It was a beautiful clear day at Winchester today. A blue bird day that all of us duck hunters like so well.

We had four groups hunting today. I selected hole 6, Wayne Owen took hole 12, Doug Davis took hole 4, and Bobby Burch took hole 2. Bobby posted 5 killed, my group killed 3, Doug didn't post his score, and Wayne said there were a lot of Mergansers flying in the south timber.

I hunted with Doug and Tyler Cox, my son-in-law and grandson, respectively. I had invited Dr. John Poirrier to hunt with us this morning. He called me at 5:10 a.m. just as I was leaving my room to drive out to Winchester. John said someone had broken out the window in his truck while it was parked in his carport and stolen his shotgun and he had the police at his home and would have to miss this morning. What a downer for John!

We didn't have long to wait this morning. About 6:45 a.m. a pair of Mallards answered my call and fell in the hole. The drake fell to our guns first followed shortly by the hen. I released C. J. to retrieve them and she passed up the drake because he was not moving and the hen was still splashing around. She brought the hen to hand and I sent her back for the drake. She still had it marked perfectly. C. J. is still continuing to improve and has retrieved over 200 ducks for the season. Not bad, for a one year old dog.

About 11:00 a.m., another pair appeared. The hen parachuted in and just hovered around looking for a place to touch down. That is, until Tyler threw down the screen and drew a bead on her. Tyler didn't know there was a drake still circling, but it didn't make any difference, he had a bird in hand.

More later,