OPENING DUCK -by Ben

Duck hunting started early.  One week earlier, and about 2 hours earlier in the morning than in recent years.  Decoys were in the water, and Doug and I were in the island blind by 6:15 am.  We waited until 6:35, when we started hearing the thunder of distant lucky hunters' first shots coming from every direction.  Soon, they would be hearing ours!  We got much more shooting than expected, and ended with 8 ducks in the boat (11 pictured below, 3 with white breasts being mergansers).  Koty spent the hours whining and trying to climb into my lap, but favored pacing the roof of the blind.  I decided not to take him on Sunday.  After birds and pictures were collected, we made it to mainland by 10:30.

Larry was waiting for us with a big Canadian Goose.  He downed it after dropping two ducks with one shot.  We had though that we heard some close shooting.  Icing on the cake!  Doug and I took a walk for grouse in the early afternoon, covering most of their property.  We got 3 flushes and no shots, but made up for our lack of grouse in Koty's abundance of prickers.

The second day was noticeably slower, but just as fun as the first.  Before sunrise, a pair of mallards came sweeping over our decoys, and with two nearly simultaneous shots we each bagged a nice duck.  After the sun was out and shining, some geese flew high overhead.  I emptied my gun and hit air, but at the last second Doug shot, and a goose fell.  We were happy with our take: one duck each, and one goose for Doug, so we decided to head in for breakfast.  With the chairs tipped up and guns cased, we heard a honk.  Two groups of geese were coming over the peninsula to the west, looking and flying straight at our decoys.  I unzipped my case and Doug handed me two shells.  Being very, very still, (after falling on our butts where our chairs should have been) a small bunch locked their wings and came in to land, but were still high.  When they were straight overhead I pulled up and took two shots.  A goose came falling down and down and the splash looked like a grown man doing a cannonball.  More icing for the cake!

It was a productive, fun, and gorgeous weekend at Tom's Lake Farm, thanks to Doug, Larry and Shirley!