Mills, I hope you and Julia had as much fun as we did this afternoon at Drake Landing. I hate that they were closed on Sunday and that I missed shooting with you guys.
The heat was absolutely oppressive (95 degrees today), but the birds flew anyway. My brother in law and I went out there at 2:00 and were in the field by 3:00. I think it's the most Doves that I've ever seen on a shoot. You couldn't go five minutes without seeing a Dove, and we had them coming in sometimes in groups of 10 or 12. Dan told me later that he's been scouting the fields and leading up to today would see them coming in 40 to 60 at a time
Needless to say, I took my limit and had a great time doing it. Of course everything that Dan does is first class, including his hunts. Jesse cooked an amazing dinner, including Rib-Eye Steaks and some Caribbean Jerk Doves! Mmmmm, tasty.
We did talk a little bit about the events of this past week, and now that they have been granted this conditional use permit, they should be all set barring annoyances like having to close on Sundays. They do a lot of revenue on Sunday afternoons, but the feeling was that they could have lost every day, so it's still a victory. I'm told that about 85% of the people who showed up on Wed night were in support of Drake Landing staying open (not sure about Thursday's ratio), and they evidently had a huge stack of emails from supporters like us. The next step will be to hopefully win back their Agri-Tourism status, but there is no timeline as to when that appeal will be heard. if they do get that status reinstated, then they can stay open 7 days a week if they want too. In the meantime, I'll just start shooting early on Saturday morning instead of late on Sunday like I have been.
Mike