Nothing is more important before the season begins then to get a little prep work done. Scouting, repairing/preparing the blind, making sure all your equipment is in order is crucial to having a successful season. It doesn't look like much but to most waterfowl hunters, their blind is a second home. Before waterfowl season begins its always a good idea to see what has happened to the old blind before that first early morning hunt begins. Labour day Monday we headed out to the blind with the intentions of extending our blind, repairing our torn poly roof and clearing out the blackberries that had engulfed it. And exactly as it usually occurs we hit a couple snags along the way. Once we arrived at the field where our blind is located, we were greeted the a field of silage to navigate our way through with our lumber and tools. Not a fantastic start but we weaved our way through and finally got to the blind. After making several trips back and forth with everything we needed, we decided to clear the blackberry bush that taken over the inside of the blind. Unfortunately blackberries weren't the only thing that enjoyed the shelter of our blind as we were greeted by a wasp nest that had been built in the corner of our roof. So instead of clearing the blackberries we decided to start our extension. Rather than building off our already established blind we had to build our extension out in the field and then carry our it through some brush to eventually attach it. After attaching the blind we sat and marveled for a second our new addition and then quickly came to our senses about our new predicament, field we were planning to hunt over had no birds in it. Where grass sat last year was nothing but tilled earth with sparse weeds, and no geese. Blackberries can be cut back and wasp nests can be sprayed and destroyed but making geese magically appear out of nowhere is a feat we cannot accomplish. Even if our blind was perfect and all our gear was in order there would be no birds to hunt. Unfortunately for us, it doesn't look like there will be an early season goose hunting this year. Always always always scout out your locations before you go hunting. As disappointed as we were not seeing any birds, at least we didn't just arrive at 4:30 in the morning the day of, haul out all the gear and decoys, and sit and wait for nothing to arrive. At least duck season is only just over a month away. More time to take care of those pesky wasps I guess.
