Boundary Bay before the deluge

[silveragent]

Spent yesterday out in the bay hunting ducks including this nice mallard drake. People asked how I could persevere when we had a 50mm deluge of rain that day and I think there are some days I was glad I could pick up and head for cover, head for home or even just go to the nearest pub to get warm and get hot food. But all our veterans had no option. They're fighting, marching, just surviving and getting bombed and shot at. Or people in those lands who no longer have a home. And me? That's nothing. I choose to and sometimes even enjoy a bit of misery. It's nothing when I can just go home. Anyway a little reflection.

This was a nice day prior to the downpour. I had a chat with a member of the local riding school on the dyke and she said "low cloud must be good for you right?" Absolutely. Low cloud pushes down birds and it was absolutely a ducky day. There were big clouds of wigeon and flights of fat mallards. Not much goose until near the end.

It was high tide so I brought five floaters which after a struggle untangling I threw out at the waters edge and then sat down to wait. Before too long birds starting giving it a look but my seat position wasn't ideal. I sat perpendicular to the flight path so after one duck went down and after whiffing a couple crossing shots I picked up the chair and moved to a spot where I would be head on to ducks coming in. This worked wonders as in the next three hours I got to see ducks work the spread. Bigger flocks just gave them a sniff but I limited out on singles and doubles opportunities.

There was another moment where I thought I would bust a limit right away. The wigeon have taken to rafting just out of legal shooting boundaries on the west end of the bay. At about noon an eagle started taking a pass at them and just like that easily two hundred of them picked up and came right for the foreshore. What felt like a glorious opportunity, however, didn't happen as the eagle as if by design came right over my spot, driving the wigeon everywhere but where it was shootable.

I had some follies worth remembering. I put down a hen cripple and when I walked out to collect her saw she was still up. All it took was an instant of looking down to reload and she plopped into the water, dove and that was the last I saw of her. Still later walking back to my decoys after strolling to my bag for a sip of hot tea I noticed a handful of teal were in among the dekes. Too late I went for the gun and they picked up and were gone. Lastly, I had almost packed up to go home after limiting (counting the cripple I never recovered), a flight of snowies came in directly overhead. When I lined them up for a gift shot - click nothing. I hadn't checked to see if my gun had ejected the last hull. Bah. What a missed opportunity.

In the parking lot after two new hunters said they admired my shooting that day. I said it wasn't the shooting; it was the decoying. It's how bad shots like me can limit out. Set them up and get them bailing over the spot you can shoot them comfortably. Still... those mistakes I'll remember!