Did you ever do an Egret hunt?

Opening weekend at BC Hunt Club was a memorable one if not only for the wonderful weather but also the type of hunts that were had. The morning found us setting up in the pouring rain wondering if he birds would even fly in these conditions. Mike O and I set up our decoys while Big Jim sat in the truck attempting to keep his hearing aids dry, along with himself. We finished the set with about 10 minutes left to spare. Shooting time came at 7:05 with no birds in sight. Another 5 long minutes went by with no birds, but then all hell broke loose. The first flight came in and I shot the first 2 birds cleanly while Mike was trying to get his safety off. When he finally did he dropped the third bird with a single shot. Not a bad start 3 birds, 3 shots, 3 down. After that it was all a blur for a few minutes with shots ringing out and birds falling from the sky until Mike brought us all to our senses yelling out that we needed to take count of what was on the ground. After a quick pickup and sort for hens and drakes we were back on the hunt. A total of 15 minutes went by and we found we had our limit of mallards and a couple of blacks. We kept hunting in hopes of bagging some bonus ducks but none came in. We pulled the Mojo decoys

when the geese started to fly. For the most part they were determined to fly to other fields so we were only able to scratch out 4 geese this day. We finally had the radish and picked up at 10:00 to retire to the house for a breakfast of bacon and eggs toast and coffee. The afternoon found us hanging around the garage having a couple of cold ones and watching flock after flock of both ducks and gees dump into the corn field across the road. This same field had a flock of snow geese in it on Friday evening when Jim and I got to the house. The garage had a group of of us watching the goings on on Friday when all of a sudden that flock of Snow Geese decided to leave the field on one of their moves that they are known for. Much to our surprise they started heading straight for us. For those that know Big Jim we all know of his lifetime passion to bag a snow goose. The birds kept coming. They cleared the fence row by a couple of feet. They are coming across the pasture but not climbing. They get to the road, still not climbing. Now they are flying straight at us and it does not look as if they will clear the garage when finally they climb enough to just barely clear the house. We're all dying with how close they came to us and poor Jim looks like he doesn't know whether to cry of laugh. Now all he can talk about is getting a Snow Goose this weekend. Back to Saturday afternoon. While Dave and I are having a cold one Jim decides he wants to go back out hunting, just in case those Snows come by again. He heads over to the camper to try to hide in the hedge row. It is still pouring rain out so we both think he is nuts. While standing amongst the Oak trees for cover he gets the bright idea that it would be a lot drier if he sat under the overhang of the 5th wheel camper so off he goes and gets a folding chair. Now he is comfortable, out of the rain and dry. Jim figures that he would be awfully lucky to get anything to fly past him so he embarks an a scheme to help his odds. He looks around and decides that he should put out a couple of decoys. Dave and I are watching all of his activity and we can now see his feet walking around by looking under the camper. "What the hell is he doing now?" I ask Dave and we are soon rewarded with the answer. Laughter breaks out as we see Jim pick up a couple of white Egret decoys I have and sets them up in front of him as decoys to bring the snows in. Needless to say I have a belly busting laugh that goes on for a good 15 minutes. Every time I look over to the camper I cannot help but to start laughing again. This is precious!

Sunday morning finds us looking at a windy day with bright blue skies. The same group is on the hunt with the addition of my son Kevin and Dave Thompson added to the group. The extra hands make the set up of the rig much quicker and we now find ourselves ready for the hunt 20 minutes early. This proves to be a bit of a mistake. Time drags by so slowly when your waiting for the hunt to begin. I turn on my new Super MoJo decoy, that came via Fed-X on Saturday a little bit to early. Guess what, it works! Now as we all know Jim is totally deaf without his hearing aids, and can't hear everything real well with them, so a lot of the time he relies on reading your lips. When Kevin taps on his shoulder and says "Jim look" Jim hears "Take em" and shoots the first 2 birds of the morning. Unfortunately it is still a few minutes before legal shooting time so we we all try to get him to stop, to late the damage is done. It seems however that that was a sign, to all on the lake or in the fields, because within seconds after Jim's shot rings out the entire neighborhood lights up. Sorry about that Eric! The morning continued on with us bagging 15 ducks and a complete limit of 15 geese with the last one dropping from the sky at 10:00 on the nose. The picture above shows the proud land owner with the days bag. Hopefully Mike O will post the picture he took of the entire group with our days take.

The day is not over yet!

Again while we are cleaning our take and we are just about done. Here they come again to tease Jim. The Snows are back only this time they start circling the Dozer pile that we just came from. Surely they won't land I say, but land they do. Here goes Jim again scurrying around to find his gun and shells. He tries to pull the patented move that many of us have had success with in the past. You see the Dozer pile is not only good to blind in but it also makes a great buffer if you want to pull a sneak. You simply put the pile between you and the birds and slowly walk out keeping out of their line of sight, so off Jim goes with an audience watching and laughing from the barn. Jim gets about 3/4 of the way out when the seagulls that are also in the field spot him and take off. This alerts the Snows and they too get up and are gone, Foiled again. Needless to say we all had a good chuckle, including Jim. The weekend was complete when later in the day Jim's team, the Giants, beat Pittsburgh in overtime. He promises to be back on Thursday for another weekend trying to get his Snow Goose. Part of us wants him to so badly, but the other part of us just wants him to keep coming back for the entertainment value. It was a great weekend that will live in our memories for a long, long time. Thanks to all that were there this weekend, it was a lot of fun. And thanks to all the neighborhood hunters for telling of your successful hunts. Good times were had by one and all! See you in the field!