It was 9:20 AM. A brace of mallards were already in the bag as we waited for the mid-morning lull to pass. Across the slough a bull rooster cackled over his territory in the cattails – he’d been at it for the past 30 minutes. “That fella is going to be sorry if he heads over here,” I joked.
The joke was clearly on me; I went on to tell the guys in the blind that I have only seen a few roosters buzz past the blind in my life; it just wasn’t going to happen. Right when I was about to get to grouse encounters, a silhouetted mark appeared a our 11 o’clock coming hot – directly from the sun. It was cupped up, on the deck, and just forty yards away.
There wasn’t enough time to get our guns up. All we could do was watch it zip twenty yards in front of our buddies that were hunting the other side of the point our spread was around. One couldn’t have asked for a more perfect left-to-right skeet shot.
The once eclipsed bird quartered out of from the blinding cover of the sun, and was soon ignited by direct sunlight that turned it into an orange fireball with a massive tail streaking behind it. There’s only one bird with that luminescent look in Minnesota, and it isn’t a duck!
While shaking my head in disbelief, another mark came from the exact same spot as the first and swung past just the same. A pinch confirmed I wasn’t dreaming. It was a report pair.
Not a single shot was fired, albeit that we were right in the heart of the pheasant hunting season and we were within legal hours to hunt them. Some of them had the license, but the model citizens didn’t have the legal amount of blaze orange on them. Considering the hunting circumstance, it makes sense.
The great news was that the birds landed within 60 yards from the blind in the cattails – clearly an easy walk! The bad news was that no one had any orange in their blind bag. This is a bit startling considering the safety precaution of needing to be seen by our deer hunter friends as we’re going to and from the blind. It’s even more frightening to think if there is a rare emergency circumstance when first responders are involved; how are they going to find someone decked out in just camouflage?
Preparedness for both rarified and polarizingly different situations should be taken to heart: the same person you’d high five for the bonus bird in the bag could be same individual that you may save – both because you packed blaze orange. Hopefully none of us ever have to go through the latter, and lends to the genius idea that we should all pack a first aid / survival kit as well. This tangent is for a different post, though.
While the model citizens were chatting about what could have been with the pheasants, I was digging for something in my pack. One of them asked what my commotion was all about.
“Oh, just for this.” I smirked while pulling out an old, mangled stocking hat in blaze orange. “I was going to tell ya that I learned my lesson a few years ago when some grouse were grazing in the woods behind the makeshift duck blind I was in, but I was rudely interrupted by the pheasants that flew by. I never got those grouse (another reason they’re the bane of my existence). They taught me to always pack a few steel shot 6s – in case we were to meet again – and double as a great load for for cripples. I also ensure to have all my licenses. More importantly, for safety reasons, I never leave home without some blaze.”
Five minutes later, a rooster was in hand. The other was for naught – I never saw it because my back was turned on it when shooting at the other. I was told it had flushed 40 yards from me and deviously buzzed the blind again; all the guys could do was watch the ultimate tease fly back to where it originally came.
I had my cake and ate it too. Maybe someday you will too.
