Post for Saturday

FIRST - the most important thing - today is Gunner's birthday. He turned 8 today! What a great way for him to celebrate, and we kept the streak alive of hunting on his BD.

This post is going to be quick, because I'm tired... sorry.

We hunted ducks this am in a small pothole. After we shot 1 and had more than a dozen land on the other side, we picked-up and moved there. Problem was that by the time we did this and got settled, it was nearly time to quit for the day. Gunner hunted ducks for the morning and we totaled 3. A BW Teal, a hen Shovler, and a very nice drake Gadwall. I saved a wing from the teal and the gadwall for Christopher and AJ.

We were pheasant hunting by 12:30 and the girls went strong from 12:30 to 4. GPS collars said they covered about 7 miles each. We hunted a new spot (a Waterfowl Production Area) that had a lot of grassland surrounding a large marsh. We were super mindful to be quiet - and the girls couldn't have been better. We went with no bell on Mag and no beeper on Winnie to minimize sound and we didn't have to give them a single command for the first 30 minutes. They were hunting naturally and perfectly. Despite all 4 of our best efforts, we were only able to come home with 1 rooster. We found and flushed 2 hens and another rooster that Mag found and flushed 20 yards in front off me - but I missed 2x.

We talked to some guys here at the hotel tonight who said they have been only finding pheasants - and particularly roosters - in the cattails. Maybe we'll employ that strategy tomorrow.