The birds are starting to arrive back in Nome, and I keep thinking of Psalm 34.  "Taste and see that the Lord is good."  We got our first duck a mallard yesterday, on a beautiful blue sky day with a temperature in the 50's.

After getting  late start because of a dental appointment for teeth cleaning, we finally got going about 10:30.  My friend, Sean and I got out to sight in our rifles, my .17 HMR with a new BSA Sweet 17 and Sean's .204 Ruger.  It took us about 9 shots each to verify zero at 100 yards.

It was just such  gorgeous day, and Sean had heard that friends had sighted geese, so we were anxious to see if we might be able to see any kind of waterfowl.

We didn't see any on Kogarok Road to above Dexter, we saw a cow moose and her two calves and noticed a few seagulls starting to sit on their nests, but no waterfowl, so we headed back to the coast to go and check the Council Highway. 

What a beautiful day, sunshine and clear as far as our eyes could see and a temperature of 50 degrees, we were sweating in our Underarmor and just a shirt and pants.

We drove out as far as the heavy equipment has gotten to just before Cape Nome and saw a few Ptarmagin, one was starting to change with a patch of brown feathers between it's white head and white boy feathers.

We turned around and as we neared Hastings Creek, we noted two none seagulls.  We checked them out and found them to be to puddle ducks, the first we had seen this year.

We harvested a Male Mallard, it will indeed be nice to "Taste and see that the Lord is good tonight."  Thank you Lord for this blessing of your provision and for loving us so much that this is the desire of your heart, to nurture us and to give us an expected end.

I pray God's provision, grace and love in your lives today.

Last week, me and my 11 year old son Bruce Junior went out one evening to look for a few Ptarmagin before all the snow goes away.

What a wonderful time in God's great outdoors as we left Nome and went over Banner Mountain getting a few birds there then continuing up Glacier Creek to Rock Creek.

We went against the rock face just north of Rock Creek mine and there were hundreds of Ptarmagin eating up last years blueberry and blackberry harvests.

What a beautiful sight, the nearly completely white birds with the purple around their beaks from their delightful respite after a long winter.

The Ptarmagin population in better this year than I have seen it in the past 11 winters in the "bush".

JR and I had a great time, and I followed Jr while we harvested one limit of Ptarmagin.  We could have easily gotten many more, but we did have a great time and shared our success with elders when we got home.

What a blessed time of teaching stewardship to my son and helping him to anchor his hunting heritage for his future and that of my decendents.

I pray you have God's great gift of provision as you head out soon.