Geese tagged posts

Moving to D.C. from Montana was a tough adjustment. Not only are there more people in the metro area than my entire state but our yard is the size of a postage stamp and we’re lucky because we have green space! How was I supposed to survive without the outdoors? Could this place of concrete and marble really become home?

After learning some of the best waterfowling in the country takes place on the Chesapeake Bay, I was more than willing to make the hour drive to get in the duck blind. Since my inaugural east coast hunt six years ago, I have had many days in the blind but nothing compares to my snow goose hunt this year.

My alarm went off at 4:30 AM, I kissed my husband and lab, pulled on my warmest layers, triple checked I had a ten pack of hand warmers and jumped into my Mini...

By Hannah J. Ryan

The morning sunlight seeps across Wyoming’s sky and into a corn stubble field near the river. Friends and family are tucked to either side of me in layout blinds. My feet are reaching that freezing point that would soon drive me from my hiding place, but a dark cloud lifts off the river as a few hundred Canada geese leave their night’s resting place.

As their ruckus reaches us, our adrenaline-levels spike and my numb feet are eitherwarmed or forgotten. Our decoy spread forms an open-ended triangle and we are stationed in the V’s crook. Four geese break from the flock and head for the open ground we left in the spread directly before our blinds.

When the birds come in range, someone calls out, “Take ‘em!” and we pop up from our prone positions, shotguns singing...