Moose Droppings

Duck…Duck….Goose…Oops No Geese but Lots of Ducks

Dec 18, 2006 @ 11:04 pm by Moose

The reopening of duck season this past Saturday found me in a layout blind at the waters edge. I was working off a little over two hours sleep because Friday evening I had been to the hockey game. Billy in the blind next to me was in the same boat seeing where he lived in the mountains and left around 2am to join us on the hunt. With the decoys out and the blinds set up there wasn’t much to do but watch the occasional shooting star and to talk to keep us from falling back to sleep.

As we got closer to the appointed hour we started hearing and seeing ducks flying in. Against the sky they were visible but once the dropped into the tree line there was not enough light to see them anymore but seconds latter you would hear the unmistakable splashes as they hit the water. With only minutes before daylight we hoped these first few groups were only the start of many more to come.
As day broke the ducks kept coming and we began shooting. If any of us could have shot that day we would have limited out easily but that was not to be. In years to come the number of ducks we killed will not be what we remember but the sheer number of flights we saw. At one point I counted 20 ducks circling our set up and I bet we saw close to 200 ducks trying to land in that pond. Billy’s puppy made her first retrieve picking up a duck that crashed into the cow pasture behind the blind.

We had a great day despite our poor shooting and the geese once again being a no show. I may not have a goose for Christmas dinner at the rate this season is going.