2010 is a wrap

I went out for the last day of the late goose season on Feb 15. We have been getting some geese back in the area. So after not hunting last week I was itching to get out. Since I have always seen geese over on the other side of town I elected to hunt over there, even though I scouted the fields by my house and saw geese. In hind sight that was a bad gamble, apparently the geese haven't come back too strong cross town yet. I got out and set up by 8 am which for me is late but I was fairly certain they wouldn't fly early.
Around 9 am I saw my first 4 pack fly out off the roost, not even close to coming my way.
Soon after that I saw my first yote...... yes I said yote. He was walkin' around, a couple hundred yards away, so I didn't give him too much notice. I did give him a couple clucks and some moans to see if he would come closer, he didn't. So I waited for the geese.
Around 10am I saw another yote, I did the same thing to see if he would come closer, and to my surprise he did. He keyed in on the furthest decoy from me and started putting on a nonchalant stalk. He got to within inches of the super mag shell decoy before he realized it was not real. When he spun around to walk away I let the big dog bark. I rolled up that yote at least 4 times and he just kept on trotting away. I knew he was hit pretty bad and I was waiting for him to drop. He just kept walkin' away, I watched him cross the fence line and disappear.
It turned Noon and I was certain I had some time to kill before the geese flew. So I started tracking the yote I shot earlier. I was surprised to see how little blood this dog was leaking. I got up to where he crossed the fence and I tracked him down the fence line. He jumped up 30 yards down the fence line I got off one quick shot and he ran across the next field and the next before I lost him.
Back to tracking, I saw he was headed for a ditch so I cut back to the east to try and get him to go to the west. When I hit the ditch I started pushing it to the west. I heard a rustle in the bushes I raised my shotgun and located the noise, it was a red tailed hawk. Upon closer inspection I saw that this hawk was caught in 2 leg hold traps set for yotes. He had one foot in each trap, I wasn't going to just leave him, so I leaned my gun against a tree took off my coat and covered the hawk. As soon as he was covered he didn't struggle at all, he just let me untrap him. Even though he was free he still sat on the ground making himself look as big as possible until I turned around and walked away.
Back to the task at hand, I tracked that yote all the way across the field I was goose hunting, until I ran out of land I had permission to hunt. It was a mile and a half round trip from start to finish through some rather deep snow.
So when I got back to my blind I was ready for some rest and relaxation. I waited until sunset to see if I could get a goose but no luck. They just didn't want to come down to where I was. I did have a dozen or so come in a couple hundred yards to my east but I couldn't get them to commit to my spread.
So I didn't get a goose or the coyote, I did save a red tailed hawk and oh yeah did I mention I was covered up in ducks all day? It was pretty cool they just kept coming in and buzzing my spread.
Here's the video-

2010 Hunting Season Breakdown

Species | Days Afield | Number of Critters Taken

Turkey --------1----------------1

Deer -----------21---------------0

Dove ----------1/2--------------0

Pheasant--------1---------------1

Waterfowl-----44----------15 ducks/21 geese

Rabbit-----------1----------------1

Total--68 1/2-----39

Wow the numbers don't lie, looks like I should have brought some more meat home.
Well there's always next year, and I have alot of room for improvement. So until then, happy fishing and if you get out for some Turkey hunting good luck.
I know I'm going to try to get out for one.