Waterfowl Season

[coyotero]

Duck and goose season opens here on Saturday.Anybody going duck/goose hunting on the opener.Good opportunity to scout coon,beaver,mink and muskrats

[Wackyquacker]

I've already killed a bag of teal.  Now then, when I hunt waterfowl I usually am watching the sky...do your rats and beaver fly in MT or are ya shooting swing ducks

[RdFx]

Hmmm a whole bag of teal?  So what does a bag of teal consist of?  Two, four, six?   Ive never seen a  bvr or rat fly but saw  a Otter fly.  Even saw it land on water!

[Macthediver]

Hey Whacky
Maybe it never happens to you, but I get buzzed every now and then LOL. Yep! looking at tracks or a run, Maybe Even Poop???
Zip!
Duck buzzes me.
O-well no big deal I'm out there for the whole body experiance, lmao if I kill a duck..Cool!
As for the opener I've gone my share of times. But like my father in-law used to say.
"It's kind of like amateur hour,  Wait till it freezes and the real men are out."
Can't go anyway I have to work :-(

Mac

[coyotero]

In the early morning as the sky is just getting pink in the East,I'm in my blind,I'm one with my Beretta,I'm looking out past the decoys.There he is a buck mink along the shoreline,loping along,further down the bank a muskrat slides off the feedbed back into the mirrorlike surface.To the south you can see freshly cut cottonwood stumps,the beaver were busy last night.Something on this order Wacky.

[coyotero]

I also saw a small flock of Sandhill Cranes go into a field.What really surprised me was I saw about 6 to 8 Tundra Swans and about 2 dozen mixed Snows and Blue Geese.This seems way to early for snow geese.I usually see Cranes in huge flocks about Oct 10th.Maybe winter will be early.

[Macthediver]

coyotero
     I'm not sure which I've come to like best? Watch the sun come up or go down? Here on the Mississippi with the bluffs so close on both sides. We get some really cool sun rises and sun sets if your on the river. The fall clouds seem to make play with sun that I notice more than other times of the year. Maybe it is just because I've gotten older, but I seem to notice it more.
I've actually pulled off the road or just stopped where ever I'm at while on the trap line. Just to watch the sun come up or go down. I don't like to think that I'm in such a hurry I can't take a few minutes to watch. Sometimes it can be the best part of a whole day.

Mac

[RdFx]

Yotero ive seen same thing ( snow geese with canadians)  already this year.  Usually i dont see them till November around here with the Tundra swans.. Dont know whats up but  nice to see anyhow. 
  Concerning sunrises and sunsets, yeppers ive seen some real nice ones and tried to take pics  but pics never turn out like the actual scene.   Like you said Mac  those experiences can be best part of the day...OR stepping into a bvr run while  jump shooting ducks and its over your waders or hipboots....

[Wackyquacker]

Hmmm a whole bag of teal?  So what does a bag of teal consist of? 

A tote sack filled to the top.

I'm beat...too beat to type much...just got back from Game Commission Meeting where trapping regs were set for the next two years...man I hate politics, even though we got most all that we wanted, more than we thought for and less than we wished.

Sun up,  sun down both are grand especially at 7000 ft with no air pollution or haze.  About the onlyest furbearer I see when ducking are coyotes...nothing glamorous like mink, flying otter or beaver....but I do see a bunch of cows.

[RdFx]

NO BURROS?   

[Mallard]

9 more hours and it's finally time! Man.......can't sleep a wink.

[coyotero]

I took Ma out to supper tonight.I'm looking at the menu and suddenly remember I didn't buy a Duck Stamp today.I can't go in the morning.All day I had the nagging feeling I was forgetting something important,I was.My C.R.S. has been bad lately.

[RdFx]

Oh well you could go out and just watch the sunrise come up and watch the duck flights come in.... might be just as rewarding as popping caps at them....... The pink sky becoming brighter in the eastern sky as sun rises with the whir of wings as  ducks take off to feed in farm  grain fields.  The soft chuckling of mallards as they  work the flats for tubers and other eats..........

[Macthediver]

Just now got home from work. As I was leaving the fire station I can hear the guys popping away at ducks on the river. There is heavy fog on the river this morning best I can tell.
I was a few blocks from home when I got passed by the Rescue squad from one of the town ship fire dept. That is not unusual they go by my home all the time when their going south.
When I got in the house I hear the wife has the scanner going. Is a big festival in town here this week so I guess she was tracking the silliness. There is always plenty of that and we had our share at work yesterday.
Anyway first thing I hear on the scanner is that rescue squad going south. Their headed to the boat landing about 2 miles from my home. Seems they are responding to a duck hunter shot in the chest. It has been sometime now since they went out. I heard and know it is to foggy for the chopper to fly, and I have not heard and ambulance come back yet. So I'm guessing there may be a fatality on the river. I'm starting to hear on thre scanner now that units are clearing the scene. There has been no ambulance unless they are running silent. They have to come by my house so either the person isn't hurt to bad or they have died. The fact that the radio traffic has gotten quiet often is not a good sign.
Nice way to start the secound day of the season.
I will follow up later when I hear more.

Mac

[Macthediver]

Well I haven't heard all the details yet but the duck hunter did die. Seems he was some how accidetly shot in the chest. Was pronounced dead at the scene and I don't know if that was a bleed out or died instantly. Is a sad start for the season and some nervous moments for my son. He had several friends hunting in that area that morning. He called them on the cell and found out they were not near the shooting. They did get a little caught up in the mess at the boat land.
My fellow divers also pulled their eight college student from the river yesterday. For anyone who is not farmiliar with the story. My city has made national news because we loose drunken students in the river. Gotten to be sort of a cult story thing.
Anyway both stories are just plan tradgic, here is a link.
http://www.lacrossetribune.com/

Mac