Al Hansen
Well-known member
This morning I was out hunting for my second day in a row. For a while I was thinking that this pond I hunt should be called, “2 Duck Pond”. The last three hunts have produced 2 ducks and almost an hour ago I had taken 2 Hollywoods aka spoonbills. It looked as if this was going to be another 2 duck hunt as I glanced at my phone to get the time again.
You know when you have puppies at home and you are the only one taking care of them, there isn’t much time to hunt. Just prior to leaving I had them out playing, let them go outside to the bathroom and then put them back in the crate that they are sharing. Jim sure was right about constantly looking at the time and worrying about those little buggers.
It was exactly 8:10AM and season had been on for 1 ½ hours. I promised myself that I would stay for just 10 more minutes and then I had to go no matter how many ducks I saw flying. Thinking this was easy but doing it was all together different. There was no way I was going to jeopardize the pups. As I lifted my coffee thermos its weight quickly reminded me that it was empty. Right about then I noticed some snow flakes coming down and then I wished this: If I could have any wish right this very moment I would like to see a small flock of mallards flying in the direction of the pond.
I’m sure 30 seconds had elapsed as I gazed out into the ominous sky that we had this morning and then it happened. Over the tops of the trees not a small flock but to me a huge flock of mallards appeared. If you could visualize this: Sitting in my Cabela’s folding chair, a shotgun in my left hand and my camera in my right hand then seeing the ducks and trying to carefully set my Canon down on its carrying case while not moving much.
From what I could see there had to be between 50 and 60 mallards in this flock and for me in this out of the way spot that I hunt, that is huge. Normally I see singles, doubles and maybe a small flock of 7 or 8. Right away I noticed that it was lopsided in favor of greenheads. In fact, there was a definite lack hens because I saw so few.
They came in from the southwest heading straight for me but too high for my kind of shooting. I know that the average duck hunters would have emptied their guns on the first pass because they were only 35 yards up but I opted to wait for a better shot or shots. As they made that first pass in front of me, I quickly noticed that my two trusty retrievers were holding to their spots and I was so proud of them for doing this. The ducks then began to circle around behind us and I just watched Habi and Chip because they never took their eyes off them. When they were right behind us I gave a few lonesome hen quacks and waited. I didn’t have long to wait at all.
This was one of the few times that I had ducks flying from right to left. Normally it is just the opposite for me. In they came with maybe half the flock in that first wave. With feet outstretched and wings beginning to back pedal, I picked out the lead greenhead and he collapsed instantly after the trigger on my Nova had been squeezed. As all hell seemed to to break loose right in front of my eyes, there was that second gorgeous drake mallard scrambling. It too fell at the sound of another shell being shot. Looking as if it was heading for the ionosphere, the third greenhead still looked pretty large to me when I pulled the trigger on him. He crumpled when hit and I was able to observe his body bounce when he hit the ground.
As for those hunting partners of mine, they were now on a mission. As I kind of figured what would happen to Chip, did happen. He was still looking at all those ducks flying away and decided to see if he could catch one and off he went. I could only chuckle because this young pup has so much to learn but is doing it quite quickly. He came back and was off to get the last duck down. Habi decided to go with him and I had no problem with that. After giving me that drake they were off after the 2nd duck down. It was good to see my boy pup begin using his nose. It didn’t take long and they were back with it.
It was at this time that Chip decided to take a swim. His body was so loaded with cockleburs that I couldn’t blame him. While he did that , I took Habi at heel and we walked to the spot that I had marked about where the 1st duck had fallen. I guess I was about 25 feet away when I spotted it then took some pictures as Habi began her search for the “dead bird”. It didn’t take her long as she worked that area back and forth just like a good pheasant dog might work. Upon finding it she walked up to me with the bird and we headed back to the blind with Chip falling in behind us.
Wow, could this actually have happened to me? To my best recollection, it had been 4 or 5 blue moons ago that I pulled off something like this. Boy, did we have to hustle from that time on. Since things are quite convenient for me with the Mule being only 50 feet from where my blind is, it didn’t take long to pack up, get the pups on the seat, take a few more pictures, then head back to the truck. On one of the pictures my dogs were not looking at me. When I glanced up I found out why. They were following the flight path of a small flock of mallards—one like I was wishing to see about 10 minutes earlier!
Al
If Chip drops the duck short of me 10 feet Habi always makes sure I get it in the hand.
3rd Drake was Habi's bird
