Hank Huntington: Good News and Bad News

The good news was on waking up December 22nd, I then realized the Mayan Calendar was wrong. The world did not come to an end. The bad news was the Nebraska Duck Season ended December 18th. The good news was Canada geese season would not close until January 18, 2013. The bad news was a major snow storm on December 19th was about to take place. Even the golf course geese got out of town. When they leave, the storm will be really big. When the snow covers the fields, all the migratory waterfowl leave and go south for the winter. The exception will be the golf course geese. They return. They will stay at an electrical plant cooling ponds, hang out on the Missouri River, and feed at an elevator near the river. They are a resilient group.

This is just a sampling othe number of geese that occupy the golf course.

On Sunday the 16th the club had an excellent day of big Mallards and Canada geese. It just kept getting better. On Monday the wind went dead still and fog rolled in across the Missouri River Valley. At home, even the golf course geese were not flying and instead were grazing on the grass on the golf course.

The picture was shot out of my back door. Shortly later they were in the yard.

The final day had an outstanding forecast with high clouds, excellent visability and northerly winds. It was time to go hunting.

Right at shooting time a small group of ducks locked up and started the glide to the decoys. Then they began pumping skyward and riding the north wind, they headed south. They had been there before, and I am sure their bottoms started burning as they approached the lake. Next came a lone Canada goose. The bird never even paused but kept pumping his wings heading south. He never even gave us a look. Staying high and well out of range, the general feeling was that he also had a burning bottom from a previous visit.

The velocity of the wind picked up and with the high humidity, it was really cold. However, the metal blinds are buried in the ground and plumbed with a propane heating system. Cold is no problem. We cook and sling the baloney of which there seems to be a lot to sling. (For those of you overseas that are regular readers, slinging the baloney is slang for telling stories of which most are overly exaggerated.)

Anyway, a foolish goose came to the blinds at a low level, locked up and started into the decoys. He should have stayed away, and with 10 hunters in two blinds, he was immediately dropped. Junior, John's dog, was dispatched to bring him to the blinds. That was it for the day. By early afternoon, the decision was made to give it up and wait for the next year.

Junior bringing in the goose.

Ernie holding the harvest for the day. Look at the size of the breast on this goose. He will provide excellent fare for the hunter who takes him home.

In the fifteen years of being a member of this club, this is the best season ever seen, and I missed the first half being overseas on a camera safari.