best hunt of the season...

and i never even fired a shot






all photos below by fern





fern has been wanting to go duck hunting since she could talk. this season i promised her i would take her. i made sure she knew that we would be getting up earlier than she had ever gotten up before. when i woke her up at 4 am, i was immediately greeted by a huge grin and a question. "are we going duck hunting daddy." those might be the best words i have ever heard. we got set up about 45 mins before legal which gave us lots of time to talk and listen to the birds. i set up on the edge of the cattails rather than in them so fern would get a good look at all the birds even though i knew that would be less shooting. we were about 50 yards away from where i thought i was setting up and sure enough all the ducks piled into the intended spot. i never fired a shot but we sure enjoyed watching the birds work the area. i gave fern free reign of the camera and was proud to find a few self portraits when i uploaded the pics to my computer. my favorite quote of the day after telling her about all the birds she pointed out to me was; "daddy, there sure are a lot of birds we cant shoot." by far the best hunt of my water fowling career. i cant wait till she can handle a gun.