A Migration of Birds and Friends

**Erik Nilsson** · #1 03-17-2009, 09:32 PM

Date: 2/27/2009

Location: North West, PA

Sunrise: 6:56 a.m.

Weather: Over Cast to Partly Cloudy, Occasional light rain

Temperature: 39* rising to 50*

Wind: SSW 9-18 M.P.H

Equipment Used: GHG® FFD Lesser Canada Decoys, GHG® FFD Canada Decoys Avery® DIY Lanyard, Avery® Fleece Callers Gloves, Avery® Finisher Blind, Avery® Power Flag, Avery® Finisher Blind Bag, Avery® Mud Case, Avery® Ground Force Dog Blind and Avery® Neoprene Dog Vest.

Hunters: Avery® Pro-Staffer Mike Bard, Avery® Pro-Staffer David Rearick, Avery® Flyway Manager Rusty Hallock and Avery® Pro-Staffer Erik Nilsson.

Dog: “Gauge”

Journal Notes:
With PA’s Resident Canada Goose season nearing the end, plans were made to make the most of the last 2 days of our season. Warming temperatures and south winds had pushed birds into the area. Along with the birds, Mike and Rusty had joined David and me for our last 2 days of hunting.

Pre hunt scouting found several places having birds, but they were not staying long, just enough to get a quick feed and rest before returning to the flight North. Dave had found birds in good numbers as did I. We re-checked our fields on Thursday finding the numbers on the field David found dropped some, but there was a good number still using the area. The plans were made and things were put into motion for the hunt. Rusty arrived Thursday early and I headed to David’s house to meet Rusty and share some good conversations and some pre hunt banter. Mike was arriving later that night after work.

We chose to hunt the birds David had found with hopes that the geese would make another appearance before moving on. I met the guys in the field early. There were plenty of goose signs from the day before and finding the X wasn’t too hard, so we began setting up the spread and brushed up the blinds. Shortly after legal shooting time, we could hear the sounds of distant flocks of geese starting to trade back and forth and it wasn’t long before the birds we were hunting came to our field. A small flock appeared through the trees and with a few waves of the Avery® Power Flag, we had them locked on our location. Clucking randomly, we sealed the deal on our first birds of the morning.

I sent Gauge on the retrieves and he did well for us bringing back several of our birds including a bird that had sailed down a hill. You know the kind of retrieve that when you send the dog and the hunters cheer him on as goose tries to make a fast get away, but only to find that escape was futile.
During our hunt, the wind had shifted some, so we realigned the blinds accordingly with a minor adjustment of a few decoys. As the morning grew older, we continued to pull several small flocks into the shooting lane, but the big flocks continued on, having somewhere else in mind. The birds quit flying around 11, so we decided to pack everything up and get out of the now muddy field to grab some quick lunch and make plans for next days hunt. We finished up with 11 birds for the day.

Group Photo

L-R Avery® Pro-Staffers Rusty Hallock, Mike Bard, David Rearick, Erik Nilsson and “Gauge”