Serendipity?

[OntarioHunter]

Took the dogs for a walk this afternoon to see if we could bag some ducks jump shooting a chain of sloughs. At the first one I walked up on about twenty honkers against the edge of tulies. Fanned the first shot trying to hit one in the head rather than blow it up. The second shot dropped two and third shot pulled right for clean miss. I was pleased my Lab Ellie brought both honkers to shore (she still will not bring anything to hand over land). I have shot geese off that little pothole many times but jump shooting honkers is not something I experience a lot ... unfortunately. Spotted a flock of mallards on one of the smaller ponds but it's too much of a mess in there so I gave them a pass. As we were making our way through thick brush to the last slough in the chain, a family group of honkers came in for a landing on the far end behind the trees. What a racket! Must be hundreds sitting on the water up there. But I'm not going after them. Horrible brushy and difficult to get a shot. Don't want to clean birds that badly. So we worked our way around to the bend of the oxbow and waited hoping the geese would leave for the fields through the creek channel opening there. Sat for about an hour watching hundreds of geese come in from Lake Superior two hundred yards high and drop like stones into the flock at the other end. It was windless so they were putting on quite the acrobatic show as they came down. It was a long walk back to the Jimmy so I decided to pack it in well before dark. Nothing would come my way with that mob on the water at the other end. As I neared the sort-of trailhead at the west end of the oxbow, I thought I'd take a photo of the fall colors for you folks. Set down my old A-5 and pulled out the phone. Darn! It was almost out of gas and on low viz power save mode. I was looking over the phone trying to get the shot properly framed ... and there's a family group flying silently straight for me not seventy yards out. I dropped the phone, hissed at the dogs to be still, scooped my gun and dropped a double from almost straight overhead. The first nearly hit me. It landed on water's edge and the second one smashed into the willows ten yards away with such a thump I thought my feet would come off the ground. Couldn't get a great third shot so I held off. Heck, four geese is more than I wanted to deal with and hauling more than a couple through that jungle is a nightmare. As soon as I picked up the second honker a large flock took off from the other end and also exited my end. There were so many I was pretty much assured a shot. It was a long one to fill my limit but I dropped the honker in water just a few feet from the shore ... if you want to call it that. Very boggy. Ellie brought it that far and no further. She just is not into big bird retrieves. My Muck Boots got me close enough to pull it in with gun barrel. Now I had my hands full. I have a bird carrier ... but it's still in the decoy bag in the Jimmy. My shotgun is equipped with sling swivels ... but the sling is in the game bag of my upland vest at home. Nuts! After falling down a second time I knew this wasn't going to work. I'm nursing a nuisance hernia (COVID has scrapped elective surgery) so either take all night hauling them out one at a time or think of something. As I was laying on the ground in the brush the dogs came over to see if I was okay. Well there's the solution! I pulled off Puppy's buckle style nylon collar, undid the buckle, pulled the end through the tag/leash ring, and looped it over the knee knuckle of one leg of each goose. Tied a not on the other end for something to hang onto, threw the bunch over my shoulder and headed out. It was a helluva job getting back . One of those honkers was a whopper.

Sorry, I didn't get that photo snapped but here's one I took almost in the same spot about six years ago. It is a pretty place ... but a real killer getting in and out of there.