Scouted our field on Friday morning - 172 wood ducks, with a handful of mallards and teal. Figured pass-shooting was going to be the way to go; however, Saturday morning (The Opener) saw us with a single shot and no birds in the bag. We did, however, shoot 400 digital images, which I just downloaded on the upstairs machine. Julie does good work!

This morning, I took Jet, our 9-year-old female black lab, to a local public marsh to stand and see what we could see. Only about 35-40 birds total observed, but did bag a handsome drake wood duck, which Jet prompted retrieved. Saw a Cooper’s hawk, a few Canadas, and the requisite herons. Will take a small duck skiff back out there this evening and sit ‘til 7:00 - better than mowing the grass!