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 Waterfowl
Hunting at Wingate Point
Honga River, Keese Property
12/26/07
Mark Burchick
Wingate Point
200-Acre Keese Property
Honga River, Dorchester
County, MD
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Mark and I spent the day
waterfowl hunting with Dan
Betz at the 200-acre Keese
Property. The dominant
marsh vegetation included
loblolly pine, eastern red
cedar, hightide bush, wax
myrtle, switchgrass, black
needle rush, shortform
cordgrass, salt meadow hay,
phragmites and planted milo.
The pond we hunted over is
freshwater, with the
difference of the property
being salt marsh, south of
the Blackwater National
Wildlife Refuge on the Honga
River and Chesapeake Bay. |
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A sunrise view from the
duck blind looking back
to the Keese House and
Honga River. |
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Mark battened down the
hatches and fell asleep
for a few minutes. |
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Around 10:00 AM we
walked out to Fox Point
to see if we could
ambush some birds in a
'closed' pond behind the
phragmites. |
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We walked around a
series of ponds and Dan
felled a mallard on the
wing. The overhead
shot dropped the bird
right at our feet!
If I had been a second
or two faster, I could
have caught the bird
like a football kick-off
dropping from the sky. |
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Vast miles of black
needle rush. |
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Dan's newly
adopted Chesapeake Bay
Retriever, named
Bear, was fairly
well trained. If
not for Bear, we would
have not found one of
two mergansers that fell
into dense shoreline
vegetation. |
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Another view of the
circle or horse-shoe
ponds. We walked
to a cemetery on the
property that contained
generations of the
extended Wingate family,
dating from 1750, up
thru 1899. It was
neat to think that the
originating Wingate's
pre-dated the American
Revolution and settled
lower Dorchester County,
while under British
rule, with many of the
Wingate's living thru
both the founding of the
United States and our
War between the States. |
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Dan and Mark in the duck
blind, with Mark wearing
the nutria fur hat
(right). We were
able to call in Canada
geese, but none quite
close enough to shoot
at. We put out
mallard, teal and goose
decoys, which helped
flying birds take a
second look at our pond.
The blinds were well
camouflaged and blended
into the banks. |
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In the course of sunrise
to sunset, we bagged a
mallard and two hooded
mergansers. We saw
lots of geese, swans,
flocks of high flying
waterfowl and many well
worn sika deer trails
throughout the property.
It rained much of the
day and if the winds
would have been
stronger, I'd bet that
the large flocks out on
the Honga would have
considered our ponds for
safe harbor. Thank
you Dan Betz for a great
day of hunting in the
"Land of Pleasant
Living." |
Submitted By: Mark Burchick |
