Tanya
10-23-2009, 07:03 AM
We're baaaack. Left on the 13th, two and half hour delay leaving the first airport due to heavy snows in Alberta. Finally got into Regina, Saskatchewan a couple hours later than planned, picked up the rental vehicle, a Ford Flex allwheel drive, definitely different than my one ton crew cab. We headed south and slightly east to Weyburn, host of the largest inland grain terminal in Saskatchewan, a very, very flat piece of the world. The next day we're off eastward toward our final destination Boissevain Manitoba. Hit snow in Estevan and drove in snow and slush for 2 1/2 or 3 hours, the vehicle performed OK, but I'd much rather of had my truck ( next time). We pulled into Boissevain and time warped back to 1960 or '70 something. Grain country, barley, wheat, canola, peas... Met our outfitter Ritchie and he took us on a tour and showed us many, many birds. Still snowing - not good for the hunt.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/TRV58/002.jpg
Snow and blue geese in a grain field ( it's snowing)
That evening we meet one of the fellows we'd be hunting with from Newfoundland. These two guys are long-line fishermen from the north-east coast of that province, quite the characters.
Head out the next morning at 5:00 to a field 10 minutes out of town and proceed to set up 300 or so decoys. It is 19F and blowing snow when we snuggle down into our layout blinds. The birds came in but were nervous and stayed high, which seemed to be the pattern the whole hunt. These snows and blues are hunted heavy pretty much year round on their migrations south and north and unless you get a bunch of juveniles come in it's not easy shooting. There certainly are no shortage of these birds, my gosh! We saw clouds and clouds of them getting up and moving back and forth each morning and afternoon we were out. The cranes went over head in a steady stream for a half hour heading to their feeding grounds from a lake, then the geese started and they went on in massive flocks for at least a half hour. Truly an amazing sight to see.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/TRV58/016.jpg
The dark line on the horizon is a SMALL flock of geese coming off their feeding area. We saw flocks three times the size.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/TRV58/019.jpg
Sunrise was pretty cool. This was the last morning hunt over a barley field.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/TRV58/012.jpg
We got birds each of the five outings. A mixed bag of snow geese, blue geese, Ross's geese, Lesser Canada, and the big Canada geese, as well as a few ducks here and there. The birds didn't decoy like they do here hardly ever. The one afternoon John and I were alone and four came in perfect to the dekes, and they never left.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/TRV58/007-1.jpg
The white goose on the left is a Ross goose, not much different in size than our drake mallards, but a very pretty bird.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/TRV58/Bandedgoose.jpg
Got a banded blue goose too.
All in all it was a great trip. The hunting was a little slower than our guide wanted, but for us it was as much for experiencing something new and different than taking home mountains of birds. We got birds each outing, and saw different country, experienced the amazing amounts of birds on migration, just what we wanted. We took a different route back toward Regina on Saturday to see more country and then on Sunday we visited some fellow dairy farmers who had moved from just down the road from us out to north of Regina a couple of years ago. Great visit, and we got invited to come and shoot gophers any time and whitetail - big Saskatchewan whitetail.:smile:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/TRV58/002.jpg
Snow and blue geese in a grain field ( it's snowing)
That evening we meet one of the fellows we'd be hunting with from Newfoundland. These two guys are long-line fishermen from the north-east coast of that province, quite the characters.
Head out the next morning at 5:00 to a field 10 minutes out of town and proceed to set up 300 or so decoys. It is 19F and blowing snow when we snuggle down into our layout blinds. The birds came in but were nervous and stayed high, which seemed to be the pattern the whole hunt. These snows and blues are hunted heavy pretty much year round on their migrations south and north and unless you get a bunch of juveniles come in it's not easy shooting. There certainly are no shortage of these birds, my gosh! We saw clouds and clouds of them getting up and moving back and forth each morning and afternoon we were out. The cranes went over head in a steady stream for a half hour heading to their feeding grounds from a lake, then the geese started and they went on in massive flocks for at least a half hour. Truly an amazing sight to see.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/TRV58/016.jpg
The dark line on the horizon is a SMALL flock of geese coming off their feeding area. We saw flocks three times the size.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/TRV58/019.jpg
Sunrise was pretty cool. This was the last morning hunt over a barley field.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/TRV58/012.jpg
We got birds each of the five outings. A mixed bag of snow geese, blue geese, Ross's geese, Lesser Canada, and the big Canada geese, as well as a few ducks here and there. The birds didn't decoy like they do here hardly ever. The one afternoon John and I were alone and four came in perfect to the dekes, and they never left.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/TRV58/007-1.jpg
The white goose on the left is a Ross goose, not much different in size than our drake mallards, but a very pretty bird.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/TRV58/Bandedgoose.jpg
Got a banded blue goose too.
All in all it was a great trip. The hunting was a little slower than our guide wanted, but for us it was as much for experiencing something new and different than taking home mountains of birds. We got birds each outing, and saw different country, experienced the amazing amounts of birds on migration, just what we wanted. We took a different route back toward Regina on Saturday to see more country and then on Sunday we visited some fellow dairy farmers who had moved from just down the road from us out to north of Regina a couple of years ago. Great visit, and we got invited to come and shoot gophers any time and whitetail - big Saskatchewan whitetail.:smile: