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A WEEK OF BIRD HUNTING AND NOT WORKING
IS TOUGH TO BEAT!

By: Ron Wilson

December 19, 2002.... I took a few days off work last week to do some duck, pheasant and quail hunting. Last Wednesday I hunted in the foothills and never fired a shot. I can't believe how few ducks there have been on the east side of the valley this year! I have only had 3 good shoots.

Thursday Ken Moore, of Ripon, and I went down to the river to hunt pheasants, dove and quail. We hunted on private property along the edge of some sloughs and ponds. I forgot to shoot at the doves when they went by, its hard to watch my dogs and look up at the same time. Max, Gunner and Sierra were working hard, Gunner at following in my footsteps and the other two at finding a bird to flush!

Sierra kept tracking down quail and just as she would go on point the quail would flush and I would miss the shot. Sierra kept giving me dirty looks as she was doing her job and I was flat missing these little feathery bullets as they zoomed through the brush and trees making there getaway. I shot behind them on every shot as my reaction swinging the gun was just to slow. I have been hunting tamed birds for to long and my reaction time needs to be increased considerable to be successful at downing one of these jets!

Friday it was back after ducks on the east side of the valley, we watched the blind for a couple hours and only saw 2 ducks decoy in, which were probably pintail. There was nothing in the air flying, so we called it an early day. Nothing like sitting in the comfort of the truck drinking hot chocolate and coffee watching for birds. Well it beat sitting in the blind that day anyway!

Saturday we hit the Westside of the valley where we harvested mostly mallards, with a gadwall and a teal thrown in. The camaraderie was great with lots of ribbing going on, like when one guy stumbled in the water as he shot and missed badly! Or when I missed a teal duck 3 times, as it flushed from the decoy spread, without knocking a feather.

 One of the bigger laughs was when we got back to the truck. One of the guys held up my pair of tennis
shoes, one gray and one blue and asked who dressed me that morning to go hunting. With the chuckling going on, my only comeback was "hey, I just happen to have another pair just like them at home"! Funny what a person picks up in the dark to put on! Camaraderie is half the hunting and I am having a ball this year!

Sunday we hunted ducks on the east side of the valley again. Cloudy, windy with some light rain. We killed our limit of pintail and spent three hours looking for more ducks!

Sorry no pictures this week, as the weather was just to nasty to get it out to snap a shot or two. When it was nice, I found that I had left it in the truck anyway. One of my problems when I am out in the field researching articles is carrying a pen to write with and a camera to shoot pictures with. For some reason they don't seem near as important as my gun and shells or rod and reel in the outdoors!

I have been learning quite a bit about duck hunting and goose hunting this year.  I can't tell you where but when I feel I have learned what I should, I hope to give you some important tips that  may help you improve your success hunting waterfowl!