Patience was the word of the day. Patience was what I needed to practice today. Patience was something I had very little of today. I met Eric at his house at 3:30 with hopes of heading out early to get a good spot in Walulla. Even though we left on time, we were still met by three trucks once we arrived at our potential spot. Perhaps that was what started my day on a downhill slide. Most other times I met someone occupying a spot that I wanted, pleasantries are exchanged and I'd move on to another spot. This morning, however, the sight of three truck parked where I wanted to be angered me. Nevertheless, Eric and I pushed back north to the trusty old spot in Burbank. We parked the trucks and geared up. Another obstacle was in our way. Another measure of my patience before I even threw the first decoy out. In order to get to our usual spot, we have to cross a set of railroad tracks which, until today, never had a train standing still on it when I was there. The walk into the blind is never an easy task. Not overbearing, but also not easy. Today's detour around the front of the train, however, was enough to ensure that my morning continued downhill. Eric got a head start to make sure that nobody beat us to our spot. Justus and Derek walked in with me. When we arrived, I heard a familiar voice exclaim, "This spot is taken. Find someplace else." My mood lightened. It was Eric and the spot was ours. My mood was set back a notch when I realized that I had forgotten my duck calls in my truck. Perhaps it was better this way. I may drive off more ducks with my calling abilities than I bring in. However, my calls allow me to feel like I am contributing. Again, that may be debatable. Since Eric's waders were acting more like a spaghetti strainer, letting water in and out with ease, he unloaded the decoys bags on land and I arranged the decoys in the water. This allowed Eric's feet to stay a little drier (hopefully). The spread was set by about 5:20. The wait began. Another exercise in patience. I am convinced that Justus must have put ear plugs in before we got to the blind because he was talking extremely loud. Day break finally arrived and we waited patiently. We hadn't waited long before we had a duck drop into the decoys. Justus was up first. Three shells emptied and no ducks in the water. Not long after that, the skies opened up. Ducks were everywhere. Hundreds of ducks were suddenly filling the sky. Just as fast as they appeared, though, they disappeared. A few minutes later, another single green wing teal hen dropped in from the left and Derek shot and missed. Eric shot as his backup and put the bird down. I volunteered to retrieve the duck, but she needed another shot to finish her off. After the final shot, I snagged her out of the water. Some more time passed and Eric worked some more ducks. We finally had a taker. A wigeon hen dropped in for a look. I took a shot and missed. Eric shot and folded her up and a split second later, I shot again. Apparently, I finished off an already finished bird. This time Derek ran out for the retrieve. More time passed and my patience was growing thinner. Normally, I am not impatient in the blind, but today my impatience grew quickly. Soon, another wigeon zipped by and Eric brought her down quickly. That was to be our final bird of the day. However, there was on last show to be seen. At 9:30, the hundreds of ducks that we has seen earlier in the day came back through. En mass, they swooped and dived everywhere but our decoy spread. Just like the morning flurry, they disappeared as fast as they had appeared. For someone with no patience, I can tell you that this was a great thing to see, but frustrating at the same time. Very, very frustrating. We waited a little longer, Eric calling to birds every once in a while. Our day was done at 10:30. We picked up and headed home. There are very, very few days that I come home from hutning feeling worse than when I left the house. This, however, was one of those days. My lack of patience had gotten the better of me today. My struggle to be an optimist was definitely set back a few notches today.
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