what I mean? And so a lot of times, that teal call is the finisher. I'm not always going to be hitting them with it. all the way to the water. I just want to get them my direction. And if they veer at all, that's when I'll hit them again with it.

Chris Jennings: Yeah. And then you go right back to the teal call. Yeah.

Beau Brooks: But, and I don't slow down. I, I honestly, I, I'm like, like, I'll have that send you guys a video and you guys will crack up of me just nonstop. Kelly's like, what are you doing, dude? And all of a sudden, we get 20, this group that was gonna land long turns and comes down the pipe, a group of 20 comes in. And, you know, it's just, it's crazy how much calling sometimes that they'll have, but it's not something to hear every day, right? It can absolutely just… And I very, very, very, very, very rarely have ever seen a teal shy from calling. And it's not like a mallard, like where you're sitting there and you're all going crazy and they just… you know, bump off from the sound or whatever. Teal, usually the amount I give him my eyes, you know, pedal to the metal all the way to the floor. And a lot of times we'll have him land in the decoys.

Chris Jennings: That's cool. I hunted with an old coot in Illinois, probably 20 years ago, who when Teal would fly past the blind, he would stand up and wave his hat. And then as he was sitting down, he would yell like a really high pitch, like, ha ha ha, like a laugh. He'd be like, ha ha ha. So it's basically the same exact thing, and I saw that work many times.

Beau Brooks: That's awesome.

Chris Jennings: So, as we kind of roll along here with the whistle, the next species up is probably one that you learned at a very young age hunting in the Pacific Northwest, which probably makes up a good bunch of your bag every year, the American Wigeon. Yes. And that, you know, some people actually really struggle to create this sound. So, if you have any tips on how you're creating it as you go along and demonstrate, that would be awesome. Absolutely.

Beau Brooks: So, this is the most near and dear sound to me. This is my bread and butter. It's what I've grown up on. They can be the easiest duck in the world to hunt. They can also be the hardest. And only people that hunt big water will understand how hard they can get, right? They're so fun. And they're super vocal. And so, there's a few different widget vocalizations that I do. There's the flock, which is a And a lot of times, the first time they hit the water, when they're partying, they're happy, it's an attention grabber. And I do very well with it. And I usually do that when I see a big wad of wigeon. And this is not just from the Pacific Northwest. This is from here. I hunted Arkansas last year. Only two years ago that I remember this clear as day. And it actually happened again this year. They can go by, you're hitting them with a mallard call, they don't break a wing on a big reservoir, and you hit them with a widgeon whistle. And this is something that they do not hear a lot of down in Arkansas, right? Because there's just not that many widgeon comparatively. And so hit them with that, the whole bunch breaks out. Same thing, very aggressive on my widgeon whistle. But if I see a pair or a single, I take the tip of my… I do the same thing as a pintail whistle where I go… I cover it that much and I go… Because a lot of times he'll be talking back and forth with me, right? And he'll circle, circle, and just adding that realism all the way to the water. A lot of times I'm not hitting him with the whole wad when it's just one or two.

Chris Jennings: Now you're putting the main emphasis on that second note that you're putting in there. Is that correct? Yeah.

Beau Brooks: I go, it's almost a cough when I do it. And and it's it all comes from the opening of the back of my throat, right? I'm not pinching it or anything like that. If you're pitching it's gonna get You want it to have those those um sharp breaks the And what's funny is I notice a little bit of air comes out of my nose when I do it. I know it sounds a little odd, but it's kind of like breaking that, but I'm opening up the back of my throat completely so that it's a hard sound. There's very few people I've actually heard that can master it to the point, and you don't have to, right? They don't have to have that realism, but on a dead calm day, it can be very helpful.

Chris Jennings: Oh yeah. And, and that, that sound, you know, which I know you've probably seen it a million times, but you know, you can have ducks all over the place and you can hear that one widget. It's just so distinct. Do you think that they respond to that as well, um, with you calling that, you know, that, that, that specific note and tone and everything, do you think that seems to resonate, you know, maybe across the water and they're hearing it a little more? I mean, I've just seen that so many times where you, you've got ducks everywhere, but you can hear that one widgeon just getting after it.

