Before I forget it, altogether, here's our September teal summary:
Date: 9/11 - 9/26
Time: every morning and four afternoons
Location: Mudhole every morning and new Welsh farm on afternoon hunts
Cloud Cover: Some of everything, to include a tropical storm's passage.
Wind Direction and Velocity: Again, some of everything from dead-a--ed calm all morning to northern and storm fronts.
Temperature: Cooler than usual for the most part, albeit not always.
Moon phase: A big one may have contributed to the last week's slowdown.
Special Notes: Given the number of higher than usual number of hens (presumably without young to wait on) in the bag, one has to wonder how significantly drought in the Dakotas and other breeding grounds helped this September season - and will hurt longer term
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Waterfowl Activity: Their usual trend toward sometimes scary slow starts continued on all but the morning a cool front hit. Overall, though, we saw better than usual teal numbers. Lots of woodies and tons of squealers but not as many mottleds as we'd like to see in the marsh.
Waterfowl Responsiveness: True to form, the teal were almost always running scared at the onset and taming as the mornings wore on. Big spinners and aggressive calling are credited with our better-than-most success.
Hunters: Little of everything from old friends and relatives to brand-new to me and/or the camp guests. And, of course, running the gamut of experience and proficiency.
Guns: Buckley and Scott's .410s were the first I've hosted in adult hands.
Malfunctions: MMM splasher acted up despite repair attempts until the last few days and don't know if it's really fixed or on its way out...
Dog(s): Marsh suffered a break or two, but mostly did us and his breed proud.
Special Equipment: SOS: two standard-sized Mojos, a jacked-up Mallard Machine and our special "PhD duck decoy":
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Curses: I'm way too lazy to hunt up something to bitch about in such a September.
Kudos: Also too lazy to list our blessings, but chief among them were sharing a marsh day with "Uncle Franklin" and getting Bruce into plenty of birds after his only previous September hunt with us was such an incredible bust.
Birds By Species: We took 334 teat, 329 blue-winged teal and 5 green-winged. (with nary a band in the bunch)
Photo Ops: My runaway pick of the photo litter:
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Lagniappe: Whether by location, tactic, dumb luck or, perhaps most likely, all of the above, we were blessed compared to most in our marsh and immediate area, and I am most grateful for that and the fine company shared on each and every hunt.
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