We settle in the furrows. Busted cornstalk & camo. Coffee, pipe and tobacco for me, graham crackers, juice and a goose call for Cam. My pipesmoke drifts from the embers, disappears weakly east. The waiting is easy, we have our distractions.

Sunrise discovers our black-gray-white decoys in their plastic readiness. Birds wind up their volleys on the water—hollow and haunting echoes in their distance—a quarter-mile as the crow flies. Without weather to push, they’re up late.

They materialize from below the treeline, wings and necks, full white breasts, the whistle and buzz of pinion feathers. My son calls to the sky, to birds in their stealthy ascent. Three sets look, circle, continue east. Strings on the horizon. Silent as dawn.

Watching the sky

Watching the sky

 

Matt Smythe

Matt Smythe

 

Author - Matt finally decided that hunting and gathering for his family’s table is a far better way to make a living than grinding out a nine-to-five. From his Upstate NY home, Matt splits his time between freelance marketing consulting work, time in the woods and on the water with his kids and writing his blog, fishingpoet.com.