Orders to Duck Hunt...

It's a steady rainy morning. Good thing Cathy is sleeping late. I'm supposed to be duck hunting. Ever since we had a duck dinner we shared with Anne I have been under orders to go, hunt and stay until success. Yesterday's hunt was modest success as I bagged one duck after a long hike in the woods. 

I hike through the woods by a different route. There was a car parked at the beginning of the old overgrown hiker trail when I arrived. It was badly parked kind of backed in crooked and on the wilderness area side of the road. There is a nice cleared area on the opposite side of road that's not wilderness and I would be willing to bet that the rule is to park there. Make sense and something about this car and the park job did not make sense. When folks are in the woods and their parking job is not good I move on. I won't stick around to see what else is not good. 

I turned back and parked at the next legal parking area. I pulled out the GPS and my old favorite duck spot showed to be .62 of a mile through the woods. That was a long .62 for a fat boy as the brush was thick and I wore my waders for warmth as I thought I would have a short walk to my new favorite place. Sometimes I back pack the waders in but I don't think I could have negotiated the thicket with a bulky back pack. I made it to the old spot in 30 minutes and afer an hour I saw no ducks. I headed on a stalk up the slough to the old beaver pond. I killed one wood duck hen and saw lots of hog sign.   

Walking back  I flushed a number of ducks from the spot I had sat at for an hour with no luck. Here's what it looked like

That's the big slough looking downstream on the right. A small backwater feeds from the right. Behind me the big slough branches left to make islands in the woods and one arm continues on to a beaver pond. After this morning's rain I expect this area to be a total sheet of pretty swift moving water. It will be hard to wade without stepping in over your head. As I say I am going to be in trouble with the wife on the duck hunting.  

Here's the gps. Not a huge area I am hunting but it was very handy when waking in rough country where because of the thickets you can't set a path by landmarks. Whenever I find a spot I like no matter what route I took I mark it for future reference. 

Spotted this structure as I crossed a creek bridge on the way out. It's on private property A homemade bridge to get across the creek from one pasture to another. I thought it was pretty neat. 

Anyway I might try some lake hunting by boat next trip. Cathy considers yesterday's duck hers. If I want to eat one I got to get some ducks. As they say, happy wife, happy life.