Still Not Ready

Hello again all my technologically advanced and well connected Waterfowl enthusiast friends. A walk outside this morning found southerly winds, mild precip, and a low ceiling. Could this be it? Would the 1.2million in Squaw Creek start to move North? One would hope. But not quite yet. The amount of coffee in the thermos acted as the time teller today. When the coffee was done so was I. A variety of weather this AM and we even had to fire up the HEAT. Sprinkles gave way to rain, which gave way to sleet, which gave way to big North winds. Many a days this past fall we would have loved todays wind's and low ceiling. Ducks by the thousands are everywhere, as well as a decent number of Can's. We did manage to see a dozen or so small bunches of Snows, with each bunch numbering less that 15. Not much of a push going on, but we did run into about 100 Can's that liked the spread. They came gliding from about 2 miles up right over the top of us, not a single wing beat. A great site! The last few warm days have definately pushed some more birds into the area, but the snow geese are still behind. After this front moves out we should be able to hunker down and get some good hunting in. For those of you who haven't been keeping up with Squaw Creek: two weeks ago 40,000 snows, 1 week ago, 600,000 and as of monday (3 days ago) 1.2million. A guy really should get some more bullets! If them baby's come movin' through here that quick I might just wet myself. Now, I know what you're saying, how can you get that excited about Snow Geese? Let me tell you, I've always been one for Conservation. I conserve my energy on the way to the ditch by riding a 4-wheeler. I conserve shells, by taking only high quality, sure shots. I conserve all my money by buying things that are only "on sale" from Cabela's and Mack's. And finally, on my lanyard I carry only the minimum amount of calls necessary to "sweet talk" the birds down...
"The Super Model" - a really high dollar duck call that I had to have that is way out of my league,
"Old Faithful" - a lower dollar but still expensive duck call that sounded better in the store than the really high dollar call,
"Coyote Ugly" - the super cheap duck call that I justified spending money on 'cause it sounded good in the store and was cheaper than the other two (what was I out?),
"Just In Case" - a speckelbelly call,
"Why Not" - a snow goose call,
"Soul-Mate" - a really high dollar canada goose call that I refuse to give up on 'cause it was so expensive, and...yep one more,
"The Fooler" - the ever popular drake whistle that some guy on a duck video talked me into having.
So you see, I do all I can for conservation. For now, we'll keep out watch for the beginning of the push and as always, check back for the latest and greatest and thanks for over 10,000 hits. MBO

Not Quite Yet

Hello again all my technologically advanced and well connected Waterfowl enthusiast friends. The water we had open last Sunday has now closed up with ice. We finished up the spread and some other housekeeping around the Ditch today. Apparently Mother Nature isn't quite ready yet! The ducks we saw Sunday have mostly moved on, either further North of back toward the South. Very few birds around during today's 6 hour event. A decent number of Dark Geese floating around the river, as that appears to be the only open water right now. Not a single snow goose seen yet. We fired up the horns today and wow what a sound. We got a car radio, an amp and 2 horns, how annoying! Hopefully the geese like it, as it is almost piercing to the ear of a human. The horns and the CD's came from performancecalls.com and they sound great. They are each over 1 hour of constant sound with no breaks. One is of feeding snows and one is flying snows. We've opted to go the easier and less expensive route this season and invested in some Goose Gloves. A guy spends so much money on Big Foots and GHG goose deeks why not use 'em. The Goose Gloves fit great, it's the most economical way to turn your Canada spread into a Snow spread. We're probably about 2 weeks away from seeing any real push of snows. This cold air from the North pushing down over the next few days will surely hold those 600,000 snows at Squaw Creek from coming up any further. We'll be ready when they come. Amongst friends I mentioned that I thought with good timing we may just be able to scratch as many snows this spring as we did ducks this fall. Who knows, the SSPI (sure shot predictive index) this fall what about as accurate as our local meteorologists. That's not saying a whole lot! Today's temp on the way to the Ditch was 10 degrees, it warmed up to 25 before we left about 1PM. Why is it that in the fall when it's 25 we have the heaters flared up and more clothes on that you can shake a stick at...and in the Spring when it's 25 and calm you don't even think about firing up the heaters? Just doesn't make much sense, but then again neither does snow goose hunting. Just trying to do our part for conservation! We'll keep up with the local bird news as best as we can until the real action starts. Check back for the latest and greatest and thanks for all the hits. MBO

Great Snow Goose Chase

Well, here we are. February 15th and the birds are slowly starting to trickle already. We set up shop today and a hammer and re-bar drilled the holes for the rags and the bigfoots are set up with goose gloves over the top. The Pintail's were all over the place this afternoon. Amazing site this time of year, plenty of huge bull's in full color. Thursday will be opening morning for the Great Snow Goose Chase. We have the horn speakers all amp'd up hoping they'll pull 'em in from the stratosphere. Just South there was about 5 inches of snow, but nothing in Tekamah. Not a single trace anywhere. The ground is beginning to thaw and the mud is THICK. Couldn't hardly get there with the small trailer hooked up to the Polaris. Have about 200 deeks out right now with a mix of floaters, full-bodies and rags. As soon as some more ice goes away, we'll put out some more floaters and see if that'll draw them in. It's time to get going after the 8 week break and we're ready. Ready for what only time will tell. If the amount of ducks around right now is any indication of the migration path toward the North, we should have some great sights this Spring. And...if we're lucky we may just scratch a snow goose or two along the way. Check back for the latest and greatest and thanks for all the hits! MBO