Beau Brooks: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, there's, especially, you know, there's, especially with the pressured widgeon too though, I feel like they see through it. They, they're, they're more, more inclined to be, to, to like it more, you know, the, The non-pressured wigeon that everyone talks about and that I talk about too, man. You hit them, hunting them over sheet water or a cattle pond or something like that, they are ready to party. You hit them with a mallard call all the way to the water, but the ones on the big… I mean, there's so many days on the Columbia River on the east side, not the west side. The west side's not near as big a problem, but these wigeon, they show up October 10th, right? And they're there till January 31st and they get hunted from the time that it opens to the end. And they get very smart and they know to stay in the middle of the river or fly high or land out in the middle. So adding that realism that they hear can be the difference between being successful and not.

Chris Jennings: You know, moving on with the whistle, you know, one vocalization that a lot of hunters tend to overlook, especially hunting around here, you know, Mississippi alluvial Valley. Um, everyone's staying on those high balls and, and really getting into their calls, but there's not as much of, you know, making that Mallard Drake sound that, that so easily can be created by the whistle. Kind of talk about that, you know, vocalization and how you utilize that.

Beau Brooks: I will, I'll preface it with this as well, and I'm going to go back, I'm going to piggyback this with the pintail whistle as well. The pintail whistle, the first time I've ever heard, and this is the earliest I've ever heard a pintail whistle, is Thanksgiving weekend at home. I've never heard them earlier than that. For whatever reason, they just, it doesn't seem to start, so I don't usually use it then, you know. I usually save it. And same thing goes with the mallard buzz. I assimilate that with the more December, January style hunting, the later hunting. And obviously, they're getting into their breeding thing. They're starting to chase each other around. And when you pull up on a group of ducks in the daylight, not necessarily in the dark, but a lot of times, you're going to hear that buzz more than anything. And only a few ducks will be going… And so that's just the reason why I use it so often. And you're not stepping on your buddy's toes. If you got a guy that's an aggressive caller or or it's a dead calm day or whatever, you can use this sound without getting too in their face and just adding realism. And so as far as achieving this sound, what I do is I close this thing completely off. And so I'm taking the tip of my finger here, putting it inside and covering it completely. And it's like you tip your tongues on the roof of your mouth like you're whistling. So you get it, I guess I have a little bit of an opening there, but barely. That's it. And so, I'm taking my tongue, and I'm slowly moving it to the roof of my mouth, and that's how I'm getting the end of it. And it's a lot of that buzz that comes from the back of your mouth. And, and I think that, man, that adds so much realism. And a lot of times, man, January, that's about all they want to hear. Yeah.

Chris Jennings: I mean, I've, I've seen it so many times where you're sitting in the blind or standing in the timber and you don't see them, but you, but you hear that buzz coming over the treetops and you can, and you know that that duck's already looking. You know, it's already looking down there. It's trying to communicate. And do you think a lot of times, especially even later in the year, do you think that that buzz, that Mallard-Drake whistle, I guess is what some people refer to it as. Do you think that's more effective than actual calling?

Beau Brooks: I think there's a lot of days that it's way more effective. There's definitely… The days that I think of that are really benefective, real cold, calm days. You know what I mean? And that's when those single Drake Mallard buzz around. And there's still times when I pull out my big duck call in January. You get a big front, pushes piles of birds down in it. They're just everywhere. But when they're stale and they're buzzing around and they've seen everything, it just adds the realism. And there's a lot of times that I probably… It's just like a turkey call, right? I heard this… It was Tom Kelly, I think, that said it. He's like, you should yelp twice and throw that mouth call away so you aren't tempted to use it again. You know what I mean? It's almost what you should be doing with that mallard. your cut down call, your regular call on the highballs, a lot of times it's not working. Slow down, shut up, and just add some realism when you need to, and you can have a lot of success that way.

Chris Jennings: That's awesome. And before we got on here, just to move to the next call, you kind of demonstrated while it's not a lot of times with these, it's not necessarily listed as one of the calls that these whistles make. But you mentioned that you do a gadwall call with it. And I think that would be beneficial. I mean, we get just tore up with gadwalls down here, not wanting to play games. It'd be great to be able to really communicate with them without I mean, you could always add an additional gadwall call onto your lanyard, but just being able to make that sound with the whistle is even more beneficial.

