Ran out this morning for my third Teal hunt of the season. Though I have today off; it was spur of the moment. Hunted close to home so a shorter drive, no kayak, trimed the load down to only a few light decoys for walking in. It was nice to sleep late. Well late for a duck hunt that is. My wife said Blaze was up and waiting at the door long before I was awake.



Only four birds came in this morning. All four fell to #7 steel out of a cylinder choke. It was a close in your face hunt.



Went looking for meadow chickens before picking up decoys. Like other lakes I have been scouting/hunting, the water level on this one is falling. Because the place I hunted today only had a small portion of a once flooded meadow left with water under the weeds, it concentrated what few birds present. A cooler dryer morning in shorter cover, Blaze was at the top of her game on the Rails.





My shadow's shadow.

I got a pm invite from Randy, a friend on the Texas Hunting Forum to do a private land hunt with him and his son. My plans had already changed as many times as the weather that day, so heck yea I changed them again!

I usually take a lot of pictures, but with the rain off and on, the camera had to stay put up mostly, but I got these. Randy and Jordan are full of huntin stories. Made for a really enjoyable morning.

The Teal did not cooperate. One bird came in and landed, but it turned out to be just a rather lively Coot. We did pick up a couple dove late morning.





Jordan showing me how Remi can dive completely under water.



Here is a shot of the pond. Nice place!



The pups having fun. Blaze found a friend!




Big thank you to Randy for inviting me and for the hospitality. I had a great time. Miss Blaze had a great time.


After the hunt I headed North in the truck to a destination where I felt I might find some Rails to walk up. Randy and Son headed south for home.

I ended up in Oklahoma on an area I have hunted Rails before. I was hoping there would be a few since I was finding so many in Texas. Well I found no Rails. They should have been there. I think the front pushed them south. No Dove up there either. But....I did find these.





Well that concluded my 2010 Teal Season. And it was one for the books you might say.

On a visit to my hunting lease south west of Graham I found the field on our lease had been planted in Wheat and had Dove in huge flocks all over it. I just knew it was going to be on like Donkey Kong the next morning so I stayed at my lease instead of hunting on Green's fields farther North of me. Don't know what happened. The birds did not show in the morning like the evening before, nor did they return this evening. Very few on the field. The cooler nights moved em on south I guess or on to other fields being planted in the area. I found only a few birds mid day roosted in the mesquites. They were so full of sprouted wheat that had been washed out from the rain they could hardly fly. Anyway, I am sure a wave of northern birds will be coming in soon as they always do.

Overall it was still a great time. I did kill a few birds. And I got of lot of lease chores done.