Closing Day Mojo

I'll be honest, after driving around the country to say Mass and then to Waco to visit the sick in hospital, I wasn't too keen on going dove hunting.

But my philisophical pal, GWB, tipped up looking for action, so off we went to catch the last two hours of dove season.

The clouds were grey and threatening and a chill wind blew over the waterlogged fields. It felt like Yorkshire, in June, and I wished I'd worn Wellingtons as I walked the treelines, hoping for a bird or two to rocket overhead.

Old Skool Lancruiser

They didn't, but that was alright, it was simply good to be out in the field, shotgun in hand. Armed walkabout over, I joined GWB at the decoys and waited. Soon enough, a couple of feathered predators were lured in by the Mojo and flew towards the setting sun. An easy shot, one went down.

Then a couple of squadrons came in fast, heading west; shoot, pump, and shoot again! I missed, but GWB brought one down with a snap-shot from his 20 gauge O/U Franchi Instinct. 

Dove cleaned, it was back to the Compound for poppers. Fortunately, someone had the good sense to bring along a quorum of previously shot birds from an earlier hunt. The tasty morsels found their way to the grill and feasting commenced.

And that was closing day.

God bless,

LSP

Dove Hunt

There's been a lot of horse lately, but not much gun. So loaded a shotgun in the truck and went in search of a more balanced life.

This meant walking the treelines in search of dove, and the method's simple, if not easy. Walk up on a tree with dove in it, and when they fly out of the tree like Exocet missiles, shoot them. At first there were no doves, although there were spiders.

Then the avian acrobats burst out of a tree! One round off, no birds down, and in fairness to me they were going fast at the outer limits of my range. So I headed over to a dried-up creek and hunkered down for a bit, listening to someone making a rabbit distress call somewhere off to my left, in the brush. For the benefit of coyotes, probably.

After shooting a snake, I climbed out of the creek bed and headed towards a small clump of trees. If I was a dove, would I be in those trees? I asked myself, and figured yes, I would be. Sure enough they were, and exploded out of the tree as I got up on it. Big excitement, shots were fired, adrenaline up, and another miss. 

Berating myself for being slow off the mark, I walked back to my starting point and chased a few birds along the trees, but didn't get a shot in the autumnal 100 degree weather.

So. LSP 0, Dove 1.

This isn't over.

LSP

Dove Hunting

Still fortified by a lunchtime bean and brisket burrito from Karen's, I went for an evening dove hunt with GWB.

After a short walkabout in search of the avian acrobats -- there weren't any -- we set up in a treeline and waited. It was good to be out in the clean air and cool (for Texas) breeze, but where were the birds? 

Upgrade Needed

They showed up as it was starting to get dark, in something like three small waves, flying fast. Off went the guns, big excitement, and for me... a miss. GWB brought one down though, right at the end of the shoot. 

Country

So most of those dove lived to fight and fly again another day, not dissimilar to ISIS, after being "attacked" by our airforce for over a year.

Speaking of which, here's a photo of US Foreign Policy.

US Foreign Policy

Hunt on,

LSP

Poppers!

There was a feast of dove poppers last night and that was followed by steak. I count that as a success, unlike Justsin Welby's fish rig, which clearly isn't.

Fail

In other news, a Swedish lesbian bishop figure is taking the cross off one of her Stockholm churches to make Muslims feel more at home.

Dhimmwit

You couldn't make it up if you tried. Well you could, but you don't have to, because it's true.

LSP

Blue State, Heather Cook

I was woken up this morning by a strange rustling, as though something was being shaken. I thought, half-awake, that a squirrel had gotten into the house. But no, it was just Blue, shaking my duffel and staring at me.

I looked at him and he looked at me and then proceeded to wag the arm of my coat, which was hanging off the back of a chair. I got the message and a cup of tea (hot) and Morning Prayer later, there I was, walking the dog in the semi-freezing drizzle of the new Ice Age, brought on, ironically enough, by Global Warming.

Typical Global Warming

Roosting dove flew out of the trees along our path with a great sound of wings and it was good to be in this country town.

Heather Cook

In other news, the scandal-plagued assistant Bishop of Maryland has been indicted on 13 charges, ranging from automobile manslaughter to negligent driving. I feel sorry for her, much as I scorn the monstrous regiment of priestesses. I feel more sorry for the man she killed.

It's all Bush's fault, of course.

Cheers,

LSP

Get On The Dove!

The day started pretty early, before first light, when I teamed up with GWB for a Sausage McBiscuit and a cup of coffee. The idea being to get some scoff before shooting dove. 

Home of the Sausage McBiscuit

I say "scoff", but English readers might be confused. The Sausage McBiscuit has nothing whatsoever in common with anything you would think of as a sausage, or a biscuit. It's more of a scone type of thing with a thin patty of spicy(ish) meat in the middle, that may or may not have some resemblance to sausage meat. American readers might be confused too. The Sausage McBiscuit has about as much resemblance to the real thing as the $1 McCheeseburger has to a real cheeseburger. But hey, I like both, even if they are entirely different "food" items.

Where's the Bloody Birds?

That aside, we set up in the traditional treeline and waited for the birds to fly. Sure enough, a couple flew in and GWB brought them down. Nice work. Then, as he was retrieving the birds, a cloud of the avian acrobats appeared out of nowhere and I blazed away, like a Flak Tower.

There weren't many fly-ins after that, so I went for a walk-about, saw a couple of bunnies, which I didn't shoot, and some dove, which I missed.

Shadow LSP

I consoled myself with taking the odd "shadow selfie" and generally being pleased that I'm not living in the Dallas "hot zone."

Just a few more days of dove season left, must get some more birds.

Cheers,

LSP