A GAGGLE OF GEESE IS A MARCHING BAND, BUT A FLOCK OF CRANES IS A SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

AMERICAN EGRET

FLOCK OF BLUE-WINGED TEAL

SANDHILL CRANES...

....FEEDING AND DANCING IN A FIELD OF CUT CORN

...CRANES IN FLIGHT

THREE OLD DOGS AND TWO DEAD GEESE

Thursday, 8:30 AM.  49 degrees F in Bayfield. Wind NNE, calm with light gusts.  The sky is clear, the humidity is 85% and the barometer is still rising, now at 30.27".  It will be a cool but sunny day, leading to some thunderstorms tomorrow.

   Old friend Bill and I had a short but successful goose hunt yesterday morning, each bagging a goose. Bill's Chesapeake retriever, who is getting along in doggy years too, retrieved flawlessly.  I was really pleased that I shot a goose right off, as I had bought a new 12 gage shotgun because I wasn't doing well on geese with my 20 gage double.  The Remington 870 pump action and #2 steel shot killed it dead.  We had only a few hours to hunt, as Joan and I had to get back to Bayfield.  We hadn't seen any geese at all before we entered Bill's marsh, and thought we might get skunked.  But geese there were, and had we been able to stay longer we probably would have each shot our limit of two birds apiece.  

   There's always an "if only" story to tell about each hunt, and mine is as follows:  As we were packing up to leave, Bill waded out in the water to bring in the decoys.  He told me to stay in the blind in case more geese happened to fly over.  As I watched, I thought he needed help getting back up onto the bank, so I went to help him out, leaving my gun behind.  Of course, as we two old guys were stomping around in the mud, a pair of geese came in, set their wings, and drifted over us as nice as could be about twenty feet above us before flaring up and away.  The best, easiest shot of the day, which would have filled our limit.  Oh, well!

   Along with a fair amount of geese, we saw a lot of other wildlife on our several hour outing; deer, turkeys, blue-winged teal, wood ducks, mallards, rails, hawks, marsh wrens, American egrets, and many, many sandhill cranes, so interesting to watch dance in the fields, and so distinctive in their flight patterns and trumpeting calls.  

   A gaggle of geese is a marching band, but a flock of cranes is a symphony orchestra.