Slow day for me in the pasture, and working the boundary between pasture/crop... Only 47 for the day, but it was a special kind of awesome anyway.
Got to play with a "new to me" 1975 Browning SA-22 I picked up at auction a couple of weeks ago. Sweet little shooter. Reminds me I shouldn't really try to hit gophers past about 25 yards or so with iron sights, but, well, age gets us all sooner or later. Still a sweet little gun though.
I managed to pull off a nifty trick though. On the way "out" working the pasture, I popped a few gophers. On the way "back" I caught a Magpie chewing on one and not paying attention. Dirty little buggers have been hell on the chickadee and robin's nests this year, so Magpie's have become a designated "target of opportunity". They're way cadgey though, so I've only gotten a half dozen all told this year. I'm going to call this a "prairie double" and see if the phrase catches on (probably not, but I can try):
The other neat thing that happened today was there was a red-tailed hawk dogging me this evening. Perching on fence-posts about 50 yards off from me anytime I looked around. Sharp little customer that one. He waited until I served one up for him, then grabbed some easy fast food.
I got lucky on that shot. I had my phone out to try and catch a pic of him sitting on a fence post, when he swooped off and skimmed the ground for a second before flying off. I didn't even realize the pic I had caught was of him carrying off one of my kills until I got home and brought the pic up on one of my big monitors.
I could try for years to get a pic like that intentionally, and fail.
Great way to spend Canada Day.