End of season hunt

McTucker Springs at -10 degrees

Today was the last day of waterfowl hunting in our zone and I was hoping to give Mia and Elettra one last chance at retrieving. With a temperature of -10 and a breeze that dropped the wind chill below that, I left the guys in the truck while I hunted; I was afraid that the pads on their feet might become frostbitten. If I were to get any ducks, I’d walk back to the truck and get the guys to make the retrieve.

Elettra and Mia look for a way down to the water.

So that was how we hunted for the first couple of hours. By about 10:00, the guys were telling me in no uncertain terms that they were through with this “wait in the truck while you hunt” business. Even though the temperature was still -10, the sun was well into the sky and the breeze no longer had that cold burn to it, so I let them out to hunt the final section of the stream.

Success! We’re down to the water!

Several ducks had done a high flyover earlier and there was sporadic shooting down by the reservoir, goose hunters I imagine, but McTucker was completely devoid of ducks. I did flush several Buffleheads when we worked our way back to the truck, but with the steam and reflection from the opposite bank, the ducks were gone before I had much of a chance to even see them.

Now to get a drink.

So that’s pretty much how my hunting season wrapped up although waterfowl hunting continues for another week throughout the rest of the state and partridge season goes until the end of January. Instead, I’m going to start back into training the guys. I’m thinking of getting Mia into a Senior hunt test or two, Elettra her Junior hunt title, and entering Doc in AKC, NAVHDA or VHDF tests.

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