I woke up early and snuck out of bed so as not to wake the wifey. When I looked out side I saw that it had began to snow very lightly. Knowing this weather would be good for getting a lot of birds on feeder I grabbed some boots and went out and loaded up the suet feeders. I came back in and took my boots off took a pull from my cup of coffee and looked outside before heading back to couch to wait for the first run of starlings. Much to my surprise the first yellow beak of the day was already on the suet. For a moment I considered letting him stay and get comfortable and maybe bring in some of his buddies. But my greed got the best of me and I reached for the quite little daisy 880, ten pumps later I had him centered in the cross hairs. At the sound of the shot he hit the ground, flapped around for a minute, then fanned out his tail and both wings and laid still. Feeling good about scoring on the first shot of the day I set the gun down, put on the boots and grabbed the camera. As I opened up the door I was surprised to not seeing him lying under the feeder. I went out and searched around, sure enough there were feathers and blood but still no bird. Looking around I couldn’t see any hawks or cats so I still have absolutely no idea what the %$#& happened to that bird. I was sure he was dead when I looked away but from the shot to when I went outside only about 1 minute had passed. Hopefully this is not a sign of how the rest of the day will go.
