September 12: Picture of the Day

For the past few days, a few flocks of Canada geese have been coming to the pond regularly.

Every morning they’ve been there, prompting calls from several sources telling me to get hunting.

So we did today. The Farmer, me and our weekend waterfowling apprentice Andrew Jordan spent a few productive hours in the duck blind. Andrew is an eighth grader here in Elmwood who is interested in duck and goose hunting. So we’ve taken him a few times this year and last. Unfortunately, we haven’t had much luck, though The Farmer did shoot a honker last weekend.

As far as that goes, today was the most productive yet. Andrew shot his first goose. He’s pictured above with the bird and with his young Lab, Sophie. I’d like to report that she also retrieved her first goose, but reality isn’t always so perfect. She was interested, but not interested enough to pick up the goose. Maybe next time.

More important to me is seeing another youngster learning to enjoy waterfowling. What I really want to see is the day Andrew gets in on one of those 18-duck days when you run out of shells and barely have time to keep track of how many birds are in the blind. That’s the day that will make him a duck hunter for life. Can it happen this year? Let’s hope so.