God Given

Al Hansen

Well-known member
I can distinctly recall the day I was out at the ranch telling the rancher about my morning hunt on the channel. It happened to be one of those days where I had taken a pair of mallards, followed by two drake baldpates and two drake gaddies. There were lots of ducks in the air that morning and smiling so much was taking its toll on my facial muscles!

Tele looked at me and said, "Have you been to the Beaver Pond yet?" He then told me how to get there and off I went. Once getting to the spot I found myself totally in awe. Picture living in the high desert of the southwestern quadrant in New Mexico. This spot was in an area controlled by the Rio Grande. If the river was running at around 400 cfs it would begin filling up by seeping underground. Over the course of several years I found out that the depth of the Beaver Pond was no more than 15 to 18 inches and the bottom was such that it was relatively easy to walk in.

I found an area on the eastern side of the pond that had a spot that seemed ready made for a duck blind. My blinds are crude. I need a spot behind me to break my silhouette and then I can use sticks of varying lengths to hold up my camo burlap. For incoming ducks making circle flights just checking the layout of where they want to be, they could not see me from above or while they were on the water, if they landed in the pond. That allowed me the luxury of sipping coffee! Chili, my yellow female Labrador, sat on my left hand side that had a great view of the pond. It was easy for her to dash out and make a quick retrieve. Please know that my pup would sit and not move around in the blind.

Because I was taking notes of my hunts at the ranch, I found out that hunting it about every 4th day normally let me see enough ducks to get a limit IF my shooting was on! Oh, by the way, I never was skunked when hunting this spot. As the season waned into the month of January and the ducks were getting a lot smarter when they left the refuge which happened to be one mile south from where I had my blind, I found out that staying off of my duck call helped and of course reading body language of a duck telling me what is about to happen. This spot was extremely magical and had my full attention. Everytime I went out there I had fun.

On one particular morning there were some very dark clouds above me and to my west. It was when a spot in the eastern horizon allowed the morning sun to shine on the pond that I took this particular picture of my environment. Like I mentioned when you live in the southwestern desert region, sometimes you need to pinch yourself that what you are seeing if for real!
Al

To the left of this picture, the pond extended another 50'. Since that area had a fringe of large cottonwood trees and some salt cedars growing in the pond, most of the ducks would land in the opening where I was. There were times when woodies would fly in and drop down without a moments hesitation. They, I welcomed to this site. There is nothing in this world like having live decoys getting the attention from ducks above. From reading the ducks, they told me about how many decoys I should be using. I did not have many, maybe 9 or10 and those that I used were found sparingly in that opening.
The Beaver Pond at the ranch.JPG


This was my luckiest day at the Beaver Pond when I began with this.
2 bands in one hunt beaver pond.jpg


A few years ago, maybe around 2015 or 16, we had some major runoffs and this entire area was flooded. Because of that followed by my diagnosis of AFib, I have never been back there. But like I have already talked about, this place was magical and I began hunting it ever since 2007.
 
Good morning, Al~


Your tale - and especially that first photo - remind us all how one of the most important "fringe benefits" of this grand passion we all share - is that we get into the natural world in all sorts of conditions and are rewarded with truly memorable spectacles.


All the best,


SJS

 
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Thank you for what you wrote, Steve. You are so right as to your perspective about duck hunting. Here is a picture I just found of Chili bringing me a greenhead. Funny what went through my mind when I saw that picture. Back in 2002, I got home after dark one evening. Prior to leaving the house, I had my truck loaded ready to go hunting after school. I can still see my principal looking at me and saying, "Now Al, remember your last student must be on a bus and or with a parent before you can leave the parking lot." I did promise and never bent the rules. It only took me one hour to get to my spot and start hunting. Well, I can tell you that I came home with 4 ducks. There were two other ducks lost in the weeds so in essence I did shoot my limit of 6. That is a rule I lived by.

When I got home I sat down with Bev and told her that if I didn't get a dog to retrieve my ducks I would much rather quit hunting ducks. I absolulely HATE losing birds. And I hate using the word hate!

