Through a loosely woven burlap blanket I watched the eastern sky pale.
I lay in the middle of a group of Canada Goose decoys in a cut-over barley field, the barrel of my double barreled shotgun just protruding from the corner of the straw-covered blanket. My friend, Darren, lay in the middle of another flock of decoys 35 yards to my right.
The first birds were mallards. We could hear the beat of their wings before we saw them, in groups of between two and ten, rocketing over our plastic flock.
I put my hand on the warm walnut stock and slid my fingers around the grip, laying my index on the trigger guard, thumb on the safety switch. There were honkers coming. I could hear them first from the south, circling us to land into the north wind. Spreading their wings, they stretched out their webbed feet to land almost on top of Darren.