duck opener_07

my ducks


self portrait


my arrowhead "look what i found" blind.


looking out of my blind.


my "blind buddy" mista gator. he was a little shy so i couldnt get a good pic. he's in the middle.


where snipe are from.


fern, lyla jane, ducks and myself.


the girls checking out greenwing teal feathers.

went to crooked lake this morning by myself because all my "pals" bailed on me. one of those perfect days. stepped out of my house this morning at 3:30am to a brisk 40 degrees. it felt like i was actually going duck hunting instead of going to sweat. got to my first spot only to find a billion other duck hunters scrambling around looking for a spot. decided to go to a new spot that i had scouted earlier and not another soul. while setting out my decoys i flushed up about 50 ducks. the folks that give duck hunters a bad name started shooting about 20 min too early like they do every year. it took everything in me to wait as the ducks started swirling just above my head. the first bird to fall was a mottled (drake) which i hate shooting first since you are allowed only one per day and i get real timid shooting at big ducks afterwards. then greenwing teals (1 drake & 3 hens) (my favorite duck) who decoyed quite nicely. and finally a ringneck (drake). i also bagged 7 snipe (not pictured below because my camera died on me) after i got my duck limit. i saw: bluebills, wood ducks, a billion mottled ducks who kept testing me all morning long, several more teal who havent been on the lake the last two years and a gator who shared a blind with me most of the morning. it never got hot and nothing went wrong. it was one of those perfect days!