I love duck hunting. Done it since I was 7, but this is the first year I can remember not going after them. Why? Partly becaused I moved and didn't have time, partly because my brit is getting old and I need to upland hunt as much as I can, but the main reason is that I would so much rather eat a chukar than a duck! I like duck, I cook it many different ways, some of them tasty, but the best duck dish pales in comparison to quail, chukar, and most upland birds. Two words: quail fettucine. Mmmmmmm. Do any of you have the same dilemma?
I miss it though. Watching the sunrise, birds working the dekes, talking to hen susies, seeing the rhythms of the marsh. I think next year I'll get out anyway, and maybe I'll just let them land in the dekes (or maybe not (wink wink), so I can watch them, like I used to do when I was ten, with two decoys over my shoulder on my bike, with hipboots on, just so I could watch ducks in a local marsh.
