scouting ducks

It's two days before the 2012 opener and the ducks have arrived. We saw thousands of ringers and bluebills, a few teal, a few wigeon, and a group of canvasbacks. Looks to be a great opener. The next two days can not pass by fast enough. Big thanks to Johnny for taking some pics of the ducks, I was in too much awe to even think about it.

skinning snipe

We decided to skin out and borax the snipe we shot to hopefully preserve them for fly tying feathers. We'll see if it worked in a few weeks.

snipe and a turtle shell

Johnny and I went out to try and shot some snipe. It took us a little while but we finally found where the little boogers were. Believe it or they were high and dry far away from water. Go figure. We ended the day with 10 total. Johnny found a rare albino turtle shell which he faithfully carried all the way back to the boat even though it cost him missing a 6th snipe. It made for a nice prop in the pictures and will most likely be proudly displayed in Johnny's man cave. We saw 16 wood ducks on the lake and a handful of mottled ducks. Can't wait for duck season to start.

dove hunt

Johnny, Birdie, and I were invited on a dove hunt. We showed up a little late so we didnt get many shots at birds but it was nice to get out and shoot a gun.

2 hunts 2 ducks

went out 2 times during early season. didn't have much luck but managed to score two birds. hoping to have better luck come regular season.

new canoe for the crew

the duck crew pitched in and purchased a new canoe for sta trips and such. johnny and i decided to give it a paint job. we drew and cut out the stencils by hand.

preduckseason party

We had what hopefully will be come an annual preduckseason cookout party. We took all the ducks left over from last season and the moorhens we shot a few weeks ago and made sausage out of them. Johnny grilled the legs as an appetizer and leah made an amazing duck sausage spinach alfredo pasta. We invited our friends over and had a great time.

more moorhen

We went back out to do a little scouting for early duck season and shoot a few more moorhens. This time Andrew joined us for his first moorhen slaughter. We shot a three man limit of 45 birds. Most of the birds were shot in the air which is a nice change for moorhen. I also shot one sora rail. We saw lots of woodies and several large groups of teal. I had a blast and laughed more than I have in a long time.

moorhen massacre

 

Johnny and I went to murder some moorhens. We shot a two man limit of 30 birds. Saw several wood ducks which is good news for early season. We cleaned all the birds and will be making sausage out of the breasts. We also saved the legs which we will most likely grill.