I had just an hour of free time after work so I quickly changed out of my work clothes and headed for the dairy. This time I took a few plastic dove decoys I bought at a local sporting goods store, but haven’t had chance to use yet. I parked in the usual spot and set 4 of the decoys out, I was hopeful because when I went to set them up I jumped 3 Eurasian Collared Doves from the corn pile.
After placing the decoys where I had a good view of them I went back to my truck and waited for the action to start. Within just a few minutes I missed the first bird on the corn pile. Tonight the wind was really blowing so I had to guess at how much windage to give every shot. A few minutes later I had a second opportunity on a Brown Headed Cow bird. I held completely off the bird to the side from where the wind was coming from. I pulled the trigger and head the pellet strike home, the bird jumped old non working power line and glided to patch of weeds. By the time I walked across the road to where it landed it was dead and just lying there. On the way back to the truck I spotted the Red winged male on very top of the corn pile. I took a solid rest using a fence pole and sent the pellet; again I was rewarded with a solid smack followed by a cloud of feathers blowing wildly in the wind. Now this bird just dropped right where he was, which was on the apex of a corn pile about 10 feet tall. If you never tried climbing to the top of 10 foot pile of cracked corn give it a try some time. It’s harder than it sounds! When I got back to the truck I noticed that a lot of the birds I was seeing were Starlings, I was happy to see that they have made a return to my hunting grounds. I watched as two kept flying to an equipment shed near by and after I had figured out the pattern I took up a position 30 yards from a pole that the would land on before diving into a hole in siding with a beak full of nest material. Just as I had planned a few minutes later they were both on the pole with beaks full of straw. I lined up one, again taking the wind into account and took the shot. Another solid hit, but this time the tough as nails little bird took flight but was really nothing more than a direct flight to the ground. I watched carefully as the bird crashed into a large weeded area. I walked over and found the bird after a few minutes of looking around. I was surprised to see after all that had happened it still had the straw in its beak. Looking at my watch I knew I only had a few more minutes before I had to get home but I waited by the truck a little while longer and ended up connecting on three more birds. One was another Cow Bird that fell in some very tall weeds and I was unable to find that one, one was a Eurasian Dove that flew off and one more Black bird that fell in field and was quickly mobbed by the curious cows. I posed the few I recovered and took some quick photos. All in all it was a fun little shoot and I was only down there for about an hour. I’m still thinking I should buy a pop up ground blind for use down there. Enjoy the pics.
