The Misadventures of the S.W.M.B.W.S.
A short story by member "Rebel"
To begin, S.W.M.B.W.S. stands for: Southwest Missouri Bird Watchin’ Society… It’s a group of 4 waterfowlin’ nuts! Myself, David Taylor aka Rebel, John aka SWMO, Mike aka Wingman and last, but not least Ernie aka P-Man.
What we do is not your ordinary water-fowling… We are a special breed, those who "watch". If you follow along in the forums you see that we call it watchin’. You ask yourself, "Why do they watch instead of hunt?"
Well… I could say that we are strictly conservationists and just like to watch birds, but the truth of the matter is that, especially I, but we can’t shoot! Period, point blank we throw a lot of steel at the birds and they laugh as they venture off into the wild blue yonder…
We like to have a good time, great friendship, great fellowship and sometimes the best part of it all… BREAKFAST!!! For those of you who know me, know that I LOVE to eat, I don’t pass up a meal very often at all. So what could be better then spending some quality watchin’ time with some close friends, then to spend it eating! We cook some deer sausage, usually provided by Wingman, scramble some eggs usually provided by yours truly, add some cheese provided by P-Man and gobble it up on dinnerware provided by SWMO, it’s a group affair when we cook breakfast… And let me be the first to tell you that there is never, I repeat NEVER any left over, as that would be considered food abuse and we can’t have that!
But our morning’s usually start off with a nice BRISK ride down the ‘como in SWMO’s quite speedy G-3, folks if you’ve never ridden in a G-3 that’s smooth as glass, I’ll be the first to tell you when its cold, you know the kind of cold where when your bundled up in 12 layers and your teeth still chatter, that crusin’ down the como you WILL GET COLD!!!
Once we arrive to "the spot" of the day, the work begins, shortly thereafter tromping around in the silt that’s up to your neck, you warm up quite fast… After the spread is set, we wait for the morning flight to arrive….
Out of the blue you’ll hear one of us say "Ducks", so naturally all of us look straight up like tourists at the Taj Mahal, if your duck hunters you know its bad to look up, but hey, we’re good, we’re the SWMBWS we can do stuff like this… right! SWMO will sing a pretty song to them and just about when their feet are getting wet we’ll give the command of "Watch em", actually we say "Take em" but, after the guns are empty and the dust settles, usually Whitney or Jake, and eventually Wootie, they sit there tears coming to their eyes, we missed…. No ladies and Gentlemen, this is WATCHING at its finest. We get set back up, waiting for the 8 am flight to occur, and repeat this a few times throughout the day. Of course, we don’t forget breakfast in amongst the watchin’, if you’re ever out hunting and there is a lull in action, one guaranteed way to create action… Cook breakfast, it works like a charm…
We usually manage to scratch out a few limits of the quackers, but the friendship and fellowship we’ve created it what its all about…
Stay tuned this fall as the "misAdventures of the SWMBWS" unfold before your very own eyes… It’s gonna be a fun ride and I guarantee you don’t want to miss out...
Until next time, keep your eyes to the sky…. "Just Watchin’"
Da Reb