1/21, 1/22. Getting scooped by geese.

[WhitewaterDuck]

Found whee the geese I've been seeing are going, and it's a field that a friend's business owns. Thought it would be easy. I figured out yesterday morning that I haven figured geese out yet. Came in and ran a pile out of here that were roosting where they had been feeding. It was torture, because the 500+ ducks that we jumped up all wanted back in and we got to watch a show like I've never even seen on TV. Didn't have my phone dammit. Hopefully this sheet water will be here earlier next year for some epic duck hunting. No geese in here this morning, so hopefully they will be coming here at first light to feed. Ducks are all around us, so hopefully I can get some good footage of something similar to yesterday's show to post up as well as some dead geese.

[DJP]

That is a lot of ducks!
Why not shoot them too?

In my experience in goose ponds like that they will come back but hopefully not in one big group. I actually don't mind flushing them out in the am. So.etimes it breaks them up and they come back in smaller groups.

[WhitewaterDuck]

Duck season ended 1/8. When I found the geese, they were in a wet field behind a place I've been eating at for years. Asked permission and got it. A closer look revealed a lot more water than you could see from the road extending back through an entire woodlot. A closer look revealed a pile of ducks. A week ago, there were a thousand geese in the field and I could see constant splashing behind them on the woodline, and I knew they were ducks. Thursday, all the geese were gone and did not come in. Friday they were back, but I could hear most were on the other side of the woodline. I found a road around the back, and there were canadas, white and blue phase snows, and specks...along with a pile of mallards, and at least a few pintails, bluebills or ringers, redheads, and at least one bufflehead or goldeneye. My binoculars suck and were dirty and fogging up. I got permission from the nephew of the guy who owns the other side of the woodline to walk in that way, and he said if I ask his uncle about hunting it, he would probably let me and gave me directions to his house. Going to go introduce myself tomorrow after work.

We only had 1.5 hours this morning before church, but I was able to knock one down goose down of the 10 or so that came close enough. These geese are weird and seem to have left the county overnight. While a few will come in every day just about anywhere you can find them, the big flocks will be in different spots for no apparent reason on different days. I figured that they had eaten all the food when I didn't see them Thursday where I saw them Monday...then they were back Friday. There is still corn and beans all throughout the field and they have not been pressured, so I guess they just go where they want when there is so much food all over the place. I was in a layout blind today, so I couldn't see the duck show as well this morning, but my bud said he counted at least 150 that came from elsewhere and dove into the fields and the timber. Not nearly what we saw yesterday. It's so freaking warm right now, I think the ducks and geese that we saw Friday are probably 200miles north. Looking forward to spending some mornings in there next duck season for sure. I got some phone camera footage of the ducks that happened to fly directly over me this am, and I'll try to put it on here if I can figure out how.

[Duckman#1]

Not a fan of bumping them out. What's the weather been like ? Warm temps is probably why they didn't return or not keeping schedule.

[WhitewaterDuck]

Very, very warm. Will be snowing again in three days.
I'm thinking about talking to the two owners of the flooded woods and the wet field. Wet wood lots aren't worth much to folks up here unless they are decent deer spots, and this one is small and in and amongst a bunch of industry. I'm going to see if the woodlot owner would entertain selling me those woods and then see if the wet field owner would sell me the low/wet portion of his field with me agreeing to let him keep farming it for as long as he farms. The only concern I have is that the waterfowl hunting there would suck without water...which didn't come this year till after season. So, how much money do you think it would cost to dig a well in there so I could flood it once the crops came down? Would it even be possible to flood 5 acres of relatively dry dirt with a well? Anybody ever do anything similar?