Sunrise, Thanksgiving Day, 2008
After the storm that put 50,000 customers without power, the wind did become light southwest and it became an excellent chance for some sea ducking. The key question that presented itself was whether or not the 59 mph gusts from the southeast and a sustained wind around 40 mph would drive out our existing eiders or usher in new ones?
See the Bangor Daily news article about the storm...
It didn't take long to discover that our morning would be full of excellent opportunities as groups of 8 to 15 eiders kept arriving from the east. These birds were mature and large, obviously brought in from the cold spell last week and the fierce winds following the cold snap. In 45 minutes, my father and I had filled our bag limit of eiders (10) and dad scored an extra hen oldsquaw (long tailed duck). After our hunt, dad and I both agreed that this has been the best gunning of the season thus far.
Hen oldsquaw and one mature drake eider
What we didn't realize it that the storm had kicked up an astronomical amount of seaweed and it was very difficult to get our long lines of eider decoys into the boat. Typically we clean the line as we put the decoys back into the baskets, but with the shear heft of the line we ended up just throwing the entire works into the back of the boat. It did take some time to clear that quagmire!!!
The rabid outdoorsman will attest to how bad this mess is!!!
Here's a photo of our quarry, a true morning to be thankful for...
Limit of eiders...Happy Thanksgiving
2 comments:
What a hunt you guys had. And an Oldsquaw ta'boot! This will be one Thanksgiving you'll remember for a very long time.
Happy Thanksgiving from Terry and Jet.
Congrats DEDH!It always makes it all worth it when you have a hunt like that.I'm hoping for the same results Friday ,watch out ducks.
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