Monday, January 31, 2011

Well, That's All, Folks

You may have expected a philosopical reflection and sweeping discourse regarding how the ups and downs of a long, hard-fought battle relate to those deeper issues affecting our lives. Hmmmm . . . if that's the case, you're gonna be extremely disappointed. Those deep reflections are for seasons that sucked. The fact is, this season was so good that it is hard to remember the best hunts, i.e., it was so good that the days all seem to melt together and its hard to put your finger on a single win. Sure, there was the day that we carried out 4 limits of mallards 20 minutes after hours came in. Then there was the day that we fought 40 m.p.h. winds and smoked the gaddies. Of course, watching my daughter take her first solo on the wing was pretty special too. My point is this: This season rocked, and on seasons that rock, you don't get heart-felt reflections -- you get statistics. And here's how it came out:

Total Body Count: 665 (that'd be a record)
Total Ducks Harvested: 587
Total Geese Harvested: 78
Total Mallards: 356
Total Gadwall: 131
Total Shovelers: 59
Total Other Species: 41

By Location:
Charles' Field: 444
298 Mallards
62 Gadwall
47 shovelers
12 Pins
11 Specks
5 Wigeon
3 Snows
2 Teal
2 Scaup
2 Canadas

Home Field: 150
69 Gadwall
32 Mallards
15 Specks
12 Shovelers
9 Green Wings
6 Wigeon
3 Wood Ducks
2 Pintails
2 Snow Geese
2 Snow Geese

Baser
43 Snow Geese
2 Specks

Big Creek
11 Mallards

Marvins
9 Mallards

Amy's
9 Mallards


* Mallards 356
* Gadwall 131
* Wigeon 11
* Pintail 14
* Green Wing 11
* Blue Wing 0
* Wood Duck 03
* Northern Shoveler 59
* Redhead 0
* White-Front 28
* Snow Goose 48
* Canada 2
* Goldeneye
* Ringneck
* Buffelhead
* Canvasback 0
* Merganser 0
* Black Duck
* Scaup 2

In With A Bang . . . Out With A Whisper

In our minds, the closing weekend would begin and end with a flurry of steel shot hurled skyward at throngs of fluttering birds in groups of fifty or better. In reality, we saw the close of the 2010-2011 season from the tailgate of Jordan's Toyota, but it was probably fitting.

Friday, John, Jordan, Blake, Papa, & I reluctantly returned to the pit blind on Charles'. It was slow, but we eeked out 6 mallards, 2 shovelers, and 1 snow before we left. That afternoon, Jordan took another 2 mallards out of the creek.

11 Birds.
8 Mallards
2 Shovelers
1 Snow Goose

On Saturday, Tash, Dave, Jordan, Blake, Haun, & I made our final trek to Charles' field. We had fairly low expectations, so when the mallards failed to show we weren't terribly disappointed. We were, however, pleasently surprised when a pair of greater Canadas worked into the spread. We invited both of 'em over for dinner, and they accepted our invitation with a thud.

On Sunday, Jordan, John, Blake & I, unable to find suitable working ducks, opted instead for a short stalk on some snows. It was a decent take, and when we left we had an additional 45 in our bag.

For the Weekend:
47 Birds
43 Snows
02 White-fronted Geese
02 Canada Geese

Photobucket
Photobucket