The Return of Duck Season

Over the last year I have been seeing lots of wood ducks and a few mallards using the pond on my family farm. Since all of my friends were deer hunting Saturday morning, I decided to try it out. I arrived to the farm around 6am. Legal shooting time in my location was 6:16 am. I camoflauged myself against a cow pasture fence that was covered in weeds. It is the perfect cover since it is on the side of the pond that the ducks usually use to land. At approximately 6:28 am a single drake wood duck flew in from behind my location and landed 20-25 yards directly in front of me. I waited about 5 seconds to see if any more were coming. Nothing happened. I cleanly cut him off of the water and that was the end of the hunt. I was quite pleased to have success on my first ever duck hunt on my family farm.

After the hunt I cleaned this fine specimen and had a fine little helper.

This duck did not go to waste. His breast and thigh meat were marinated, wrapped in bacon and on the grill by 2 pm.

It was a good day.