Rhode Island late geese - weekend 1 - Day 2

Day two found us on the same farm, a few hundred yards northwest of where we hunted the yesterday. We moved where the birds were in the afternoon after our hunt.  Today we sat on a hill, in between rows of old pepper plants.  The crew was Jim, Jay, Kyle, myself and a friend,  Dave, who hadn't been on a field goose hunt to date.

With the exception of one lone single at 7:30, the birds didn't fly until about 9:30.  We were loading the gear back on the tractor about an hour later with a five man limit. Again today, one bird was banded, another Massachusett's resident, banded in 2009. I took the honors on this one, although had I shot a second later it would belong to Jim!

  

A flock setting in to Jim, Kyle and Dave after I had my five.

Jim and Kyle extracting their last two for the morning.

View of the spread from above

Something to snack on while we hunted...I actually tried one, still had good flavor.

The crew minus me with the bag.

Today's jewelry, It had pitting all over it, saltwater damage maybe?

A unique goose chin

Rhode Island late geese - weekend 1 - Day 1

Jim, Jay, Kyle, Ed and I chased some late geese this morning on a local farm. Late goose season brings more liberal limits, but less huntable land and usually more educated birds. This field we chose has been holding over a thousand birds on a daily basis, so we knew it would be a great hunt.  The birds did their part and we did ours.

Hiding

Take Em!

Lugging gear by foot is for suckers.

A visit from one of RI's EPOs. Glad to see them doing their job!

Kyle pulled a prize out of our first flock. Banded in Mass. about 10 years ago.

Duck Traps, a Pintail, Geese, etc.

Well the 2010/2011 waterfowl season is nearly over, duck hunting has been gone for almost a week now, and winter rages on. We have switched gears from chasing ducks with decoys and guns to using traps and bait with intentions of keeping them alive and fitting them with leg bands.  Several of our duck traps are set at locations that proved us well last year and it's shaping up to be a good season.

Besides combating snow filled traps, the ducks seem to be finding the bait and while the traps aren't set yet, the birds are becoming quickly accustomed to them.  JV and I spent the day cleaning out traps and re-baiting them.  With any luck the skies will stay clear and we won't be burdened with any more of the white stuff that seems to be non-stop this winter.

A hen mallard hanging out on the trap, several black ducks look on.

John brings a trap to shore to clean the snow and re-bait.

This stunning drake pintail was hanging out at one of our trap locations, Glad to see he made it through the hunting season, lets hope we trap him and send him off with a shiny new band!

Just down the shore a ways, at another location we watched several hundred ducks and geese pitch into a small tidal creek.