A whole lot of missing

Went on a solo mission again. The weather forecast was a bit off. I noticed a bit more wind compared to what was predicted. It was a southeast wind. I set my decoys and waited for 1.5 hours before shooting time. I couldn't quite catch a nap as the wind was putting a chill to my body. 20 minutes before shooting time I blew my Primos Fat Lady to see if anyone was around. To my surprise, a few mallards came and did a fly by in the dark. I kept still and waited for any more responses. Next thing I knew mallards started dropping in on the dekes but only staying for a few minutes.

By shooting time I had a few to the right of the dekes at about 30 yards. I took aim at them and missed them all. That was frustrating. I had some other birds come inspect the dekes including widgeons. I missed everything except for one lone drake green-winged teal. I gotta keep my cheeks glued to the gun stock when I squeeze the trigger. I keep shooting above these birds. Gotta fix this quick as the season is only a few weeks away from closing and I have no duck meat in the freezer.

There were geese there, but they left soon as the shooting started. Some were behind me apparently and I didn't even know it.

Trophy Ducks

I shot my first drake widgeon and first drake bufflehead this past weekend. I ended up hunting by myself on Saturday as Tim and family had to finish up their Christmas shopping. I got to the hunting area way early. As I stepped into the field I turned off all my flashlights and listened for the sounds of waterfowl. Right away I could hear the mallards, widgeon and geese. Then I had to decide where I will hunt. It was foggy that morning and since I'm alone, I opted to hunt the close spot which was facing north.

It was an east wind which meant that birds would be landing right in front of me. I quietly set my decoys and used my light discretely. I had an hour to kill and ended up napping in the blind as I waited for shooting time. That hour or so wait allowed everything to settle back into status quo. I could see ducks swimming into my decoys and by the time it's legal to shoot, I had picked out the largest duck swimming.

I learned a lot hunting alone. Since I was alone I had to be patient and to shoot only ducks that I could retrieve. That meant they had to be really close. I mainly used my whistle and that seemed to work with the widgeon. I called very sparingly. Concealment also paid off. I tried to stay still and took full advantage of my camo gear. Those ducks didn't see me and as a result 7 of them joined me in the blind.

Cold Duck

Went to the beach again for another weekend hunt. I took Jafet to introduce him to the sport. IT was a cold weekend with an average temp of about 32 degrees. Saturday was a nice day and with birds around. I managed to shoot a shoveler, a golden eye, 2 buffleheads and 1 spec geese. There was a flock of lesser geese around my side of the area and they kept coming back to the field even after 3 attempts to sneak on them. Sunday was slow with only 1 widgeon from a huge flock of close to 100 birds and 1 bufflehead to my gun.