Christmas Came Early … The Story About The Quest for A Christmas Goose
After a great hunt on Saturday but only ducks in the bag I found myself back at the same Orange County Pond with the hopes of the geese also joining us. As we gathered our decoys and shotguns for the hike into the pond Rick filled me in that about an hour after we left on Saturday about a hundred geese showed up. Some luck I thought but hopefully today would be different as I brought my new Bass Pro motion geese decoys with flocked heads to help close the deal.
As we slipped into the pond under the early morning darkness a flock of geese got up off the water along with a number of ducks as the noisily departed we hoped they would return as we got set up.
Unlike Saturday which was a great waterfowl day weather-wise with the clouds and the wind today was a day more suited for blue birds. The ducks came early and the first event of the magical day unfolded before me when I watched Rick bust two ring necks with one shot. His gun jammed on the first shot and I was ducking dropping ducks as one landed just on the other side of my blind in the mud and the other one crashed a few feet beyond in the water so I never even raised my gun on that flock.
The ducks pretty much shut off once the sun began to make its climb into the sky above the horizon. With the rather slow hunting we were caught by surprise when the flock of 8 geese came in silently to the pond. My new Escort 12 g was loaded with BBB Black Rain so I opened up the semi auto dropping two of the birds with my 3 shots. I was excited because I had some people who really wanted me to cook a goose for Christmas and now I knew I would.
Rex the lab jumped into the pond fetching up the first goose bringing it to me dropping it at my feet. As I picked it up and gave him a pat on the head for a good job I about fell over when I discovered the band on the leg of the goose. This was another magical moment making this hunt so great. We got the other goose and returned to our blinds to see if any other waterfowl would fly into our set up. Nothing else came in so we packed up and called it a day.
Once I got home I called the band in to US Fish & Wildlife so I should be getting a certificate here in the near future and learn a little bit more about this particular goose. This is the first banded bird I have ever killed so it’s pretty exciting. Someone asked me if I was sad about killing a banded bird and I said no. Hunters have been a vital part in funding, restoring, and assisting with research into many waterfowl species. The information I provided will give researches some insight into the travel pattern of Canadian Geese and assist US Fish & Wildlife in establishing seasons and bag limits as well.
I know now why they say if in doubt about what to get for Christmas go with jewelry and you’ll never be wrong.
Great name for a dog!
Comment by Rex — December 27, 2007 @ 12:56 pm
Good job fellers!!
Comment by SouthernAdventures — December 27, 2007 @ 6:47 pm
dang flea bitten, hard headed, egg sucking…. name just seemed to fit
Comment by Moose — December 27, 2007 @ 10:17 pm