Another first for my black dog and me....
Posted: January 11th, 2016, 7:05 pm
It's been a very slow season duck wise for me. Slow enough that I've been happy to skip a weekend here and there in favor of chilling with friends and family, lounging on various couches. I mean, we can sleep in and not shoot ducks that aren't here just as easily as we can get up at ungodly early hours, i freeze my little toes off and still not shoot ducks that aren't here.
Yesterday I had planned to sleep in a little, get up and have some breakfast and then head out to go see if Drake and I could maybe walk up the elusive quail or a rabbit or a small pig or even more rare woodcock. Change the game up a little to find SOMETHING legal to hunt with my boy that didn't require LOTS of gear or involve lots of people. Of course things didn't work out that way. I woke up at 230 in the morning and wasn't able to get back to sleep. After laying there til 4 I decided that was incredibly stupid and I'd head out to where I had planned to hunt with Drake and see if MAYBE the woodducks would cooperate. Well woodducks being woodducks, and these woodducks having LOTS of places to go, they chose every pond but the one I chose to set up on. Not a surprise. Didn't expect much. It was cool out and breezy and I decided we wouldn't sit around for long as I was already getting chilled. About the time of legal sunrise I figured I'd go put my single decoy and my bucket back in the truck and then Drake and I would go warm up by taking a walk. This is some of the kind of stuff we'd walk through as we moved around.
We walked the edges of multiple ponds and then between the ponds hoping to find something interesting. On the way back to the truck we began walking another pond edge. This one more shallowly sloped than the others so there was lots more wet land before the ground no longer squished under your feet. A pretty hardwood swamp. Acorns EVERYWHERE (and yup lots of woodducks on the ponds in that area, just wary woodducks and unwilling to sit long enough for us to get into range). Young trees. Nice canopy. Rotting logs here and there. Drake had been very wiggly in that kind of area all through out our long wander. But I don't know if it is because the woodducks are getting in the leaves and eating acorns? Is it something else very interesting? Who knows. But he's wiggly.
As we're coming to the end of our walk and that particular pond I can see the truck and I turn towards it, still following the edge of the pond. I look over my shoulder to make sure that Drake caught my turn instead of him wandering off in the opposite direction in his quest of following whatever delicious scents he's sniffing. As I'm looking he is EXTRA wiggly. So I turn and stop (we are maybe 20 yards apart). I watch as he wiggles his excited self up to a rotting log and stops and points. He's standing still on this log, looking straight down with this "WHAT are you?" expression on his face. Then I watched as he decided to himself that it didn't matter what it was, it was HIS. And he pounces. Like coyotes do when they're hunting mice in the fields.
I'm standing with a live tree somewhat between him and me. I can see him working, standing on the log and then pouncing. As he pounces I watch a bird flush from behind that log, I lose him as he flies in front of the tree and then realize this woodcock is barreling right towards me! He sees me and makes a hard turn away from both of us and I shoot.
Drake spent a while bringing me back the pieces sadly. But I was able to add another tail feather to my top knot for more juju. This one woodcock made me even more excited for our trip with my friend Steve to LA to go chase the little doodles this coming weekend.
I can't wait and sure hope there are a bunch there to get Drake a real good noseful of the cuties.
A very tired boy after walking the woods with me for about six hours.
And this is really neat: this is Drakes' sixth upland bird of the 2015-16 season. He's gotten Ruffled Grouse, Sage Grouse, Pheasant, Sharptails, Huns and now Woodcock this season. Not too bad for a FL boy who is on his second upland season of his life.
Danibeth
Yesterday I had planned to sleep in a little, get up and have some breakfast and then head out to go see if Drake and I could maybe walk up the elusive quail or a rabbit or a small pig or even more rare woodcock. Change the game up a little to find SOMETHING legal to hunt with my boy that didn't require LOTS of gear or involve lots of people. Of course things didn't work out that way. I woke up at 230 in the morning and wasn't able to get back to sleep. After laying there til 4 I decided that was incredibly stupid and I'd head out to where I had planned to hunt with Drake and see if MAYBE the woodducks would cooperate. Well woodducks being woodducks, and these woodducks having LOTS of places to go, they chose every pond but the one I chose to set up on. Not a surprise. Didn't expect much. It was cool out and breezy and I decided we wouldn't sit around for long as I was already getting chilled. About the time of legal sunrise I figured I'd go put my single decoy and my bucket back in the truck and then Drake and I would go warm up by taking a walk. This is some of the kind of stuff we'd walk through as we moved around.
We walked the edges of multiple ponds and then between the ponds hoping to find something interesting. On the way back to the truck we began walking another pond edge. This one more shallowly sloped than the others so there was lots more wet land before the ground no longer squished under your feet. A pretty hardwood swamp. Acorns EVERYWHERE (and yup lots of woodducks on the ponds in that area, just wary woodducks and unwilling to sit long enough for us to get into range). Young trees. Nice canopy. Rotting logs here and there. Drake had been very wiggly in that kind of area all through out our long wander. But I don't know if it is because the woodducks are getting in the leaves and eating acorns? Is it something else very interesting? Who knows. But he's wiggly.
As we're coming to the end of our walk and that particular pond I can see the truck and I turn towards it, still following the edge of the pond. I look over my shoulder to make sure that Drake caught my turn instead of him wandering off in the opposite direction in his quest of following whatever delicious scents he's sniffing. As I'm looking he is EXTRA wiggly. So I turn and stop (we are maybe 20 yards apart). I watch as he wiggles his excited self up to a rotting log and stops and points. He's standing still on this log, looking straight down with this "WHAT are you?" expression on his face. Then I watched as he decided to himself that it didn't matter what it was, it was HIS. And he pounces. Like coyotes do when they're hunting mice in the fields.
I'm standing with a live tree somewhat between him and me. I can see him working, standing on the log and then pouncing. As he pounces I watch a bird flush from behind that log, I lose him as he flies in front of the tree and then realize this woodcock is barreling right towards me! He sees me and makes a hard turn away from both of us and I shoot.
Drake spent a while bringing me back the pieces sadly. But I was able to add another tail feather to my top knot for more juju. This one woodcock made me even more excited for our trip with my friend Steve to LA to go chase the little doodles this coming weekend.
I can't wait and sure hope there are a bunch there to get Drake a real good noseful of the cuties.
A very tired boy after walking the woods with me for about six hours.
And this is really neat: this is Drakes' sixth upland bird of the 2015-16 season. He's gotten Ruffled Grouse, Sage Grouse, Pheasant, Sharptails, Huns and now Woodcock this season. Not too bad for a FL boy who is on his second upland season of his life.
Danibeth
