We shot 60 plus birds including Mallards, Shovelers, Gadwall, and a few Geese. Saw thousands and thousands of specs, and snow geese. Also had pintail come into the decs on two occasions, but flared upon hearing a distant shot
.Highlight was shooting my first drake mallard, then following up with killing a banded hen. There was a little "discussion" over who should keep said banded hen. Here's how it went down:
Pair of Mallards fly over. I pick out the drake, and shoot at him 3 times. The other three people in the blind say they were shooting at the hen. While I'm watching my drake fall about a thousand yards away I see the hen fall in front of the blind. Tori (my yellow lab) goes after the hen, and the guide takes off after the drake. We look for around 20 mins, but no bird. Here is where the plot thickens. A couple of guys are looking no where near where the bird went down, however insist they are in the right location. FM yells something to me (although with the hood/facemask I was wearing I can't understand him) and when I turn to see what he wants, I see Tori is chasing the hen. She repeatedly keeps diving on my dog, and escaping. I yell for FM to move, and after the dog is clear from the bird, I ground check it. When I pick up the bird, I discovered the band.
Of course FM insists he spotted the bird, and was yelling at me to move.
The guide says we should cut the band into four pieces since it was a team effort. My reply was they should be better shots. While they all shot the bird, I killed it Birds were VERY call shy, and weary. The last afternoon the guide turned us loose, and let us hunt for free. We did just as good w/o a guide.
Not a lot of birds killed, but I'm going back! It was a whole lot different than hunting down here.
FM doing what he does best
First days hunt
I dared these guys to walk in to a liquor store (man it was cold!!)
Me and my girl in the pit blind
Tori at work
Our last evening hunt
Me and my girl sitting on a levee in a flooded rice field
Wish I would have taken more action shots, but I always think of the camera after the fact.
