DUCKTAILS
WHEN GEESE TALK
Blue Goose: Tom that you? Hey, I though you were on a strap after that last mistake coming off the roost.
Snow: Al, you ol’ eagle head. Give me a wing. (They flap wings together) Nah..... had a few hits but nothing got past the first set of feathers. Looked down and saw he was shooting one of those 2-3/4 inch, 12 gauge Over & Unders. Those hunters can't take the pounding of the 3-1/2 inch shells; lucky for me he was shooting regular duck loads.
Al: Even those small pellets can break a wing at 50 yards or put an eye out. We better circle over the roost and go out way above 60 yards. One of these days we chance meeting up with a real hunter using the 3-1/2 inch Winchester Supreme or a 10 gauge with those new "lead" type shells.
Tom: Your right we could end up flying over a hunter that knows distance and takes skeet practice instead of buying a flashy gun case.
Al: Where you been grubbing?
Tom: Yesterday it was a pasture - loaded with cow dung. But I saw a wheat field just a mile or so to the north, looked yummy, but filled with hunters. Let’s fly over the wheat field and see if that spread is still out from yesterday.
Al: We’re coming to it now. Man, that dew makes those decoys shine. Lucky for us that group of hunters is as lazy as we are. Sitting on the roost last night I heard a group of hunters talking about the new decoys for the last of the season. We had better get in some of those 20 year old snows before we end up as goose sausage.
Tom: The only thing bad ‘bout flying with those older snows is the orders. Fly down there and check this out, then fly over there and check that out. This scouting can get you killed. Maybe we better hook up with a flight of cranes. They seem to come back from the morning feed with less loss than any other waterfowl.
Al: That's not a problem for you, you blue phase white heads are always giving orders not taking them. It’s us gray feathered snows that get the shit details.
Tom: What kind of new decoys? What haven't we seen from the feeding grounds to here? I've been shot at so many times I hate to fly less than a half mile high. This eating and drinking will get a goose killed.
Al: The phase of the moon will be right in several more days and it will be right to head back to Egg River on Banks Island.
Tom: Why are so you so anxious to head back to the Motherland? It will take 4 or 5 days of constant grubbing for the green shoots to build up for the trip.
Al: Sex, man, sex. Can't you see the solid white? I'm 2 and its time to pick a mate and start bringing up the little Al's.
Tom: You might want to think it over and head for Baffin Island, there are sure to be more ladies and Hudson Bay is a better place to raise a family. I hate to think of the time it takes to sit around and decoy the possums, coyotes and foxes away from the nest.
Al: Tom, what happened to your old lady? I haven't seen her this year and the two of you were always together with the other six young ones.
Tom: Last year one of those new spreads with the spinning wings and string-o-wings attracted Tom Jr., and he and his brothers and sisters headed for the spread. The ol’ lady tried to head them off, but it was too late. It was an ambush. They are all gone.
Al: Sorry to here that. What's up for this spring? Oh, I'll head back and try to mate up around Nebraska and go on to the Hudson Bay, you know I favor that area.
Tom: Say, look down there, it could be breakfast or a spread.
Al: With this wind and gray day I can't be sure until I go down for a look, and I'm hungry.
Tom: Say, look over there it's an Anser albifrons frontalis.
Al: A what?
Tom: A spec, you ninny. Let's fly over and have a chat. He might have checked out the breakfast fields by now.
Tom: Hey, spec. What’s your handle?
Spec: Henry, they call me Henry.
Al: Well, Henry, you been in this area long? Know any safe good breakfast fields.
Henry: Wish I did. I lost my whole family when we first got here several months ago. Been on the look out for a spare female to hook up with for the flight back to the Yukon Delta.
Tom: What does that look like to you?
Henry: What?
Tom: The geese in the middle of that wheat field down there.
Henry: Can't be sure, but I've learned wherever there are a group of you snows and blues it ain't no place for a dark goose. You attract too much shooting. So I'll be heading on until I see some of my own.
Al: I guess we better find a large group and sort of follow them around.
Tom: Maybe, but I think we should get closer and check this field out. I been eating roots and sure would like some wheat this morning.
Al: Hey, the sun's breaking, and would you look at that, a flash of light from the geese.
Tom: Check this out. I see five, no, six hunters. Good camo, white parkas. I like this sun. It shows off the glasses on that hunter over there, the ring and watch flashing off that hunter over there.
Al: Say, look at that old Model 12. Haven't seen one of those in my lifetime, just heard about them. Must be borrowed, not the type gun for a hunter with no facemask.
Tom: Sure glad it’s old and shinny. Most hunters that used those things made skillet meat out of geese like you and I.
Al: You know if they had kept their faces and hands covered we might have ended up like you say - skillet geese.
Tom: Nice layout, good coverage, rags look almost perfect. Sure would have fooled me. I like that calling. Must be conservation season. They get to use those flock-rousting tapes. Hope they never get a good feeding tape.
Al: Take a look at that pasture over there. It’s roots again, but the 4-wheeler is in the middle of the field and the hunters are almost finished picking up and leaving. Let’s drop down about halfway between that ditch and the hunters. I saw all the guns were in the cases, we should be safe enough.
Tom: Watch out over there coming out of the sun, it's an eagle. We better make tracks.
Al: You were right, if it’s not one thing it’s another. This eating will kill you.
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