This past Sunday evening...

Michael, Will, and I stayed at the Claypool's pit and watched ducks fly out of Claypool's and pour into the field. I couldn't believe what we were seeing. After hunting there for two days and not seeing many ducks, it was unreal to be standing out by the pit while Mallards, Gadwalls, Pintails, Shovelers and even Teal swarmed the field. I'm not talking about a few hundred ducks; there were ducks by the thousands. Five Mallards landed within than twenty feet from where we were standing, as more piled in behind them.

We had hunted with the Burgesses in the Alabama pit the Sunday before last and hunted with the kids in the Claypool's pit over the weekend without seeing a Teal to speak of. But as we stood there, there were thousands of Teal as far back over the Claypool's woods as we could see. While they dove in to the field, it looked like it was raining Teal.

This continued while we were walking back to the truck, which was parked at the south end of East Fish pond field. After taking off my pack and gun, we spotted a young deer running up from the East Fish Pond field. It ran down the road paralleling the Claypool's ditch and stopped about forty yards away to check us out. That’s when Will, my nine year old, decided he would chase it. The funny thing was, at the same time he started running towards it, the deer started running towards him. Will didn’t realize it at first, but when he did, he turned back as fast as he could. The deer ran a few more feet, and then darted down into the ditch to safety. After a good laugh, we hopped in the truck and headed back to Memphis.