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HUNTING'S NOT THE ONLY
REASON TO BE OUT THERE!
By: Ron Wilson
January 1, 2004.... Saturday it looked like
the ducks had finally arrived. There were several flights of ducks
continually flying overhead until well past noon. Of course the majority
of them were a mile or more high.
Our day was made when one of my hunting
partners stepped out of the blind to answer mother natures call when he
spotted 3 honkers heading our way. He asked for his gun and then started
calling them with his mouth only.
The geese reacted and made a beeline toward
the duck decoys with set wings. When the birds got within 15 yards he said
"get 'em" and within short order there were 3 large birds in the 15 pound
class floating about 15 yards from the blind!
It was a beautiful site as the birds came
in with wings set and feet down just before they were harvested!
There are so many honkers that now reside
in the Central valley of California that they will soon become a menacing
pest on every golf course we have. I can't wait until we start having
special seasons on them to deplete the overgrown local population we now
have!
However, hunters will have a hard time
decreasing their numbers because these local honkers are a lot harder to
hunt than the ones that travel down from Canada and Alaska each year!
Sunday my son Donald and grandson Derick
went to San Luis to try our luck. Cold and no wind or fog is not what you
want when hunting the refugees.
 A
few teal early and then a few mallards and pintail worked the decoys but
they would not lock for some reason.
I'm beginning to think it's the Robo ducks.
They are getting used to them and once they got close enough to see, they
just circle and leave never getting lower than about 45 yards.
We had a relaxing morning and then in the
afternoon we went on the tour route to see how many birds had come down. I
don't know where all the birds from Saturday went, but they weren't in the
closed zone.
During our tour drive I noticed where there
used to be food plots planted for the birds, now just seem to be over
grown marsh land.
I definitely recommend the tour area to
people who would like to see wildlife. We saw quail, all type of hawks,
pheasants and doves and all types of waterfowl including geese.
If you want to get in close and personal to
wildlife they have a trail that's about a half mile into the refuge's
closed zone that has a bird watching tower with telescope so that you can
enjoy watching the wildlife.
On the way in we got pretty close to a
coyote who was busy hunting for his dinner. I know that bird watchers get
upset with us hunters but if it wasn't for us they would not be able to go
out and enjoy a lot of the sights they can now see because hunters spend
millions to help conserve all types of wildlife.
One thing I have noticed through my
lifetime is that once a hunter gets older, the killing is not the most
important
part of the outing! It's the wildlife and getting out into nature and
observing her up close that really matters.
Yes I still like to shoot waterfowl and
probably will until the day I die but I have a lot of fun out there even
when I don't fire a shot!
Waterfowl hunting is a game and when its
done right its very rewarding!
My forecast for good duck hunting is; If
they're not here by this weekend, don't look for them to show up until
February, which will be just in time for the junior hunts.
The last two years they arrived in great
numbers right after the general season closed!
For more information on wildlife viewing and
grassland refuge's
click
here. |
