Big day here for the birds, saw close to a hundred of the big honkers here.

Hup if you have ever spent time in the field in the spring, you will notice this little ritual with ducks called "duck rape" doesn't happen with swans or geese, but with ducks, those drakes are ruthless in the spring, going as far as trying to mount a hen mojo

Lots of ducks and geese out on the flats and behind the house here,freaking ducks are loud at night,must be the late night duck rape thing happening,wish we could shoot them they gotta taste better in the spring than the fall after eating in the rice/corn feilds vs. the mud up here.

Fall geese are much better,they have been in the berries all summer,spring birds tend to be on the tough side.

I'll bet that hurts

Yes and yes...I love a plucked fall goose. Wow, they are so fat.

You know what I think is better than a fall goose?? A fall ptarmigan. They are absolutely FANTASTIC. Every time a big flock goes by the blind, I make sure to hammer a bunch.

Looks like we might be able to do a spring out after all this year. Ice went out downstream last Friday and we started running ice from the Lake last night. Its the small snow cone stuff but the Lake looks very dark and rotten so it should go soon. Can't believe how early and fast the river went. One 23 foot tide and it was gone as opposed to about a week to 10 days of the ice sloshing back and forth with the tides.

Looks like spring there Bob...we still have a 3 1/2 foot snow base! and huge drifts,spring will be late this year,swans were spotted yesterday,

Tons of geese flying here.

If this keeps up I'll be glad I didn't put the snowmobile away.

Saw my first flock of geese today..be heading out in the morning
have some of our snow Bob

Saw this on a "Thieves" thread on Trapper Talk, thought I'd share.

i love that sign

Ran ice most of yesterday but its all over but the shouting. Some ice left in the lake but hope to get the skiff in the water in the next couple days and do a mail run and some fishing.

Went out early Sunday morning to see if geese were flying around the island close by and got a goose with a band.







This guy had a very long flight to Alaska, band is from Laurel, Maryland. Caught about three miles downriver from here, Russian Mission, AK. Tasted very good yesterday.

Nick, all the bands I've seen are produced in MD. If you go to the bird banding website, it will walk you through the process and tell you when and where the bird was banded. VERY COOL indeed!

http://www.reportband.gov/

I got a band off of a hawk killed mallard when I was in high school. I should get on that site and see how old it is now!!

lol, thanks for the website Kusko! Got done entering the info for the bird and turns out it's not from Maryland It was banded at Washington, October of 2008.

Wow, nice, so that bird is probably about 4 years old at least.

you are welcome

Fishing is getting good,will pull my net soon