The Hot Times

Tuesday,

The weather has got it's self in a downward spiral.  Very heavy clouds nice hunting wind, and very chilly.  What birds we were seeing were high and in a hurry.  But the flocks were showing up pretty regular.  There were high geese most of the morning, then there was nothing.  No geese and no ducks.  Have a big ice hole, for the birds to decoy to.

As many of you know that the boss kept records of all birds that both fly over and the flock we shoot into.  Ralph had logged the time of every shot, on every flock.  They took these books, and fed all this info, for many many years, into a computer, several years back, then asked the computer to print out, the top most popular time to harvest geese.  They are 9:23, 10:17, 12:08, 3:10.  Every year, these book are sent in and the data for that year, and updates the file and new pages are added to the BLUE BOOK.   Now remember this info was, first entered, when the goose we harvested, was the Snow and Blue.  As I understand these, HOT TIMES, still remain to this day.   Many of us, after every shot, checks their watch, to see if it is on one of the hot times.  Well it just come into play again today.  We have been watching, all of these high Canada's and Cacklers fly by at nosebleed altitudes, all morning.  The cutting wind had us on our seats.  Therefore anything approaching from the back of the blind, we were not seeing.  Suddenly there appeared, a lone old Canada, at shooting altitude, circling back behind the blinds.  Ralph applied, a well timed hoot, on his horn, and the goose, made a sharp, right hand turn and back out in front, and the crew polished him off. What time was it? 10:17 on the dot.  Hunting has to be slow, when one works that hard to make a story out of, harvesting a single bird.  But the time was so on, that I just had to point it out. 

It is scary as to the absent of duck, the sky was today. We are in a peak time of the Mallards push, and seen just three ducks, and they were, before sunrise. 

Enough, complaining for one day.  But please say a little prayer for the troops and their families tonight, if you would, please.

Also check back, if you can find time.

See ya.    Carl