birthday surprise

my wife and my mother were helping clean out my grandmothers house today because she has to move into a nursing home. my grandmother told us if there was anything in the house that we wanted we should take it because the rest would be going to goodwill. the only item i decided to take was a duck lamp. i didnt care for the lamp too much but figured i could take the duck off and put it on a shelf in my hunting/fishing room. when i unscrewed the duck i noticed it was a wooden decoy made by "hornick bros. stoney point decoys" and signed by raymond e. hornick in 1982. i did some research on the web and found some like it that have sold for around $50-$75. not a huge deal or major collectors item but it made my night or rather birthday morning since i took it off the lamp after midnight. i ran a bath and it floats great. i will add it to my spread next season when i hunt lakes with feral mallards. ive been wanting a drake mallard for this very purpose. hunting over a decoy that has been sitting in my grandparents living room for the last 20+ years is much more special to me than a used plastic that i had planned to buy on ebay for a few dollars.

fishing with bob

bob and i went out to try and catch a few specs this morning. didnt do much but we had fun.

broadmoor with a bang

dani was nice enough to invite me on to her permit for broadmoor. had the mayor hunting with us and thats always a good thing when picking a spot tried to shoot all drakes but ended up with a rut double hen. joe had the same thing but his was banded. hes always got to one up you :P i love broadmoor!!! didnt see dani after the hunt but she shot 4 bwt and a drake ringer. andy shot a limit of bwt. thanks again joe for putting us in a good spot and thanks so much to dani for allowing me to end my season with a bang!

2 lakes 4 woodies

dfgator and i went out this morning on a couple of local lakes to see if we could find some birds. shot 4 woodies on two different lakes. not too bad for two lakes we had never been on before.

bread eaters

couple of muskoveys. too close to some houses to feel good about blasting them but if they get over the lake they will join the bag.



went out this morning hoping for a couple of bbwds. they flew over head but couldnt get them to come down in range. did get a nice feral mallard.

black bellies and a broken gun

went out this morning with doug. gun broke on the first shot as black bellies filled the sky. doug ended up with 5.

kids with dead ducks

yes, i let my kids play with dead animals. they are cheap and you dont have to feed them.

windy with a chance of ringers

it got a little too windy for my pirogue out there today. still managed a few ringers back in the grass but stayed off the open water most of the day. beside that it was a gorgeous ducky day out there.

a few more blues

bob and i went out to oklawaha this morning. while we were putting in the boat it started sleeting and snowing. it was crazy cold. the birds were flying well. loads of blue wing teal. we never could get set up in the right spot. we ended the day with two nice drakes. it was by far the coldest day ive ever hunted. i took a picture of some of the snow that was left in my pirogue at the end of the hunt. in the morning it was covered but very dark.