Well my first day of vacation was a bust. Out here in Utah we're expecting a big rain/snow storm tomorrow and today we've had 20 to 30 mph winds all day long. I got out first thing this morning and it was cold, I toughed it out for a hour or so and didn't even get a shot. Then my boy called me and told me he was driving by the dairy farm and two large squirrels ran right in front of his tractor. Being that's in only 3 minutes away I jumped in the truck and headed down there, nothing! When the wife came home I noticed that the wind had died down a tiny bit so I headed back out for one more time. As luck would have it by the time a got there the wind had picked up again. I saw a few Starlings on the corn pile but the wind seems to make them spookier then normal. The only good hiding spot was 52 yards from the cron pile and straight into the wind. I set up behind a big pile of pallets and waited for some to make another run. A few minutes later about 5 landed and started dinner, I tried to pick a single bird but they were moving too fast, so I waited until I had 3 of them fairly close together and took the shot. I heard the familiar sound of lead on feathers and watched as one rolled down the pile while the others took off. When he came to rest at the bottom of the pile he was on the move and headed for the field, I quickly loaded a follow up shot and headed his way. By the time I got to where I last saw him he was well into the field and still moving, I got a solid rest on a fence post and the second he stopped a put him down with a second shot. I was to cold and frustrated to take down the electric fence to go get him. Tomorrow we are in for a rain snow mix but I'm still going to head out, like they say a bad day in the field is still better then any day in the office.
Wow I just jumped over and checked the local weather website and some near by towns are reporting wind gusts between 70 and 75 mph and the mountains just east of me had a recorded gust of 90+ mph.
