Last year about this time someone started a thread about things we learn during duck season, so I thought I would start something similar this year about things we see that other people are hardly ever privaleged to. One way my buddies & I often justify all the early mornings & hard work put into duck season (because if you dont do it, you cant appreciate the excitement & satisfaction of watching birds work & finishing) by saying that we get to see things from our blind that the majority of people in the world dont get to see. We actually started making a list of such things in our journal this year. Here is a few of our listings.

•  We watched a bald eagle soaring in the western sky, while 4 sand hill cranes flew by in the east, both rarities in Southern IL, though eagles are becoming more common I had never seen a sand hill in 10 years of hunting
• We watched a family of river otters chew the heads off of our neighbors decoys when it froze up (we tried to run them off but they ignored us)
• We watched a buck chase a doe across the lake as the dog swam closely behind after making a retrieve
• We watched a mallard duck do a back somersault trying to get out of the decoys in mid-air

These are only a few but I would like to hear some of the unique things you have seen

The morning that i got to watch my 12 year old daughter shoot her first goose comes to mind. Made my whole year.

• I've seen some of the most amazing sunrises while sitting in the blind
• my dad and I watched a little basket racked 8 pointer swim half a mile across the lake right towards us

This year we saw 5 Swans work our decoy spread and land about 100 yards away.

I saw more shooting starts this year before sunrise then I have ever seen total in my life.  Guess all those early morning river boat rides were worth it.

I also saw my dog retrieve wigeon, pintail, and redheads.  They were all a first for her, and some a first for me.

Also this year is the first year I have hunted flooded timber.  I have never seen ducks dive bomb a spread through oak and cypress trees like they did this year.  We are now making the flooded timber hunt a yearly tradition.

Got to watch about 300 mallards dive down from the heavens into our spread only to hit the mojos and flare

Last March I saw around Three Million Snows in one refuge at one time. When they got up it was louder then the diesel pick up I was standing next to. It was on of t he most coolest sites I have ever seen.

The end of last season we saw a hawk take a duck in mid air as the ducks where flying away from us. This year we had a hawk try to take a teal decoy from the spread opening weekend. It picked the decoy up a little and dropped it.  And around a month ago we had a hawk case a woody over the decoys when we where hunting a flooded timber hole.

What state are you in?

I know I posted this pic before but this pic was at my property this season. Bad day of hunting that day but this is a sight most people don't get to see and most people might just see a swamp and not the beauty of this morning.

The coolest thing I saw was a mature bald eagle come down and try to make my buffy deeks fly off so he could have one for dinner. He wasn't even 30yrds from us, something I will never forget.

- Had a personal best of around 1500-2000 flock of ducks come into my setup, all Mallards and Pintails. I have a video of it I posted.
- My buddy and I shot a Blue Ross' Goose, Very rare bird and we are the only ones I personally know of that have shot one
And just the overall beauty of nature, usually the best looks only come around for a few minutes, and it seemes that I was outside for alot of them this year.













There's the blue ross' and other memorable pictures. The first one was the closest I have ever hunted to the capital of our province.  Saskatchewan's busiest highway was less than a 5 minute walk and in eyeshot lol.