Well, That Escalated Quickly

 

The other day I had a  few hours to hunt in the morning.  I got up and out of bed.  As i went through my normal morning rutine of making coffee and brushing my teeth my hunting buddy sent me a text.  He was not able to make it.  I thought for a second about going back to bed and how good that would feel.  But as I looked out the window i could see the flag hanging stright down like it was in a picture.  The high temps for the day were going to be around 50, so i could not pass the day up, and besides, the boat was all ready hooked up to the Jeep.  I got going and had no problem getting the boat in.  On the ride out i was debating weather or not I should go over to my honey hole or try something new.  I decided to try a new spot that I have always seen birds frequent.

   The tide was almost all the way out when I got to the spot.  I was glad to see that, as black ducks and brant like t frequent the uncovered rocks at low tide to feed on the exposed vegetation or what ever else they can find.  It made the task of setting out the decoys a little tricky, but i got it.  I decided to run 15 Old Squaw decoys mixed with 6 of the foam Herters decoys that I painted to look like Old Squaw on 2 long lines.  Now I could tell the weather was nice and the surface of the Sound looked like a mirror.  I know when it is really calm the Buffleheads come out of the harbors and zip around the open water.  I threw in 4 Bufflehead decoys as well to pull a few of them in.  I anchored the boat 10 yards from the decoys and got the blind up.
      It seemed to take forever for the first bird to come in.  I just got done loading the gun and 3 were already landing in the decoys.  The first shot folded up the Drake and the hen next to him.  The second shot killed the other hen.  I was about 3 minutes into the hunt and i just downed 3 Old Squaw with 2 shots.  I would have let the third hen go  but its hard now that I no longer have a pump gun.  Running a semi-auto is cool.    Here in CT we can Kill 5 sea ducks no more than 4 can be Scoter and no more than 4 can be Old Squaw.  I had several more flights come in but I just didn't want to end my hunt in 10 minutes.  As the sun got a little higher I could see birds flying around all over.  My day dreams were filled with images of a golden eye, scoter, scaup, bufflehead, or merganser coming in, but all the birds flying were old squaw.  It was like someone shook a bee hive.  Finally, I had a nice drake come into the decoys and I shot him down.
    Sea Ducks are a separate limit from ducks and geese so I decided to stay out.  I didn't have to wear gloves and the jacket came off.  I did notice a pair of black ducks land about 100 yards away in the rocks.  I was hopeful they would paddle up to my boat so i could jump shoot one but they went the other way.  Some brant flew by but not with in range.  At 830am  i packed it in.  What a great day it was.