Booyeah Summer Break

School year (number four!) ended last Thursday.  It snowed.  Friday was a work day - the official last day for me - and it snowed some more.  Saturday, the official first day of summer and we decided to go goose hunting.  It is too strange to explain why it wasn't quite a success.

Ahhh...summer break.  Finally.

The south hill.

Ready for the zombie apocalypse

 It is officially spring (according to the calendar) so the geese should be returning.  They've been slowly making their way back, but the larger migration has yet to start.  I blame it on the lack of open water.  All of the ponds around Tununak are still covered in ice.  Snow blankets most of the tundra.  The river ice is still in place.  The sea ice is still anchored to the shore.  It's weird.  First day of summer, and it's below freezing.

Kurt guarding

All of these disadvantages didn't stop Kurt from shooting the solo goose flying overhead.  We'd posted up on the hill waiting for geese to fly over us.  Boring, cold, but not so bad when you lay back on the frozen tundra.  The lonely bird flew over us once, too high for a shot, when Victor began calling.  The sad, lonely bird, thinking his homies were calling him in banked wide and began his descent.  He came back around when - Bang!

Stalking ptarmigan

We sat, staring up, trying to determine if he hit it.  Then trying to determine if it was coming down.  Then we were up running.  The dead bird landed within three feet of where we were sitting, I mean guarding.  Most terrifying thing in the world to see a bird fall out of the sky.

We ended the day with two ptarmigan, a goose, and a brush with falling death.  Not the worst start to summer break.

Victor, Kurt, Danny, two ptarmigan, and one goose.