The following year was 2003 and I retired at age 62. You need to know that when I was in my early 70s, I cut 46 cords of wood that fall and winter. What was so cool about that was that I hunted ducks then went into the bosque (woods) that I was driving through and cut wood until about 1 or 2PM and would head home. I had a key to a locked gate and when folks saw my truck there in the wee hours of the morning, they thought I was cutting firewood by using lanterns to light up the area. My duck hunting and wood cutting were only about a quarter mile apart. I thought that was pretty convenient.
Al

Habanero aka Habi was 8 months old on this hunt. Since it was so close to our home, I left from the house with Habi in our Kawasaki Mule. It happened to be the first day of the early teal season and she handled everything just fine with the four duck limit that she retrieved for me. We drove home, I cleaned the ducks had a breakfast with Bev and then loaded the Mule on a trailer headed for my wood cutting area next to the Rio Grande. There were times when I would just go duck hunting at 10AM and hunt till noon or 1:00 PM. I loved to try different times to hunt. You will never know what you are missing out on if you don't experiment. I can't begin to tell you how much fun it is to shoot brunch time mallards who are flying the Rio Grande looking for a spot to loaf the day away. For quite a few years I had that spot.
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Here is Chili out at the Beaver Pond at the ranch. Hey, I just found out one thing this year about the ranch where I hunt. Back in the 1800s the folks that lived there had a station for the stage coach that passed through the area. They would get a new team of fresh horses and get going again. As you can tell, I love talking with the rancher and his wife. They have lived in Socorro county all their lives and are just a few years younger than I am. One day two years ago Tele was driving on the trail that I use to get to my honey hole. There had been a rain storm in the area and they had close to 3.5 inches. Around here we call that being dumped on. He stopped his four-wheeler and went over to the area that caught his eye. It was a gold ring with a diamond in it. The sun hit it just right. This dump pile was the original junk pile from the stage coach era. Tele told me that he had cleaned up the area and never gave it another thought. What a find that was. About 10 miles to the east he told me about a spot that had a Pony Express station. This was on another ranch.
Chili and the greenhead.jpg
 
Brad. you nailed it. When those special moments are there, I love taking pictures. Here is another spot I used to hunt back in 05 and 06 the only other spot I hunted was during the early teal season. I can tell you that I hunted this area for 80 days and of course hunted every day of the 9 day teal season. I went to the very same spot for 80 days. My decoys stayed there and I knew there was a guy who hunted my blind one weekend. I found a dollar bill neatly tucked into the spot where I set my coffee cup. I guess he had a good hunt.

What is so cool about this area was when I was home sitting at our table where we eat, I found myself looking out our livingroom picture window where I can see these mountains. They are about 45 to 50 airmiles from our home. Whenever I see these pictures it is like being magnetized all over again. Some days I even pinched myself. I was seeing mule deer bucks that were easily28" to 35" on the spread. I saw coyotes, fox, bobcats, plenty of blackbear paw prints and about as plentiful as the bear prints were the number of big cats that drifted throughout this area. I also saw lots of javelina. I never realized until I began hunting this spot that God had set this area aside for retired people who love to hunt ducks and take pictures. I never saw another hunter in this area. If I did go hunting on weekends that is the only time I heard shots fired. None were close to me.
Allan

You can see that my machete came in handy.
Lastscoutingtrip.jpg




RioGrandeDuckHuntingSpot.jpg

I still get goosebumps when I see these pictures.

There were days when all I had to shoot were mallards/Mexican ducks. Then later in the season I could take
pintails (1), gadwalls and widgeons. One day I took a double on some cinnamon teal in January
greenheadday.jpg

One year I had Habi with me when I hunted this spot. Since the Rio Grande was so close, 50 to 60', I would toss a bumper and clean her up a bit.




