Scattershooting

Geese are smart birds

Tue, January 03, 2012

Damn geese.

I set up this morning while there was still frost on the ground. Told the wife, “I am just gonna run a few errands.” She knew. You don’t run many errands with a pickup bed full of decoys and layout blinds.

Before I knew it 11 a.m. had arrived. The set-up looked good, but the few geese in the air were not interested. Most were speckbellies (I vote we change the name of these rascals to “spooklebellies” because they are so dang spooky). Most were leaving the area, it appeared. Even so, I remained optimistic. Reports of “a few hundred” geese in the field I was hunting kept me hopeful. Those same reports lured The Farmer out of an 11 a.m. meeting. In my experience, goose hunting does not mix very well with work.

But the only birds I saw in the morning headed south. The spooks I so much wanted to see were high and leaving. Honkers were sitting tight.

“I bet they will sit and fly just before sunset,” The Farmer said.

Oh how right he was. Unfortunately, or fortunately, he wasn’t there to see it. We both left sometime around 1:30 p.m. with the sun shining and the geese soaking in the sun. Only I returned. Even my son didn’t want to go for the last hour of daylight, opting to shoot Airsoft guns instead. Oh well, he was assured more action that way.

As for the finale, well it was impressive. And late. A few scattered flocks started moving about 4:30. But the bulk of the birds did not fly until 4:40-5 p.m. That’s impressive timing given that sunset was 4:44 today. As if we needed more proof, today showed once again that geese are smart birds.

Consider that the only honker I shot today fell to the ground at 4:42 p.m. I had to take a long shot at that one because with a few more passes it would have been past shooting time!

After shooting time was when the show really started. Honkers emerged from all over, flying overhead, honking, taunting me, some even trying to land with my truck in the field as I picked up decoys. All I could do was watch them and wonder what the heck they will do with warmer weather ahead.

Then came the return to reality. “How was your waste of a day?” my wife asked.

“Only one goose!” the boys said.

Email was worse. “Salt in your speck wound. Here is my first speck shot Monday evening,” wrote Kip Stevenson.

But you know what? Through all of the razzing, the thought that bothered me most is that I won’t be able to hunt again for days.

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