While I wasn't able to be at the marsh for opening weekend this year, I still really enjoyed getting the intermittent updates from happy hunters and satisfied punters. Despite a warm weekend with plenty of swirling southerly winds, many limits were taken. And yet again, my phone was barraged with encouraging texts and photos with full grins.
The daily bag is six birds per hunter, but as the smiling faces above demonstrate, it's not about the numbers. The only number important to these three hunters was one -- as in the first. Two of these three are lease holders, a father/son duo who have plenty of history with our specific marsh; the third -- their 11-year old son/grandson -- was just indoctrinated with his first duck (or ducks, to be more accurate). Cool to have three generations in one photo; even cooler to know that if the stars align they could have four generations hunting together this year.
While I haven't seen much of the data yet, my hunch is that most of the weekend harvest was made up of mallards, blue-winged teal, wood ducks, and maybe a few of a few other species (e.g. pintail, green wings, wigeon, and gadwall).
A pretty solid weather front Sunday afternoon has ushered in cool, dry air with overnight lows these last couple nights flirty with 40 degrees. This is the coldest weather we've seen this season, so it will be interesting to see and hear how that alters what's flying.
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| A couple more happy hunters (and limits); one of the things I love most about waterfowl hunting is that it brings friends and family together outside |