Habi loved doing this.jpg
 
Al,
Thanks for the relived hunts and pictures!
Sometimes when I see those magical scenes I am reminded that, God is present!
Then when I read about the events in Ukraine and the people there, my heart is saddened.
A reminder to hold on to those magical moments in nature and our loved ones. Dogs included.
Steve
 
Steve, thanks for what you had to say. I have been following the Ukrainian news as closely as possible. It was heart warming to see the countries and businesses throughout the world put the Russians on notice. Let's hope that this will have an impact that will make a huge difference.

When you spoke of nature and loved ones---including dogs, I had to smile. Yes, it goes without saying. As I have aged so have my dogs that have been by my side in the duck blind.
Life goes on and I have the old tried and true program of taking it one day at a time.

This year was really a bad one here. I can tell you that one of my pups would be in the front seat with me in the truck as I drove around glassing the many miles of irrigation ditches that are in the Rio Grande valley. There are two spots on a low flow ditch that I have permission from the land owners to hunt there. On any "normal" year around the middle of November I would always see mallards/Mexican ducks, widgeons, gadwall and a few teal, normally gwt. This year I never saw a duck in these two area until January. In fact, I took a couple of shots at some widgeons but that was it. Those 4 ducks were the only ones I saw from December and January. Then season closed on Sunday, January 30th.

So just for fun, on Monday, January 31st, when season was over I drove over to check the two low flow spots. Both of them had ducks! Those snow events up north finally pushed the ducks down here. Well, let me tell you that today, 3-2-2022, I went to the first spot and quit counting ducks when I got to 47. Almost all mallards, widgeons, and gadwall. I will end with this. My retired waterfowl biologist friend, Tim, told me this, "Every year in New Mexico is different when duck season rolls around. Some years you pray for rain and wished that you hadn't." I quickly found out that when the Rio Grande is flowing over 500 cubic feet per second, I have to stop hunting the river. Then of course for early teal season you just hope that we can get a couple of good rains during the monsoon season and if they come, boy does that help. One year I hunted my early teal hunting pond all 9 days and then continued to hunt the last week of October and up through November 16th when I made the decision to give thanks for that great pond that was no more! It simply evaporated!
Al

I can't begin to tell you how good it feels when you have a toy duck and give it a toss to see what happens when the 8 pups in the litter go over to check it out. Yes, dominance begins showing at an early age!


Chaco and Salsa's litter 5.jpg

Bev and I were sitting by the pond back in the early spring of 2013. This was the very first time Chip found out what water was. He was trotting along the edge of the pond just having fun when he stumbled a bit. That was all that was needed and in he went!

That fall I took him with me on his very first duck hunt which was the teal opener in Sept. Boy did we have fun because there were so many teal there. I have a friend who has a pond at his farm and he called me up wondering if I was coming down to hunt. Well, that morning I let all the ducks leave the pond and go out to eat. Then around 8:00AM they began coming back in small groups. The first group in I put down a bluewing and off went Chip. What happened next made me think of this picture I had taken of him when he was just a pup. He leaped off the small island we were sitting on and the first thing that happened was he disappeared---sank out of sight. All of my training at the Rio Grande he never had to swim. The river might have been 15 inches deep and no more. So now my poor Chip came up to the surface sputtering and splashing. Then all of a sudden with instincts that he was born with, he began swimming, went over to the teal, grabbed it and came straight back to me.


Chip;s first plunge.jpg

On this last picture of Chip, the pond only had and inch or two of water sitting on top of a good 15 to 18" of silt. Below that was a layer of clay. The ducks were there every day. I had tried Sonora, my black female and Habanero, aka Habi, my yellow female and neither of them had the power needed to get out there and make it back. I tried each of them before the season opened and darn glad I did. I always take my dogs with me to the places I will hunt. I toss bumpers around here and there letting them get to know what the area is like. I think it is very important. So saying and knocking on wood, I have only had one dog get injured and that was Habi when she stepped on a mesquite branch and I had to pull the 2" thorn out of her left front paw. That really did swell up. I picked her up and put her in the front seat of the truck.


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You can see that Chip is in his suit of camo. By the way, I was sitting on a seat that fit on a 5 gallon bucket. Both of us were sitting in the grass and
basically with nothing covering us. We just didn't move and that morning I shot my limit.

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