another sunny WNY day

and some more spring duck pics.  Some of these were taken at Tonawanda WMA and some were taken at the “Muck”.  I hope you like them. 

Thanks for looking!

Good gunning!

Rich

It’s March and that means…..

PINTAILS!
We are once again blessed with thousands of these beauties in their most pristine color. I have been able to capture a few with my Canon on about the only bright sunny day we have had this whole month. We also have a huge number of Tundra Swans in town. We usually get swans here in the spring, but the number of them this spring is astonishing. This past weekend I would estimate 1,500+ were at the muck alone.

Good gunning!

Rich

Great day with our nations heroes

Well the dust has settled and after a great night’s sleep I am finally getting around to post up about the veteran’s hunt this past Thursday. We ended up hosting 18 US combat veteran’s instead of the original 16 that we planned on. My group was one of the groups that took a 5th vet with us, which was no problem because the size field and spread we had we stood a better chance hiding the extra guy.

All of the vet’s arrived on Wednesday and we had a reception at the Batavia Days Inn. We also used this as an information meeting telling the vet’s what they could expect on the next day’s hunt.

We then went to my church where a pasta dinner was prepared for all of the vet’s and volunteers. The meal was prepared by Jim & Yvonne Beverly and their daughters. It was a great meal and everyone looked like they had plenty to eat. Once dinner was finished we then drew names to find out what group the vet’s would be hunting with. After that everyone turned in to get ready for what was to be a long day ahead.

The day started at 3:30 AM as the motel put on a continental breakfast for us and our plan was to head to the fields at 4:30. There was an element of excitement in the room….these guys were ready to “roll up on some fowl”. After some coffee and some further organization stuff, we were ready to head on to our hunting spots. I gotta say we looked pretty impressive rolling down the road as most of us had to head in the same direction. We had trucks and trailers lined up and I thought to myself. ‘mercy sakes we got ourselves a convoy’.

Our field was pretty close to the motel so a 5 minute ride is about all we had. We set up 160 full body goose decoys, 30 full body ducks, 12 half shell ducks and 3 MOJO’s for our spread. Everyone did a great job pitching to help set up the spread. Some put layout blinds together, some unbagged decoys, some unloaded the trailers, some brought decoys out to me to be placed. It was a great team effort. We got everything set up and the trucks/trailers out of the field and ready to go with about 20 minutes before LST.

I went over the safety rules and showed the guys that have never hunted out of a layout blind how it should go and placement of the muzzle of their shotgun, etc. and it was 10 to go, so we got in our blinds and got ready for the first flock.

By the time the hunt was called the vet’s had put down 3 mallards and 2 Canada Geese. The weather was not real conducive to waterfowl hunting. It was a nice cold start to the day, but without a cloud in the sky, absolutely no wind and temps warming up to the high 50’s we were really up against it. I watched 500-600 mallards work and land in this field the night before the hunt and had great expectations for at least a good duck shoot. We saw maybe 50 ducks all morning and 25-30 of those were at 10 mins before LST. We called the hunt at 10:00AM and everyone did a great job getting the spread picked up and then we did a quick photo of the group with the birds and we headed on out to get on our way to the North Star Sportsman’s Club for the after party/luncheon.

A local chapter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation donated, cooked and served the meal at the NSSC. They prepared elk burgers, venison steaks, Italian sausage, caribou chili, Cajun venison chili, salt potatoes and salad. After the meal we had several items and prizes that we had gotten in donations for the vet’s. So we set it up as a raffle type thing and we drew names for the order of which the prizes were given. We had (2) Mossberg shotguns, several carved decoys, 3 taxidermist’s donated 1 mount each, plus several other items such as duck/goose calls, hats, knives, etc.

Once we were finished with handing out the donations, we had 2 ceremonial flags to raise. One flag was brought back from Iraq that flew in combat missions with our Lake Plains Waterfowl Association’s President’s nephew. He is actually on his way home right now, but could not be back in time to join us on the hunt. The flag was raised by his uncle and his brother who served in the Navy on the USS Ronald Reagan. The other flag was flown over 200 missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and was raised by Mike Richardson (his flag) and Mike Cheramie. This flag will fly for the remainder of its life at the North Star Sportsman’s Club. Mike Richardson gave it to Tim, Craig and I for putting on this event and we in turn donated it to the NSSC for letting us use their facility for this event.

And thus was the end of the day. A few stuck around to chat a bit more, not wanting the day to end. Others had long drives and said their goodbyes and voiced their appreciation for the time that was had. On a personal level for me it was a very humbling experience on many levels. I think about what these men do and have done for our country and I cannot help to get a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye. I was so honored to spend a couple of days with these men and it was a pleasure to be able to be a part of giving something back to them, even something as small as a duck/goose hunt on a bluebird day in Western New York. I can’t wait for next years event. God bless our men and women of our armed forces!

Good gunning!

Rich

2010 NYS Youth Hunt

Got together with fellow D3TV Pitcrew member Craig Southard and his guides from Southern Tier Outfitters for a youth hunt up here in Western New York. They brought along 5 great kids to have a day of fun chasing after ducks and geese. It was a pleasure to have Taft, Alec, Jake, Alex and Jase along. They ended the day with 2 wood ducks, 1 mallard and 1 Canada Goose.

Good gunning!

Rich

Here we go again

Day 2 of Northern NY duck season. Decoys are set, just 10 minutes until LST. Here ducky, ducky, ducky.

Good gunning!

Rich

Back in NNY

At the West View Lodge meeting good friends for dinner and tomorrow is NY’s Northern Zone duck opener.

A little Captain and Coke:

Waterfowl ID Course

Lake Plains Waterfowl Association will be hosting (2) waterfowl ID courses the coming month. This course is necessary to be eligable to hunt any of the Wildlife Management Areas such as Iroquois or Montezuma. You also need it to be able to hunt the state run facilities at Oak Orchard and Tonawanda for the opening day lottery drawings.

Directions to Lake Plains Waterfowl Association can found here

Come take the NYSDEC Waterfowl Education Course @ LPWA one of the two coming Friday evenings. Pre-register at the Town of Greece Town Hall by calling the Town Clerck’s number @ (585) 225-2000. Register Monday – Friday from 9 am to 5 pm

This course is one night only. Successful completion of this course and passing the final exam will get you a certificate which will be required if you wish to participate in the waterfowl hunting programs on a few NY State WMAs and the Montezuma and Iroquois NWRs. Booklets will be passed out night of the course. Note: Our classes run 4 hours long and we believe that they are the best in the state of NY! Pre-study is recomended, go here: Ducks At A Distance

Course Class Dates Times

W2 Friday Oct 1 6:00PM – 10:00PM

W3 Friday Oct 8 6:00PM – 10:00PM

Good gunning!

Rich

On our way home

We are on our way back to Western NY from hunting RP geese in NNY with Bill Saif. We had a great couple of days with Bill and his staff. We ended up with a total of 48 geese for the 2 days. Thanks Bill and the folks at West View Lodge!

Good gunning!

Rich

Stalled out

We are stuck at 11 birds……..we’ll see how the morning ends.

Good gunning!

Rich

Back at it……

May be a quick one this morning. 3 geese down already and not even 7:00 yet. We may get wet though, looks like rain. Gotta go more geese coming.

Good gunning!

Rich