Firsts

My very first duck was a hen Wigeon. We didn't even know what it was at the time. Got a copy of "Ducks at a Distance" and identified it a couple months later. Shot it in November, 1964. We were hunting out of the Hermit Island Blind. I don't know if it was our blind that year, or if it was just empty that day and we hunted there. Shot it with my Dad's Browning over and under. Missed it on the water with my first barrel and killed it when it jumped with my second shot. I think I accidentally pulled the trigger when the gun recoiled, but it killed the duck, so I was good to go.

Killed my first Canada Goose in October, 1969. We had the Walnut Island blind that year. Dad had killed a couple geese the year before that. Some friends who hunted on a nearby lake, where there were a lot of geese, had recommended using 4 Buck as a goose load. Dad hand-loaded a few and we kept them handy. A pair of geese flew over some friends of ours and they crippled one of them. It flew a mile or so, but we watched it. Dad suggested letting it sit on the water and bleed out a little, so after a half hour or so he took the boat and went to check on it. The uninjured goose flew as soon as Dad got close and came right to my decoys and landed. I loaded my gun with one of the goose loads and blasted it, along with a Model 63 Bluebill decoy. I still have the shot up head on display in my den. Dad eventually killed the crippled one so we each got one that day.

Killed my first Snow Goose on the Prof's farm in Maryland in January, 1981. First one I ever had come close to me. My brother Tom had some gun trouble the previous weekend so I took his gun home and repaired it. Then he couldn't hunt the next Saturday so I took his gun to make sure I had fixed it properly. Not thinking that his stock dimensions were different than mine, when I got the Snow Goose in gun range I couldn't get on the gun right, and missed it with my first 2 shots, then hit it with the last shell. It sailed over a slight ridge in the field and buried itself in about a foot of snow when it hit the ground. I searched for a half an hour before I saw a tiny patch of black wing feathers down under the snow.

Killed my first Swan on the Goose Creek Impoundment in 1985. Mike McGee and I had a small flock fly right over us and we each got one.

My first double on ducks was a pair of Wood Ducks. When we hunted the Walnut Island blind we used to turn and face backwards looking out over the marsh in the interior of the island for the first 10 minutes or so. Woodies came out of there every morning, sometimes low enough to shoot at. I killed that pair on 10/27/67. I'll remember that date always. A huge storm came up and we had to get off the lake and leave our decoys. Got some of them gathered up that evening and the rest the next morning. But that high wind scared me and I marked a calendar "Big Wind" on that day.

Killed my first triple on ducks in January, 1970. A friend of Dad's invited us over to hunt Lake St. Mary's in Celina, OH. The lake was frozen over and we went out on the ice and set up a spread of goose decoys. Didn't kill any geese, but when we were pulling the sled back in, I saw some duck tracks in the snow and followed them down a little channel and snuck up on about 15 Mallards in a little hole in the ice. Jumped them up and smacked down 2 drakes and a hen.

Killed my first banded duck in October, 1967. A Blue Wing Teal. Curiously, it was banded in Stalwart, Saskatchewan. Same little town where I hunted when I went to Canada in October, 1998.

Killed my first banded goose in October, 1969. It had been banded over in Celina, OH.

Killed my first Brant in January 2004 out on Chincoteague Island, VA. Killed my first banded Brant later that same morning. It was banded on Southampton Island, at the northern end of Hudson Bay.

My first Blue Goose, Ross' Goose and Whitefront Goose all happened the same day; the second day of my trip to Canada in 1998. Haven't ever killed a banded bird of any of those species. The ones I killed on that trip are the only ones I've ever had the chance to kill.

I'm patiently waiting on some new and exotic creature to fly over my decoys so I can add another "first" and maybe even another banded bird.