Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009

Randy's asleep, because he stayed up to watch the Texas vs. Oklahoma State football game. He said that Third Coast had a great opening day, with an average of four ducks per man. He said it was a clear blue day with temps that reached only to the low seventies. Beautiful day.

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Friday, Oct. 30, 2009

Started the day meeting with Dane Masek. Had a quick Whataburger breakfast (sausage, egg biscuit). Went to our fields west of Markham and repaired the levies and tried to capture the about three inches of rain we had last night. Dane was great help. It took a couple of hours, but we got everything back together and started capturing water. We drove to El Campo and met Scott. Had a quick lunch at McDonalds then drove to our property west of Garwood and repaired more levies. There are a ton of ducks holding on our roost ponds. We saw very few geese. I drove to Markham and checked the water and saw that everything was in order. Came home and got on the phone to line up the hunters for tomorrow. Looks like it will be a very wet opening day. I'm going to bed now - getting up at 4 a.m.

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Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

Monday it rained almost 4 inches and I had to go to a funeral in Houston for a good friend, Rush Bergman. He died unexpectedly and it was very sad.

Tuesday. Drove the property with Chad Hartman. Saw lots of ducks after the big rain. We saw some geese in a plowed field in Garwood.

Today, Drove to Garwood and met with one of the farmers and had a good visit. Expecting more rain tomorrow. Went south to look at one of my ponds. The wind was blowing so hard it was pushing water over the levy, so I pulled one of the boards to lower the level of the pond. The heavy rain Monday seemed to scatter the birds. See you tomorrow.

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Sunday, Oct. 25

We'll have to combine Saturday and Sunday. I took some kids hunting for the youth hunt on Saturday. We killed seven speckled bellies and one green-wing teal. It was fun. The kids seemed to have a good time.

Had a good day with football, too. The Aggies and UT both won, and that makes me happy.

Sunday, I took my grandson, Walker, hunting. Hunting wasn't as good. We only killed one goose.

But the football was successful. The Texans and the Cowboys both won. The Cowboys won easily.

We saw lots of birds both days. See you, Monday!

Randy

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Friday, Oct. 23, 2009

Went to Garwood today. It is covered up with speckled bellies. Youth hunt is tomorrow and Sunday. Plan to take my grandson, Walker, on Sunday.

Not much to report. Had to take my old dog, Chester, to see my friend, Dr. Brady at Stafford Oaks Vet Clinic. Chester has a bad ear infection and allergic bronchitas. Doc fixed him right up. Hopefully, he'll start feelling better soon.

I'll have more to report tomorrow, possibly some pictures if Nick remembers the camera. See ya, Randy

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Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009

Woke up at 4:30 a.m. to thunder and lightning. Rained heavy between 4:30 and 6. At my house in Bay City, we had almost 2 inches. I drove west toward the hunting spots, and the closer I got, the less it rained. Predictions were 2 to 4 inches of rain, but that didn't happen for Third Coast. The cut rice field east of Garwood is still holding about 30,000 speckled bellies, and about 100 snow geese. It is quite an awesome site to see that many birds. I saw two other feeding areas of speckled bellies. Not many snows. Saw one pond that had lots of ducks. I would assume the rice harvest will resume tomorrow and should start spreading out the birds. It promises to be an exciting opening day. See you tomorrow!
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Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009

Started the day taking my faithful 4-wheeler to the Honda shop in El Campo. After 11 years of faithful service, something happened and it quit running. Hopefully it is a minor problem. Scouted our property in Garwood. One of the freshly cut rice field had 20,000 to 30,000 speckled bellies in it. On my way back to Bay City, I spotted another rice field (not our field, unfortunately) that had almost as many. Youth season is Saturday. Looks like some people will have a good hunt. Went back to Bay City and finished fixing the air conditioner in my truck. It started to rain, and I came inside. Spent the rest of the evening listening to Nick's bull shit. More tomorrow.
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Monday, Oct. 20

Saw a large group of speckled bellies in a cut rice field west of Markham south of Hwy. 35. Saw another group of speckled bellies in another cut rice field north of Markham. A saw a medium sized group of ducks south of Bay City. Took Chester and Chapman exercising. There seems to be more geese around earlier than I normally see. I will go up around the Garwood area tomorrow. Expecting heavy rain starting tomorrow.

