Well, if you call one bird taken...success. I was happy with it.
Yesterday afternoon I did the impossible. I army man crawled into the middle of a cattle pasture to within range of a small group Sandhill Cranes and picked off one bird when they finally made me out. I could have used one of those stalking cow decoys. There were black cows in the field and the Cranes really paid them no attention. Blaze was just a spectator from a distance. The field behind me in the picture is where the birds were.



Note the dirt on me from the crawl. And the stickers on my arm. This was a painful stalk as all those stickers were poking me through the jacket during my crawl. Even my head net was covered with them. I just moved slow with several pauses. When ever the birds were distracted from wind gusts and passing vehicles I moved the fastest.



My friend Steve came out later for some hog hunting. I tried to needle a .223 round from my retro AR15/M16 look alike through about 50 yards of brush for a headshot on one hog, but it got deflected. No hogs taken by either of us. Finished up with some Wild Turkey around the fire and venison smoked sausage on the mesquite grill. After this picture, my camera on/off button quit out on me and I had left my backup at home.



Morning plan was to put out my spread of 23 Silhouette Crane decoys and for confidence, a half a dozen feeder Higdon motion decoys. With a little Wild Turkey keeping me warm I got them piled in the field late teh night before so they would already be out there for this morning. Steve had work to do on the other side of the lease, but late morning he was to jump any cranes on the back field which from past patterning would normally send them to the field I was in. The morning before sun up I set up my decoys around an area of sheet water in the field, dug a pit for my layout and grassed it. With the Camera broke I took this with my cell phone.



At first light I was covered in ducks buzzing that sheet water. At sun up I was covered in Dove. And I bet I saw 150 Crows fly over me. First flight of Cranes had three birds. I was asleep, but they were very vocal waking me up with them about 40 yards up over my right shoulder. They were dipping and turning. I was sure they would commit so I did not move. Instead they turned again and away they went. It was only then I noticed the frost on my decoys melting and making them shine something awful. I should have taken the shot. Next group was again three birds. They had flown the treetops across the field and turned into the field straight for me. But again the shine. They turned at about 100 yards out. Last flight of the morning was just a pair. My decoys had dried by then and I hit the first bird which circled as crippled with the other bird still following. But it eventually recovered and they flew higher and higher until both were just dots in the distance. I left the field and got with Steve 'who had overslept' and we both made a stalk to intercept the Cranes in our back field, but they took flight just before we got in position.

Saturday I loaded up my full accompaniment of Snow Goose decoys and headed to Southern Louisiana to try some conservation season Snow Goose hunting with fella stationed at Fort Polk that I met on the Texas Hunting Forum after an invitation he posted up on the forum. I left Texas early so I could stop at a WMA in North West Louisiana to do some Snipe hunting and general scouting with my dog. Blaze got a good workout as well as did I, but found no Snipe. Which was expected due to an Ombudsman LA biologist who had previously let me know the birds had moved out a week before. Despite no birds I went looking anyway and besides sometimes adventure just finds me on such hunts. This day was no exception. On a walk back to my truck I spotted some Falconers.





I was intercepted and warned that the Redtailed Hawk they were using was not trained to hunt with dogs and that my dog could be in harms way if I let her too close. But they graciously invited me to hunt with them, so I put my gun and Blaze up at the truck and came back out with the Camera.

Meet Nandi the Redtailed Hawk!



The Falconers would beat the brush with sticks trying to flush out any Rabbits or other game they could. Nandi would follow along from tree to tree keeping and eye out. Nandi had already seen me with my Dog Blaze and remembering that, wanted very little to do with me. So I backed off some with the camera looking for that great kill shot.



Wouldn't you know it. When Nandi did make a dive I was ready with the camera. Even had it focused on her. As I yelled Oh WOW, I did nothing. Just too excited to think to push the shutter. Like flushing that first pheasant of a season where you just stand there and watch in amazement. Only remembering you are supposed to shoot that bird after it is too late. It is a feeling I hope I never lose.

But I got some great pictures of Nandi after. Here is Nandi again, with her owner, Pip.





Check out those Talons



Next up was a Harris Hawk. Padme I think.



By now, the hunting forum that I am a moderator for had come up in conversation which quickly led to "Hey I know that Hawk!" and "Hey I know that Dog". Turns out the owner of the Harris hawk was one of our forum members, Titaniumtalons or Michael Beran. Talk about a small world.



Michael's Hawk was hunted with his dog Dub.





Man what a great time! A big thank you to Michael and the rest of the Red River Dirt Hawkers for their hospitality. It was
a kind of hunting I had never before experienced. I look forward to tagging along again one day.



From there I headed south across most of Louisiana on my way to the conservation Goose hunt. Unfortunately I did not make it without being picked off as a non resident in one of the known Speed Traps recently investigated by the Louisiana Legislature, but I was soon on my way again. The hunt story continues with Snow Goose hunting in Louisiana Rice Paddy country.