I hate to tell this stroy in the detail I am about to---but the details I think add to the event.
Sunday morning I snuk into Tiger Hammock to try to get on a few birds I had heard in the area from where I was Saturday morning. I aproached a place I always just sit and wait to see if I need to relocate when the birds announce their positions.
Time came and I was surprised---the birds were on the opposite side of a field that had a canal running diagionally through it. I had one bird on my side and 4 on the other. Got after the bird from my position and low and behold he was closing the distance steadily. He answered everything I threw at him as continued to close the distance while the other across the canal were tearing it up !!! The bird finally got to where I could hear his chest rattle when he gobbled and I got ready for the shot. 5 minutes passed and he hadnt shown, I softly clucked to check his position....nothiong, went to a soft yelp...nothing. Couldnt stand it so I cut to see where he was. NOTHING !!! He vaporized withing 60 yds of me after he came 300 yds to me.
The fog set down very think and heavy---the birds across the canal had been to the edge of the canal 2 times screaming but would not cross---the thought raced through my mind---I have dense fog and Mirtle bushes on the canal---I am running across the field and cross the canal to see if I can call em up. Got to the canal---birds gobbleing in the field---it worked ---so far. Noe to get across the almost dry LOOKING canal. I set a foot gingerly into the grassy looking surface and tested it---firm !! Stepped again-tested...still firm. Took another step, then another. The 4th step found me almost in the middle and no signes of water under my weight in the grass. Figure I would go for it. Took the next stop--tested it---set all my weight and went for it. I have never in my life sank so fast into anything. I immediatlly found myself up to the cheeks of my rear end in black smally muck so thick I was there to stay I thought. I had to lay my gun across the surface to pull myself inch by inch out of that stuff. Here is a picture of the upper end of the canal I sank into !!! A lession learned---go around those things----I never hit bottom of that quicksand !!! Every time I put on new socks---they come out of my boots balck and horrible smelling from the mud and water that got in em !!!
