First Day of Bird Season

Bird Season opened on Saturday, being the first of October, and true to form I went out hunting.  I have a good friend Blake whose birthday falls on October 1.  So as a form of a birthday gift, I offered to take Blake out to try and bring home a few "thunder chickens".  His wife Sarah and one of their friends were going to tag along as well.  Saturday, I awoke to a rainy dreary day, which I don't particularly mind for chasing birds, but the wind was blowing quite hard which I don't particularly like.  On the way to meet them, I went by one road that looked particularly habitable for birds, so I couldn't drive by it and took a quick spin in.  Right as the alders started to close in at the end of the road, I could see a bird fly across the road a hundred yards ahead.  I quickly grabbed the shotgun, and bailed out of the pickup stuffing shells into the chamber as fast as my fingers would work.  I loaded three shells and then worked the pump action to load the chamber.  I fought through the alders, and was drenched in about three seconds, as each leaf seemed to hold a gallon of water.  I pushed back into the fir stand where I last saw him disappear, but after still hunting through, I had not seen him again when I hit a flooded portion where the beavers had been busy.  Now I was running behind schedule, and I didn't feel like wading this early in the day, so I headed back to the truck.  I picked up the other three and headed for another road.  It wasn't long, before we saw another bird that was very skittish, and flew as soon as we saw him.  Blake and I went in after it, but due to my previous experience, I wasn't feeling hopeful.  We slowly worked through a fir thicket, and had all but given up, when it flushed from 10 feet away.  The regenerating fir blocked it from our vision, but the thunderous noise that the wings create on takeoff is unmistakable.  We trudged back to the truck, to continue our tour of the woods.  We rode a lot of country before I finally spotted a dark spot about a quarter of a mile up the road, and a quick glimpse through the binoculars confirmed it was a bird.  As I hurried to get closer, we didn't make it much closer before it decided to fly.  We hunted through the woods for a while, but we could not seem to find it.  That was the last bird we saw for the day, and we reverted to shooting a couple of soda cans to practice our aim.  Please remember to pick up any cans or targets you use, because we all want to enjoy the woods without junk scattered everywhere!  Below are a few pictures from the can shooting excursion.

Blake Setting Up a Can

Decision - Shotgun or Pistol?

Blake's Trophy for the Day!