Today our day started off while we were all knocked out asleep in bed, but our guide Timmy woke us up very quickly saying his scout had a stalk on a Moose! Now moose wasn't on our schedule, but I dang sure wasn't going to pass up the oppertunity to get a hunt on film!!
It was about a half hour drive to where the Moose was spotted and had our feature hunter Ron Chaffer on the stalk on it. When we showed up the Moose was about 15yds from heading back into the thick trees. Ron asked his videographer Craig, if he had the green light. Craig told him to hold, and then about 20 seconds later Craig gave Ron the green light.
Ron dropped the Moose in it's tracks. This was my first ever time to see a moose in the wild, and to get to see one drop like that was amazing. As we went over to see the moose I was in shock at how massive it was. The guys laughed at me and said 'oh that's a small one, he's only 3-4 years old'. Immediately we got a call from the scout saying that another moose has been spotted and we need to hurry.
We high tailed it out of there, and headed for the location. It was about 20 minutes of driving down some back roads, but we finally made it. When we got there, we had missed the moose by about 5 minutes as it made it's way back into the thick trees.
We went back to the location where Ron was at, and they had already loaded the moose up and was headed back to the shop to begin cleaning it. When we showed up at the shop, here is what was left of it!
We were treated to some fresh Seafood Chowder made with Lobster, Halibut, and Shrimp at the shop while the guys finished cutting up the moose.
After that we were taken to the Canadian Pheasant Company. We got an in depth tour of the facility, and even got to meet with one of the owners Ed Houck. Ed is famous throughout these parts for his major success with the upland bird, and water fowl program for the entire country of Canada. Ed is well knows as well for his success with Ducks Unlimited. Ed was the senior biologist for over 7 years with Ducks Unlimited.
Ed had a little surprise for me, as he took me over to the waterfowl area. It seems someone had informed him about my love and passion for Duck Hunting. Well he took me into a holding area that had about 200 ducks all of various breeds. Ed then told me he wanted me to go inside and pick out a duck. I grabbed the first Mallard I came to and brought it back to Ed. Ed handed me a metal strip, and a crimper. Since I started Duck Hunting in Texas a few years ago, I have never gotten the luxery of taking the prized 'banded bird'. Now to be on this end of it to where you are the one who actually bands the bird, had me in awe!!! Once they wrote down the breed of the duck, along with some other information, they took the number off of the band. I put it into a box, and he told me to now go get 11 more. I ended up banding 12 different ducks, and hopefully the hunters who harvest these birds will report it. I wasn't aware of it, but after placing them into the box, they took the box outside to their pond, and I got to release each bird myself into the wild.
Seeing this aspect of hunting, and what actually goes into it gives me a much more respect for what these various organizations do. I hope these bad boys make it down to Texas, and I am interested at seeing where "my ducks" end up at.
Once we were finished at the Canadian Pheasant company we spent the rest of the day scouting for ducks and geese. We found a few promising spots, and I can't wait until we get to begin to hammer them!!!!
My second day in Canada was definately inspiring. I got to see hunters themselves taking part in a big part of conservation for Upland and Waterfowl. I got some tremendous video of how beautiful this place is, got to witness my first ever Moose Hunt, and take part in conservation. Definately a very successful day for me, and being able to personally pick out 12 birds to band and release was pretty cool to say the least!
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