Over the Christmas break, we traveled to my parents' place in northwestern New Mexico for a few days of family time. And what is family time without a few outings?
My son, who you recently read about whacking coyotes with my shotgun during my desert mule deer hunt, received his OWN shotgun on Christmas morning. That afternoon, we headed over to the neighbor's place (walking distance) to set up a dozen or so duck decoys on the river and a few goose decoys up in the field, just in case. The next morning we were up bright and early for a bit of waterfowling. My middle brother and his son, who is less than a month younger than my boy, joined us.
The duck flight was pretty slow, but after a couple hours of freezing our toes off, we were rewarded with the honking of Canada geese headed downriver. They were too far off, but we gave a few honks of our own as they passed. They flew on, but soon turned and headed back our way. As they approached our decoys, they seemed to flare a bit. I figured they had seen us, so I told the boys to dash out of the blind for a shot. (We weren't really set up for shooting the field - the river was our focus.) They scurried up a little rise and each got off a couple shots, both downing their first goose!
The next day, my youngest brother and his family dropped by to celebrate a belated mass Christmas. His eldest daughter decided to stay the night with Grandma and Papa, and was up bright and early the next morning for some hunting of her own. Again, there wasn't much duck action. At about 8:00, we heard some geese coming upriver. We never could lay eyes on them in the clouds and trees, but they sounded low, so we talked our fool heads off at them. They passed by, but just a few minutes later we heard them headed back down. We watched as a pair of Canadas dropped onto the water several hundred yards upriver from our location near the opposite bank. We stayed hunkered down in the blind, hoping they'd break loose from their resting place. Sure enough, about ten minutes later, I saw them break away from the bank and start floating our way. We waited impatiently as they approached, swimming towards our side. We whispered strategy to kids, instructing my son to take the one on the left and my niece to take the one on the right. When they got in range, the two kids sprang into action, jumping the geese up. As they took to the air, both were quickly brought back to earth (or water as the case may be). These kids made quick work of the pair, which my brother and I fetched out of the water like faithful retrievers. Goose #1 for my niece and #2 for my son, posed with Papa.
My son, who you recently read about whacking coyotes with my shotgun during my desert mule deer hunt, received his OWN shotgun on Christmas morning. That afternoon, we headed over to the neighbor's place (walking distance) to set up a dozen or so duck decoys on the river and a few goose decoys up in the field, just in case. The next morning we were up bright and early for a bit of waterfowling. My middle brother and his son, who is less than a month younger than my boy, joined us.
The duck flight was pretty slow, but after a couple hours of freezing our toes off, we were rewarded with the honking of Canada geese headed downriver. They were too far off, but we gave a few honks of our own as they passed. They flew on, but soon turned and headed back our way. As they approached our decoys, they seemed to flare a bit. I figured they had seen us, so I told the boys to dash out of the blind for a shot. (We weren't really set up for shooting the field - the river was our focus.) They scurried up a little rise and each got off a couple shots, both downing their first goose!
The next day, my youngest brother and his family dropped by to celebrate a belated mass Christmas. His eldest daughter decided to stay the night with Grandma and Papa, and was up bright and early the next morning for some hunting of her own. Again, there wasn't much duck action. At about 8:00, we heard some geese coming upriver. We never could lay eyes on them in the clouds and trees, but they sounded low, so we talked our fool heads off at them. They passed by, but just a few minutes later we heard them headed back down. We watched as a pair of Canadas dropped onto the water several hundred yards upriver from our location near the opposite bank. We stayed hunkered down in the blind, hoping they'd break loose from their resting place. Sure enough, about ten minutes later, I saw them break away from the bank and start floating our way. We waited impatiently as they approached, swimming towards our side. We whispered strategy to kids, instructing my son to take the one on the left and my niece to take the one on the right. When they got in range, the two kids sprang into action, jumping the geese up. As they took to the air, both were quickly brought back to earth (or water as the case may be). These kids made quick work of the pair, which my brother and I fetched out of the water like faithful retrievers. Goose #1 for my niece and #2 for my son, posed with Papa.