Aroostook bird hunters enjoy a wide variety
MAINELY OUTDOORS
by Bill Graves
Setting out a spread of goose and duck decoys using the slim beams of headlamps to cut the pre-dawn darkness can be tricky business.
Mike Wallace, Buddy Horr, and I somehow stumbled about the harvested potato field with armloads of full body decoys and got the job done and our hay bale style blind erected in just over 20 minutes. As we settled down inside the spacious blind, the first pink edges of dawn flowed over the horizon to the sound of shotguns being loaded.
Contributed photo
MIKE WALLACE poses with ducks, geese, grouse and woodcock taken during a one day multi-quarry outing in The County.
The throaty Herrr-Oonk in the distance behind our hideout brought our trio to full alert. Mike waved a goose flag to simulate birds on the ground flapping their wings and I began blowing my Olt 800 call to coax them closer. As the strident honks approached everyone scanned through the peep-holes trying to spot the Canada geese. The group of seven birds suddenly appeared to the right of our blind; eyes searching, necks craning they scanned our decoys for anything suspicious.
I changed to double clucks, groans and growls in a softer tone to convince the honkers that all was well and the food was fine. The geese winged past, then four birds button-hooked and set their wings heading right for the landing hole in front of the hay bale blind. At thirty yards I called the shot and we all leaped up throwing the top cover aside and picked our targets. All four Canadas cartwheeled and tumbled to the ground.
After gathering up the geese, we hunkered down again to watch, listen, and wait. There was no calling, but suddenly a sound like a knife cutting satin assailed our ears and a flock of twenty or so ducks strafed our decoys and were past before we could blink. We all grabbed our duck calls and hailed the group with a frenzy of quacking. Turning on a dime the mass of wild wings returned and this time we were ready. Everyone emptied their scattergun and six mallards and black ducks rained down.
I had just unzipped my entrance flap to retrieve the ducks when distant calling signaled the arrival of more geese. Calling and flagging drew the two dozen birds near but despite circling several times with interest the group eventually winged away. Our commiserating was interrupted by another fast flying mass of ducks, and once again we managed to fool them into gun range and three more mallards were bagged.
Five minutes later a trio of Canadas approached and without hesitation set their wings, lowered their legs and began to land. Mike and I each tracked a goose and with the near simultaneous shotgun blasts our limits filled up. Picking up our decoys, blind and gear we decided to visit a pair of nearby farm ponds in hope of jumping some ducks and filling that limit as well.
Driving a farm field road through a small wood lot to the first marshy pond, I jammed on the brakes as two partridge scooted across in front of us. My passengers jumped out, grabbed shotguns and dug out some shells with size 6 pellets, then scrambled down the road. One grouse lagged behind and Buddy spotted it and added another species to our game bag.
From our two jump shoots our trio bagged more mallards, a black duck, a couple mergansers, and some ring-necked ducks, and it wasn’t even noon.
Over lunch we marveled at our fabulous luck and wide variety of waterfowl. With the rest of the day wide open it was agreed that a bit of upland gunning seemed reasonable, and perhaps we might add another feathered quarry. Dropping our ducks and geese off and picking up Mike’s German shorthair took a half hour, and then off we headed for a partridge and woodcock cover in Easton. Despite being late October the weather was fairly warm so a few woodcock might still be migrating and we always manage to flush a few grouse.
For an hour and a half our trio followed the bird dog through tamarack, firs, and alders taking turns shooting. Partridge were plentiful, eight were pointed and five ended up in the game bag. Timberdoodle were scarce, with only four pointed and two of the evasive little dickens bagged.
It’s early November, a couple of weeks after my diverse bird hunting day, but there’s still time for other sportsmen to enjoy their own multi-species bird challenge. Actually there are currently more geese and ducks, plenty of partridge, but woodcock will be rare. Also on the plus side, more deer hunters means fewer bird hunters. Snow has come and gone, more is in the future and hunting seasons are passing quickly, so get out there while you’re able.
