We spent last week up at our cabin.  Hubby planned to do some wood duck hunting on the river.

Saturday October 4th was the waterfowl season opener this year and Thunder was ready.  He has been to most Opening Days (except the year he was injured and in a cast).

The weather was decent, not too cold and not pouring rain.  Thunder is wearing his vest because there is a lot of scrub where they are hunting and it is to protect his underside from getting all scratched up.  Normally the vest is to help maintain his core body temperature, but it can also add a layer of protection against the brush.

The area where they hunt is a little finger of the river and as you can see a beaver has dammed it up so that is more of a pool.

In our area the wood ducks usually fly down the river the first thing in the morning.

In past years they have seen many groups on Opening Day.  Not so this year.  They only saw a few ducks.  They ended up with two ducks and only one was a Wood Duck, (limit of Wood Ducks is three).

They did loose one cripple duck which dove while Thunder was retrieving another duck.  They could not find that duck.  Thunder did a good job.  He was rock steady and delivered the birds to hand.  Sometimes during the excitement of hunting, training goes to the side, but not with Thunder.

The next morning, it was Freighter’s turn.

The weather turned colder and it was windy and there were not many ducks flying.

Freighter was a good dog and sat and waited.  In past years he has been a bit squirmy, but this year he was a good boy.  They had a chance at one duck and he was steady until it was time to try to retrieve it.

The duck was not a Wood Duck, but a diving duck, and unfortunately the shot must have not hit it too hard because once the duck hit the water it dove and they could not find it even though they looked and looked.  Hubby got a new gun and it doesn’t pattern the same as his old so that was a bit of an issue.

So poor Freighter came away with no ducks and a slight case of cold tail (more about that in another post).

They did see a big buck that came to the river for a drink and Freighter was a good boy and just sat in his spot while the deer drank.

Since there were few ducks in the morning, hubby decided to try his luck in the evening up to dark.  Storm got to go this time.  It was much too warm for a vest so Storm left hers at home.

Usually we don’t see many ducks in the evening, but hubby figured since they were not around in the morning, maybe the evening would be better.

This day was nice and sunny.  They did not see any ducks.  Not a one.

Thunder got out another time and they heard lots of ducks, but a fog rolled in and there was no way to get a shot.  Other days, the ducks were around before shooting hours and then gone.

Sometimes the minutes matter and each day the shooting hours change.  For example one day it will be 7:15 am and the next it is 7:16 am.  There is a whole chart and formula so not only does a hunter have to know bag limits per species but also they have to be mindful of shooting hours.  There is a lot to remember.

Freighter had one last chance this trip to try for some ducks but unfortunately the only ducks they saw were swimming down the river and they were not in a position to try for a shot.

The week was somewhat disappointing because there were so few ducks around.  We aren’t sure if the locals migrated south already and new ducks have not arrived yet or maybe it was just an off year.

Brown dawgs will have some chances at hunting waterfowl in some other areas because the season lasts through November.

Many thanks to hubby for taking all of these pictures with our little waterproof camera.