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Monday, Oct. 19

Saw some snow geese north of Markham. About 200 in a cut rice field. We're supposed to get some heavy rain on Thursday. Several of our ponds are covered up with weed called duck salad, but the farmers are spraying and it is effective killing it. So we have lots of open water. Had a pretty uneventful day, so I'll see you tomorrow.

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Sunday, Oct. 18

This morning my beautiful wife and I took the boys for a run and to look for ducks. On the drive in toward the pond, we saw a harrier hawk, or a marsh hawk. You can tell its a harrier hawk, and not another type of hawk, by the white patch on its ass.

As we drove through the gate there were a bunch of black angus cows on the road. Cows have cow meetings on roads. I guess they have discussions about where they're going to poop and stuff.

Chapman, the Wonder Dog, decided it would be great fun to chase them. He was having a large time until one of the cows decided to chase him back. He decided discretion was the better part of valor, and took off, away from the cows. Meanwhile, Chester, the Senior Wonder Dog (and I emphasize the senior part) is scared to death of cows. He got kicked one time when he was a youngster about Chapman's age. So he made a wide circle to avoid the cows.

We drove by the pond and saw some coots. The pond looked like a great place for ducks. If I were a duck, I'd be hanging out at this pond.

We kept driving and came across some more cows. These cows were more aggressive, so I put Chapman back in the truck. My beautiful wife became very concerned, because we had not seen Chester for a good while. So we went looking for him. We went back around the pond and herded the cows down the road. They did not want to give up their road, and just kept running ahead of the truck. Finally, we came to a turn in the road, and some of the cows decided it looked like a good place to exit the cow freeway, and they began to turn. We drove through the cows and got ahead of them.

Earlier, I had seen a glimpse of Chester, but by the time we got turned around, he was no where to be seen. So we parked and waited for Chester to find us. While we were waiting, we saw a group of 8 speckled bellies very high. The sky was cobalt blue. No clouds. South Texas fall.

Since Chester is scared shitless of cows, he made a wide circle around them, and it took him about 15 minutes to find us. My beautiful wife was frantic that we had lost him or that he was dead of a heart attack. But being the wise dog that he is, he had taken a circuitous route to avoid the cows. He may be old, but he's not stupid.

After the happy reunion with Chester, we decided we should head on back to the house. On the way out, we saw some kind of kite. At first, I thought it might be a falcon. But when it flew off the fence post, I could tell it was a kite by the shape of its wings. I couldn't see it well enough to say what kind it was.

All in all, it was a nice outing.

Sat oct 17

Went out late in the afternoon and met a friend for some dove hunting only problem I let The Beautiful Regina borrow my gun. None the less there wern't many doves but did see quite a few specks. Most were high but there were birds. Lots of mosqitoes. Chapman the Wonder Dog had a good time, and I got to have dinner with a friend. till tomorrow

Oct. 16, 2009

Looks like lots of ducks have arrived on the new cold front. I saw a bunch of pin tails and teal south of Bay City. Didn't see any geese today. Most of our ponds are being clogged with a plant called duck salad. It concerns me. May have to spray them. More later.
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Oct. 15, 2009: I saw a bunch of speckled bellies in East Bernard. Two snow geese. Saw a bunch of ducks west of Garwood. There are lots of mosquitoes. It is awful hot. There is a cold front due tonight that will bring the temperatures into the low 50s. I am looking forward to it. It looks like we are in for a wet winter.
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My first day of blogging

This is my first time to blog and my first day to blog. I hope I can figure it out.