QUAIL, SNOW GEESE AND SQUIRREL

Last Monday, after work, I walked with the dogs to the woods. Came back by way of the back lane and took the road from there. When I got close to brother Brian's house I heard some quail calling. I looked down and there was a dead quail on the road. There wasn't much left of him. A little away from that one was another one. This one was in better shape - he was still alive. I took him home and put him in a box by the wood stove. I gave him some water and some food. In an hour he flew out of the box. I moved him out to the garage the next day. My plan is to release him outside this week.



Saturday we shot some snow geese at the wetlands.
Flickr">I shot this squirrel with the 17 and had him for dinner last night.
Milton, from Jersey, came and we filled his feeder.
Sunday I went looking for sheds and checked for deer tracks. You can see the browse line.

LOTS OF SNOW

The snow has kept me from hunting.It was too deep to drive through. Really hard to walk in even with snow shoes on. I walked back to plot 1 and by the time I got back home I felt like I had run 10 miles. The dogs were not doing any better.

I cleared a path to the hard road with my tractor. Then went to brother Brians house through the field. Cleared his drive way.
Judy tried my snow shoes, fell down and couldn't get back up.
This weekend I cleared a path down the back lane almost to the straw bales. The snow geese were out by the wetlands and I was able to get one.
It's not that bad a walk now to the duck blind or wetlands.The snow geese ate all my corn. I got this picture on my trail cam that is set up at the flood pond.
Two of these geese have bands around their necks. I put corn out behind the duck blind and a salt block and set my trail cam there. The next day I checked on the camera and corn and found this: That's me putting out the corn. This is what happened to it all by the next day .
Here I am, I can't believe it, - 50 pounds of corn gone!
Monday at lunch the snow geese were back at the wetlands. I walked to the trees sticking up in the pond, the ice was thick enough to walk on. Resting my 17HNR rife on a tree, I took aim at one of those geese with the bands around it's neck. It was out about 175 yards. I aimed a little high and hit the goose behind it. It fell over on it's back and Janey went for the retreive. Before she got to it, it got up and flew off - Janey chasing behind.

LAST DAY TO SHOOT DUCKS

I met Bill at his farm Saturday morning. We had a plan to sneak up on the snow geese and ducks that had spent the night on the pond. With both my dogs, we snuck up to the pond before shooting light. The ducks always leave first and we were in place when they left. The first pair of ducks flew over Bill and he got one of them. Then the snows got up, about a thousand, they were a little too far for my twenty but I did knock one down. The dogs went for Bill's duck and didn't see my goose go down. Janey finally found it. Next we put decoys out in the field. Stayed in the blind till 8 and then gave up since it was cold. I went home and cleaned up the buildings. Bill sat in the truck and watched the ponds. A lone goose came in to the decoys. That got Bill out of the truck and back in the blind. The goose stayed with the decoys and Bill. When Bill saw another goose, he started calling and almost got him but he flared and away he went. It was snowing hard by then and Bill went home. At 4 I called Bill and told him I was going back to try for the ducks as they came back to the pond for the night. When I got to the blind the goose was still there but I couldn't stop Janey from running it off.The wood ducks started coming back about 4:45 and I ended up getting 2.

Dakota retrieved one and Janey got the other - they were both drakes.
We ended up with about 8" of snow. I've been seeing a lot of does in the food plots and there has been 8 quail feeding in the soy beans next to the the cover beside brother Brian's house for last few days. Here's my house in the snow.