2nd week of the season

sunrise

early retrieve

the whole posse

banded green brain

a little bling

Whit, Winchester, Hangen and I all headed south on Thurday night after class. We had a great hunt on Friday morning, which was very satisfying for Whit and I since we could not do anything right in the same spot the week before. We ended up killing 20 ducks by about 10:30. We had a pretty diverse bag consisting of mostly green wing teal, a couple widgeon, gadwall, one bull pintail, and 3 green brains one of which was banded. We were all really fired up about the band since I have not seen one taken since 2003. Dex made a great retrieve so the Marks generously agreed to let him keep the band. I will post the info on where it is from as soon as I get the certificate. Dex also made a spectacular but scary retrieve on the pintail as well. The bird was crippled and swimming fast enought just to stay beyond his reach. I tried my best to call him off the bird as it was obvious he would not catch it without help but he would not listen a continued into deep water. Fortunately winchester responded quickly and ran for the canoe and we were able to help dex catch the bird and return to shore safely but by the time we caught up with him he had chased the bird close to a quarter mile.

We hunted that afternoon and again the next morning and only killed one blue wing teale which is a total mystery to me as the conditions only got duckier as the weekend progressed.

All in all a great trip, and we all earned an afternoon nap