Make that muddy boots and bloody birds. Eeewwww!
The Son & Heir and I rolled out this morning at 0300 for Dove season opening day. We picked up a hunting buddy at Denny's and headed over the mountains to the Imperial Valley.
Boy Howdy! Was it ever humid (for these parts)! My glasses were fogging most of the morning til it got really warm (near 100F and 35% humidity). The past couple days have seen thunder storms over that way so there was still quite a bit of water and mud.
We got to our normal spot at the edge of the desert next to an old citrus grove. Ooops! The grove has been bulldozed. No more high density housing for doves. We got a few shots in there but it was pretty slow so we moved on quickly. I got the first of the day there for our group (lucky shot -- no way I thought I hit it).
Got into a new area and found some good shooting along a little bluff. Managed to hit a couple passing shots and "walk up" a couple that I got as they flushed. Went for quite a tramp there along that bluff. Shot down to one from above and had to hop/slide down to the base to retrieve it in an alfalfa field -- really was soft. I was going in up to my calves in loose dirt on the way down. It was worth it -- that's where I got the most action of the day. Paid a price for it -- had to take the long way round to get back on top and back to the vehicle. There were plenty of irrigation channels to hop and some nasty mud along the way.
As luck (or poor planning) would have it I ran out of shells on the way back to the truck and missed 3 or 4 of the best opportunities of the day. I was totally gassed and just trying to keep putting one foot in front of another. Still and all, I was feeling good after getting 4 birds on that walk about.
The 4 of us got 19 birds among us. My friend's son limited out with 10 -- nothing new there. He almost always leads the count.
Stopped for breakfast at Golden Acorn Indian Casino around 1130 on the way back to town. Yeaaaaah man! Tha's living.
Car's cleaned out. Guns are oiled and clean. Birds are on ice. Just need to drive through a car wash to get the big chunks off. I'm good for nothing the rest of the day.
