The PhDs of the Waterfowl World



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AfrikaansAlbanianAmharicArabicArmenianAzerbaijaniBasqueBelarusianBengaliBosnianBulgarianCatalanCebuanoChichewaChinese (Simplified)Chinese (Traditional)CorsicanCroatianCzechDanishDutchEnglishEsperantoEstonianFilipinoFinnishFrenchFrisianGalicianGeorgianGermanGreekGujaratiHaitian CreoleHausaHawaiianHebrewHindiHmongHungarianIcelandicIgboIndonesianIrishItalianJapaneseJavaneseKannadaKazakhKhmerKoreanKurdishKyrgyzLaoLatinLatvianLithuanianLuxembourgishMacedonianMalagasyMalayMalayalamMalteseMaoriMarathiMongolianMyanmar (Burmese)NepaliNorwegianPashtoPersianPolishPortuguesePunjabiRomanianRussianSamoanScots GaelicSerbianSesothoShonaSindhiSinhalaSlovakSlovenianSomaliSpanishSundaneseSwahiliSwedishTajikTamilTeluguThaiTurkishUkrainianUrduUzbekVietnameseWelshXhosaYiddishYorubaZulu
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Al, very nice photos and wonderful stories.

I see tens of thousands of Snows each fall but for the most part they pass over at 10,000 ft. When they started the spring season my dad and I were prepared, they often stop nearby on the way back north.

For the first couple springs they hadn't figure they were being hunted. We could find a large flock sitting in the field and lay down in a ditch down wind of them and pass shoot birds coming into them. With a strong spring wind the birds upwind wouldn't be spooked. It wasn't in you face shooting but many came over well under 50 yards. After 2 springs that type of hunting pretty well ended. They learned to drop in from on high.

I have only shot 1 snow in the past 20 years. That was on a pea soup morning. I could hear a flock coming close but couldn't see anything. Then suddenly I saw a small part of the flock come out of the fog. I literally only saw them for the time it took to take one shot dropping a beautiful mature Snow. I hope to shoot more but if I never do that one was a perfect one to end on.

Tim
 
Al, love your photos (except for the preying mantis shot....that would be a smooshed mantis.....yeah yeah yeah they gotta eat too but they wouldn't be invited to eat my hummingbirds). I've only seen snow geese in numbers like that once and it was from a highway travelling through California. They were doing an excellent impression of a tornado as thousands came down from way up high. It was pretty impressive.
 
You are a lucky man to have witnessed so many snow geese migrating south. Those vivid memories will stick with you the rest of your life.

When you talked about seeing so many birds, it reminded me of Cayenne aka Caya, who is one of our two chocolate females. When she was 13 weeks old I had come home from a hunt in January and was lucky enough to bag a nice looking drake widgeon. I tossed it for Caya just to see what she might do and the first two pictures will show you that. Then she dropped the duck and looked up into the sky to find out what was making all the commotion that she was listening to. It was several large flocks of light geese all heading back to Bosque del Apache NWR. They had been feeding up north of us on some state property and were now heading back to relax the rest of the day away.
I thought that feather stuck on her lip was perfectly placed for the picture.
Al



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It was good to hear from you, Brad. I hope all is well and that your duck season will be one to be remembered. I'll make sure to tell, Tim.
Al
 
That was interesting, Dave. I knew some folks down here that were relocating snakes for quite some time. Then they began chipping the snakes to track them the best way they knew how. What they found out was that the desire to return home was so overpowering it seemed, that most of them when finally making it back to their "home" territory were so emaciated that they never were able to recover from the ordeal that they had been placed in. Like I have said before when I am in their territory I respect it and will not harm them.
Al
 
Good to hear from you, Todd. Thankfully the western diamondback is the only one I have seen in our area. It is not aggressive, well, I will take that back. I just remembered trying to take a pciture of one crossing the road I was on going to cut wood. When I was taking pictures, it finally dawned on me that the snake was getting way too close and I jumped back in the truck. It was a very warm day and maybe that triggered some aggression.
Al
 
Thanks so much for those stories, Tim. Funny how they never get lost over the myriads of other things that could easily fill our minds. When you talked about that mature snow goose that you shot it brought back another memory of the Rio Grande.

It was in January when the geese had to struggle to get to their feeding grounds. The blustery north winds were blowing with gusts up to 35mph. I had been duck hunting and doing well when all of a sudden I spotted a low flying flock of light geese coming my way. Down here we have both the lesser snows and Ross's geese. Well, this flock was hugging the river as close as they could get to it and then bounced up in the air a little to cut a corner and fly as straight as possible. That ended up bringing them right over the top of me at about 30 to 35 yards up. I had replaced my 7 shot steel Dove loads with some 3" 3 shot. On my first shot, I watched 3 Ross's geese heading for terra firma. I was so amazed at what I saw, that I totally forgot to shoot at any more of them. Chili did her job on two ot them but the 3rd had just been scratched (last wing joint) and was swimming to the west side of the river. I marked it with a particular tree.

It was right then that I decided to get my decoys and make a valiant try for that wounded goose. It involved driving my Mule back to the truck (3/4th of a mile), then heading back to the highway which was about 4 miles to the south of my spot. I then drove just shy of one mile to get to the road that followed the Rio Grande on the west side. I knew I had to go about 4 miles north and when I had, I just happened to see that one tree I used as a land mark. Chili and I walked to the edge of the river and that is when Chili dashed off to the south and there was the goose sitting up on the bank of the river. She made quick work of getting to the goose and bringing it to me. That was a darn good feeling to find that cripple and be able to add it to the day's hunt.
Al

Tim, here are some pictures for you.

Called, Getting a goose!
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Can you hear him talking!
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Thanks for the feedback, Dani. I know what you are saying regarding the Mantis and the Hummer. A few years ago I was talking with one of the employees at Bosque del Apache NWR if he had any interesting stories to tell. This is what he related to me. In August, a few years back, a tour bus loaded down with senior citizens pulled up and parked in the lot. As they walked up towards the main entrance a few of them spotted the back side where they keep all the hummingbird feeders. It is a paradise if you love to watch hundreds of hummers in the comforts of shade and some nice comfortable chairs. A group from the tour bus were busily watching the hummers when one of them spotted a road runner. He was walking through the brush trying to stay concealed until he got directly under one of the feeders. Everyone had their attention on the road runner wondering what he was going to be doing. Well, he did what road runners are so darn good at doing and that is with one flap of his wings, he was right in the midst of the hummers flitting around the feeder waiting for their turn. Within a split nano second the landed in front of the senior citizens, gave the hummer a few good whacks on the concrete sidewalk (pummel style) then promptly gulped it down with ease.

The employee of the refuge told me that it seemed like everyone of the onlookers immediately wanted to do bodily harm to the road runner!

Did you ever see the picture of the Spider and the Mantis that I took outside on our patio on a fine fall day. That was that it was a fine day for the spider because it won the battle and consumed the female Mantis. Look at the size of her abdomen!
Al

Took this shot on September 22nd of 2017.



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yeaaaaaaahhhh that road runner would've been on the shit list in my book....but they gotta eat too......like ghost crabs that eat baby sea turtles....hate em with a passion :)

That is one fat spider. I have an orb spider like that that comes out every night and lives right outside my kitchen window. It's a beast of an orb spider. Every morning she packs in her web and goes and hides. I am good with that. Spiders that stay outside are good spiders. Spiders that come in the house have very specific rules to follow....mostly to GET OUT!
 
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