Start of regular season

Plenty of birds around but shooting has been spotty. Also, none(!) of the divers have shown up yet, so there have been no ‘filler’ ducks to pad our shot totals.
Exception: a few handfuls of ring necks.
Refuges are lush so the ducks are playing it safe. They’re wise to the deal that humans are out to shoot them in the face. We need some weather and cold to distract. We are very nearly totally booked through the end of the season. However, we are getting Covid calls fairly frequently so you can follow the website for cancellations.
Being that our ‘filler’ ducks have not shown up yet, everything that we are shooting are nice big puddle ducks. Also, more widgeon than I’ve seen in 15-20 years have just showed up. I hope to heavens that they settle in and spend the winter. Also lots of pintail around, but they’ve been mostly flying high, refuge to refuge. Daye before yesterday I decoyed 4 flocks (1-3-25-14) into close range. Of course, I shot that first single hen at first light that tagged me out!