2013 Spring Turkey

Well, spring turkey hunting in South Dakota has been far more like fall elk hunting in Wyoming.  Cold.  Windy.  Snowing.  Blowing.  Did I mention cold and snowy?  And blowing?

Earlier this week I was able to harvest my bird.....in 8" of fresh snow.  At least I was able to be in some trees so I could move around some what to keep the blood flowing and not get to terrible cold.  I'm probably not what the pros would call "any good" at turkey hunting, but I sure do have fun at it!

 

Nothing like a 'little' snow while out spring turkey chasin'!

 A very mature bird, his primary beard measured right at 9" and his secondary beard measured 3 3/8".  Not to shabby.

 Yesterday I spent the day making some turkey jerky.  Not to bad for my first attempt.

I'll just say, "n-u-u-m-m-m-y!!!"

Oops! I forgot!

When I was putting pictures into the album from the goose migration, I forgot I had a couple pictures on my little hand held camera.  Oops!  Bad wife!  Bad Mom!

We got one bird and Casey is now a waterfowl dog! 

We took the camper over to stay in....the town of Redfield has a small campground on Redfield Lake and the electricity was even turned on!  Having morning coffee before heading out.  Notice the attentive bird-dog.....there was a rooster running around the campground while we  there.

We now gots a waterfowl dog!  Good girl, Casey!

This is  a snow goose rather than a blue goose.  Blue's are all dark.

 

When Casey had it in her mouth, it sure looked big - like almost as big as her!  These geese aren't near as big as the Canadians, so it made for a good first goose retrieve for her.

 

2013 Spring Snow Goose Migration

Earlier this month Bill and I had the opportunity to go over to the northeast part of the state to "chase" the spring goose migration.  Locals call this the spring 'blizzard'.  They are correct.  There were so many geese, it was simply a jaw dropping experience.  The first group we found, I was taking pictures rather than either of us shooting.  That was a mistake.  After a little closer reading of the laws, in South Dakota one can road hunt water fowl.  Unfortunately, this was the only group that flew over us in shooting range.

Photo's were nothing short of difficult as there were SOOO MANY birds, it was difficult for the camera to focus - even in manual focus mode.  I ain't never seen anything like this before.  I hope to have the good fortune to see it again.  

I put some video clips together below; you can see a full screen of it if you click the link below.  Please excuse the camera "wobbles".  I didn't take my tri-pod with us, and the wind was blowing so hard, it was really difficult to hold the camera still.  Mostly what you hear is the wind, and unless you've been around so many geese, you just can't imagine the racket they can make. 

I did get sifted through the photo's I took; although non of them are really that awesome, they give you a glimpse of what it was like.  

Oh, sooo mannyy birds!

 

By clicking on the link you can see the rest of the photo's.  Again, difficult to take photo's that really showed the ridiculous amounts of birds, but you'll get the idea.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=105766033855540861970&target=ALBUM&id=5869411916019912689&authkey=Gv1sRgCPr20fbdsNmWNA&feat=email