Beau Brooks: Absolutely. And so, you know, with the whistle, I covered up part of the way, and I'm just going, dee-dee, dee-dee, dee-dee, with a pretty aggressive buzz in the back. And man, there's a lot of times, you add that in while someone's working them, it's just getting them to the water, right? And so, early season, those gadwall, you see them, they're circling that timber hole. A lot of times, there's not a whole lot of circling going on. But as it gets later in the year, man, they can get really hard. And so, I actually have a duck call here. I'll do it with the duck call if it needs to be louder. And that's not near as realistic, right? But it gets the point across. And so I go back and forth with that, and if I do, I'm such a frickin' nerd. I've listened to Gadwall a lot, and I always hear the three note, when they make theirs, it goes, eh, eh, eh. And so when I hit them, that's a lot of times all I'll do. If I'm gonna make them do something, I'll beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. And, you know, the hen gadwall, she makes that three note, kind of almost like a mallard hen, but it's more of a, you know, a little higher pitch, kind of short version of it. And I've seen him respond very well to them.

Chris Jennings: Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, I think, you know, if you can get Gadwall's attention a lot of times and, you know, by adding in, you know, a really, really realistic sound, that can be the key to success with those things. Like you said, especially late in the year as they continue to get more and more difficult throughout the season. And that's pretty much for everywhere in the country. That's not That's not even a regional thing. They just seem to get harder as the season progresses. We were talking a couple weeks ago when I was interviewing you for an upcoming feature in the magazine, and you had mentioned that you were making a whistle-type call to create some of these sounds, but you're using a diaphragm call, like a diaphragm turkey call. Can you go ahead and explain that to our audience? Because I think it's pretty cool, and maybe hear some of those sounds.

Beau Brooks: Yeah, and so I've got one that's kind of beat up. So it's not as full potential. What I'm using for the material is very thin. But, you know, I heard this guy on Instagram making these like bird noises, like Tweety Bird. And I've for years, like I can do a snow goose on a mouth call, I can do a hawker, I can do all sorts of stuff that I'm just obsessed with it, so I'm like, okay, I gotta figure out how these guys are doing it. I looked it up, started looking at, they have these Tweety Bird competitions, and I'm like, dude, that is the coolest thing I've ever heard. So I build one, and I'll have to send you guys a video of me Tweety Bird calling on it, but then, as it broke in, I hit a note, and I go, whoa. It's fine. I finally done it. I figured out how to make a whistle out of a mouth call And and so it opened up, you know that this one i've got right here. Let me see if I You know the european legend at the end there um But man, it's so interesting. I've been making them, and obviously we haven't sold any yet because I'm trying to make them very consistently. But I'm like, oh my gosh. Honestly, I think it sounds better than a whistle sometimes. And I like the idea. Man, I could throw this thing in my mouth. I'm standing next to a tree. Hands-free, ready to rock and roll.

Chris Jennings: Yeah, that's pretty cool, man. That's, uh… You know, especially you can make so many different sounds. You know, have you been able to do the pintail on it? I can, um…

Beau Brooks: I put it on my bottom lip and do it. But no, it's been pretty wild. Being a calling nerd, man, I'm always wanting to learn new things. And it just opened up a whole new world of calling. This one won't do the whistling duck because I broke it in too much. But for whistling ducks, there's nothing out there that really can make that noise. And it just makes it perfectly.

Chris Jennings: Yeah, you'd sent me that video of you doing the whistling ducks, and that's pretty awesome. I mean, nobody's making a whistling duck call. And I actually showed it to one of our new co-hosts of the DU podcast, Jared, who has done a ton of research on whistling ducks. And he was like, oh, that sounds exactly like him. He was like, that's awesome. So, man, that's cool. Now, how thin are you having to trim down that diaphragm call to take it from a turkey call to be able to make these noises?

Beau Brooks: So the Turks that the call itself the tape the frame everything is exactly the same The only thing that's different is the material that's inside and the first one I made I made it out and I'm not gonna necessarily say on here, but a household household Appliance but Material something that you could find in your kitchen cabinet. And I do want to make these. Once I refine it and figure it out, this is something that I think that a lot of people can see value in. But man, it's so extremely thin that nobody makes, nobody currently manufactures anything like it. So I have to make it out of household materials. piecing it together. If you see me downstairs and see me on a video down there with a… a roll of stuff. That's what I'm doing. I'm having to cut it up by hand. But it's super cool. It's super interesting and it adds a whole new element.

Chris Jennings: Yeah, that's awesome, man. I think that's pretty cool just being able to modify things like that and creating. And I think with the widget you first did with that, it really has that crisp cut too that you were referring to where you're stopping that note. and making it really sharp at the end. And that's what I think that… I feel like the diaphragm call really, you know, exacerbates that, the sharpness of that note.

