A Wild Goose (and Duck) Chase

This story actually started about seven years ago. At that time I hunted big game, small game, dove, quail and I loved to fish, but I had never hunted ducks nor geese. Not that I didn’t want to, I just didn’t have any close friends that did and I never gave it a second thought.

Well back on that fateful night, it was an usual beautiful summer Arizona one, I camped out at a northern Arizona lake. Since it was so nice I just slept in the back of my pickup. During the night I had the most vivid dreams of duck hunting. I awoke, not very well rested, but with a desire to go duck hunting like no other. Needless to say, it was still very early and there were hundreds of ducks and geese on the lake. They were beautiful, but very noisy. Ever since that night I have wanted to hunt ducks and geese, but just never had, that is until last weekend.

My husband has been scouting for our upcoming deer hunt a lot in the past few weeks. In this one area he has visited numerous times, there are two ponds, back-to-back. In at least one of them there are always ducks, at least that is what he says. Quote "I’ve never been there and not seen any ducks in at least one of those ponds, lets go."

So we go to the Post Office- $15.00 Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp, then off to get our $7.50 Arizona 2000 Waterfowl Stamp. I even got a new shotgun and a pair of binoculars (just as good as an excuse as any). I’m ready! So off we go.

We get to the ponds, park, shut doors quietly, sneak up softly and slowly, get to the top of the embankment, glass the pond and Nothing! Well that just means that today they are on the other pond. Now I’m really ready! Same thing-sneak up softly and slowly. I can’t tell if I am making noise anyway since my heart is beating so loudly.(we know that the ducks are there, don’t we) Sneak, sneak, reach top, peek and Nothing!

I look at my husband and figure that this was just his excuse to go out, get another shotgun, pair of binoculars, and have a whole day to scout for deer. He looks at me and says "I’ve never been here and not seen ducks in at least one of these ponds." Yeah, right! Needless to say, we spent the rest of the day scouting for deer, checking out tracks and not seeing any ducks or geese.

And that’s not the end of it. If that wasn’t bad enough, the next day while I was at work, he goes out to the ponds (yes, the same ones) and comes home with ducks. I think I will go alone next time, he’s a jinx.

Happy Hunting – Annette Urquides

P.S. Those stamps I bought are beautiful, which is a good thing, since they were the only waterfowl I got to see.