[obol] blown birds

[Andrew Marshall]

Hi Folks,
My best/worst if you will blown bird... we have a fence post at the far end of the property, semi-rotted wooden, slightly angled near the top, with 'ears'.  Any one see where I am going with this??? In good light it looks like a fence post, but one evening I became aware of a large owl sitting there on top of this post.  I scanned it visually for several minutes, getting more sure of it's owlishness... and wondering why the crows and jays were leaving it alone... sitting there out in the open... so I belted off to get my binoculars, sure it was a  long eared owl, or very well camouflaged screech owl or something like that... See, I knew there was a fence post, just hadn't seen it in that light before... the binoculars revealed of course that it was nothing at all save the oddly lit top of the fence-post.  And in the right light, it still gets me for just a second every now and then!
And to continue the laughs... a few seasons ago I had set my duck decoys up and then had to go take a leak.  The pond was a small hole in dense reed canary grass swamp, and only about 100 yards from the house, so I dallied a little at the house getting a snack.  When I returned, in case ducks had flown in, I carefully sneaked in through the grass, counting the decoys as I went.  All was calm, no ducks except... there was one hen too many.  I popped up and made noise to flush the duck... it wouldn't move.  I yelled louder... no movement.  I drew bead and yelled again... no movement.  I am 25 yards away hopping up and down yelling, and she should be airborn and long gone and instead she is making like a decoy... totally motionless except for the breeze making little ripples around her front.  I finally gave up thinking I had been mistaken in my original decoy count.  As I turned away, lowering the shotgun, she finally moved, swimming over to one of the drakes... a decoy drake... really, it was a decoy... Though I was close enough to have thrown a shotgun shell at her and hit her, I never did get her to flush.    

Best wishes
Andrew