Holman (June 30/03) - Hunting involves a lot of waiting, but Holman duck hunters are full of patience.

They sit quietly for hours on their snowmobiles and sleds parked out on the sea ice waiting for Kingalik ducks.

Joseph Kitekulak shot the first Kingalik duck at the jamboree's shoot-out, June 21. - Erin Fletcher/NNSL photo

The families stretch along the entrance of the channel -- a place they fondly call Mashoyak, located five miles out of Holman -- between Victoria Island and Holman Island and look west.

After a while some black dots appear in the distance. A call goes out across the crowd and the men and women hunters grab their rifles and poise the loaded weapon in the air at the approaching ducks. It is so silent the hunters can hear the duck's wings whipping through the air as they approach their semi-circle.

Thwack, thwack, thwack.

The guns are fired and ducks begin to fall from the air, spinning, hitting the ground with a thud. People run out to collect the bodies for plucking and to wait for the next flock to pass by.

This spring hunt is so important to the community they host an annual jamboree in honour of the Kingalik duck -- also known as the King Eider.

This year was a good year for Kingalik, said David Kuptana, a Holman hunter.

More than 1,000 ducks have been harvested so far and the hunt only started in mid-June.

Kuptana has personally harvested 160 ducks, which he and his family have been madly plucking, freezing and drying over the past few weeks.

"It's a good traditional food and we eat a lot of it."

Kuptana has been hunting all his life. He said he loves the freedom of the activity.

"It's life. There's no boss, you just hunt," he says with a smile. "You can get all the food you want to get and save money buying food from the store. I just love hunting."

The Holman hunters have been hunting Kingalik ducks for so long they have it down to a science.

The hunters know exactly when and where the ducks will be along their migratory path.

The female and male ducks fly from the south in June. The females are bred and left to nest in the Arctic, while the males return south for the remainder of the summer. The females and their young follow in September.

Weather conditions determine how high and fast the flocks fly. On June 21, the fog kept the ducks flying low over the ice sheet.