Beau Brooks: I totally agree. And there's nothing quite like it as latex, right? There's nothing… It's closer to a duck, you know, in their anatomy and everything and the way their throat's built than a… than plastic is. You know what I mean? And so, it's going to be able to hit notes probably better if you can create it.

Chris Jennings: Yeah, that's cool, man. Well, hey, man, I really appreciate you joining us on here and kind of walking through this whistle. Can you think of anything else that our audience should know about using a whistle? Any kind of tip or just anything that comes right off the top of your head that people should know?

Beau Brooks: Well, if you're in a duck blind and you're hunting with other people, I think everybody should have a whistle, just so that you're not stepping on each other's toes, right? Instead of throwing water on the fire or wet wood, you want to throw something that's going to burn, it's going to help. And so, I This is not going to hurt anything and it's also going to help a lot of times. And so, all your buddies are… If you got one guy who's directing the birds, he'll ask for help when he needs help to break ducks down, right? With a regular duck call. But running that whistle is non-invasive and it's going to help a lot. And so, a lot of times, I'm running a whistle and sometimes it's bad too because I have both the whistle and I don't have my gun in my hand. And I think that it's a great thing for people to have, a great thing to learn on. I think it's very important that you understand if you are not necessarily a purist and you like to hunt ducks of every form, then I think that it's very helpful, too. You can strike that cord. It's a grab bag. It's in a way similar to a turkey hunt. you know, you got all these different sounds that you can make and you're, you know, grabbing it, it's in a grab bag of sounds that you can throw at this thing, you know, realism and something that strikes a chord with them can make a difference with those, with those birds that are very pressured. Yeah, that's awesome. And so, and, and, uh, let me think. Lastly, you know, with the widgeon whistle, what I, what I might, what I suggest to people is, is I do it in conjunction with a mallard call. The mallard call is just like with teal, or the hail, so the teal hail for widgeon is to direct the bird, right? And so, you know, a lot of times I'll be hitting the whistle and if he kind of veers off, you have that mallard call to then get him to turn on a dime. Where if you hit him with the mallard call the whole way down, you have no more rope. And so that's what I always have that mallard call in my back pocket. And so it's a lot of times where I would finish him right with it. I can go, And they'll just suck right in. Is this the first time they've heard it? It's actually more real, in my opinion, than if you're just hitting them the whole way in, right? Because you get over that mallard hen, and you're flying over, like, I could just see my backyard. They fly over, fly over, they're getting lower, and all of a sudden, she looks up and sees them, and she goes, He's like, Oh, okay. Okay. I'm coming. You know what I mean? It's definitely, in my opinion, you know, saving that little bit of rope, you know, for that, for those birds is very important.

Chris Jennings: Yeah. That's great. And now, you know, this gives our audience the opportunity, uh, before the season, especially to, uh, go ahead and get themselves a whistle, uh, play this show back multiple times and recreate some of these sounds that you were just creating other than the one with the diaphragm. Cause we're all going to wait till you continue to work on that one.

Beau Brooks: Yeah, absolutely. And it takes a lot of practice. I gave them to the guys, all my guys that work for us downstairs. And then I gave one to Brooke. I gave one to my wife. And no one's been able to do it that great. So I'm just trying to trying to figure out a good way to teach as well as is this I mean, it's just like nothing that anyone's ever done before, right? Yeah. So it's like, it's a hard, there's no, there's a huge learning curve to it. The only reason that I'm able to, that I'm able to do it is because I like I get so obsessed with it. It's almost to a problem. I think I agree with that.

Chris Jennings: Yeah, I mean, I know turkey hunters that don't know how to use a diaphragm call. So, you know, you know that that's definitely going to be a whole new world for waterfowl hunters, for sure. Absolutely. Well, Beau, this has been awesome. Man, I really enjoyed, you know, hearing about the whistle, hearing how you use it. I think it's very beneficial for our audience. I think it was even beneficial for me. just to hear how you're making some of these sounds and how successful you can be just using a whistle. I think it's fantastic.

Beau Brooks: Absolutely. Well, thank you for having me on and getting to talk about the way I grew up duck hunting. I mean, the whistle runs deep in the Pacific Northwest.

Chris Jennings: I bet. Awesome, man. Thanks a lot. Yeah. I'd like to thank my guest, Beau Brooks, for coming on the show today and walking us through the different ways that he uses a whistle to make different vocalizations of ducks. I'd like to thank our producer, Chris Isaac, for putting the show together and getting out to you. And I'd like to thank you, the listener, for joining us on the DU Podcast and supporting wetlands conservation.