Lips and Assholes

December 14, 2006: I caught this raccoon trying to raid my trash cans. I found him in Annapolis, not Hoopers Island. I scared him off, and he moved on to the neighbors cans. I chased him from there, and he fled up my neighbor's tree.

Climbing the tree in my backyard after I caught him in my trash cans:


Climbing down my fence and cruising to my neighbor's trash cans:


In my neighbor's tree. Raccoon eyes:

Layout Hunt, boat problems

Dec. 9: Did another layout hunt out of Hoopers Island. Jeremy and Tyler Mercer, Shannon Brockmeyer and I set up our rig about half a mile off of Barren Island, a small island just off the Northwest corner of Hoopers Island. On the way out, and throughout the hunt, we dealt with serious boat problems. The engine would not draw gas, and all morning long caused the rpms to continualy lower. With water temperatures in the mid 30s, boat problems are unwanted, and dangerous. Regardless, we continued hunting, and ended up with 17 birds, 4 Old Squaws and 13 scoters.


A hawk tried to make lunch out of our ducks, here he eyeballs the feast:


Brent and Greg Prossner, and Andy Hughes headed down to Applegarth and went hunting for deer. Their main targets were sika deer, a small statured import from Japan that is a close cousin to elk. They also had boat problems, and on the way back to the club had to walk their boat back 2 miles before we saw them and towed them in. They did kill a sika though.

Jeremy tows the Prossners:


Greg, and the guy who ate Brent, show off their Sika:

Successful Sea Duck Hunt

Nov. 24 - 25, 2006

Tried to sea duck hunt again, this time did it our of a layout boat. Layout boats allow the shooter to have a low profile on the water. You lay on your back in a saucer shaped boat that only sticks up 6 or 8 inches above the water. Ducks, not being the smartest animals, don't realize they are flying towards a trap until it is too late:

Here is an old picture of Jeremy and I in the layout boat:


This boat, though great for hunting, is a bitch to tow in the water. It's shape makes it a natural submarine, so towing it to the hunt, though preferable is out of the question. We tried it, the boat submarined, the fiberglass cracked, and we decided to never do it again. However, we did get it to where it needed to be, and despite leaks, we had some good shoots. On the way out, I photographed a flock of shorebirds:


First, as a test run, we took it just off the beach at Hoopers Island, and hunted for Buffleheads for an hour. After I killed one, I started taking pictures:

Here's a Buffy that got away:


Dave Foote's last shot at the same bird, again a miss. In this picture, notice the shot in the upper right corner, with the wad not far behind.


Following day, we took the layout and set up between Richland Buoy and Applegarth. We targeted Old Squaws:


Dave missed these birds, and I caught it on film. Notice the shot and wad on the water in the left corner, the green blurry projectile is his shotgun shell ejecting across my camera lense:


White winged scoters buzzed our spread. These two are the first I've seen in the Bay. Dave knocked one down, but it dove on impact and vanished:


Back at SHTS, we posed for a shot with our bag, 7 old squaw and 1 scoter: