thanksgiving hunt

(click pics to make larger)

so for as long as ive been a duck hunter ive wanted to make it a tradition to hunt on thanksgiving morning. well after three years of begging and badgering leah finally let me go.(she has no idea the slippery slope she has started down.) two mins before "safe light" i had 5 mottleds buzz my head and land in my decoys. they dabbled around and the whole time I was saying to myself, "please stay, please stay" and after about a min. they got up and flew away. meanwhile, i could hear folks blasting away in the distance. while i was waiting for my next ducks the largest bobcat ive ever seen walked around on the shoreline. unfortunately, it was two dark to get a pic. then a few mins later i looked up and saw two bucks staring me down maybe 25 yards away. they didnt seem to be phased by the man with the gun sitting in the lake grunting at them in order to get them to look at his camera. not the best pic in the world but it is something. by 7:30am i had these two teal (one young drake and a hen). ten mins later i had two more come in. i got greedy and went after the drake (full plume) thinking that i might pick up the hen on the second shot which was a much closer and better shot. well i took two shots at the drake and flat out missed. live and learn! 30 mins later i dropped a mottled and he got up and waddled into the brush. after looking for him for about 20 mins i finally gave up. saw a few more ducks but nothing within range. had a blast!