The year after the South Carolina trip, it was decided to continue the sporting exchange scheme. That year David Wielicki suggested that Tony and I might prefer to spend a week in October at the cottage owned by his father at Delta Beach in Manitoba. The Canadian waterfowl season opens earlier than in the USA and Manitoba hosts huge numbers of migrating ducks and geese during the early part of the season. In fact, that year was to be the first of three consecutive years that we visited Delta, so let me roll them into one account as the key elements of each were essentially similar.
Delta Beach is the ideal base for waterfowling in Manitoba.
It is located less than 90 minutes drive from Winnipeg airport and is right on the famous Delta Marshes. Apart from the wetlands of the marshes themselves, there are many excellent fowling opportunities on the shores of Lake Manitoba and there is a wealth of farmland which attracts hundreds of thousands of snow geese. A few hundred yards from the Wielicki cottage was the entrance to the West Marsh which is located just across the road from the wildfowl sanctuary surrounding the world-renowned Delta Waterfowl Research Station. From there, canoes were used to ferry guns and decoys out to the North Point. In situations like this no hides are required as the phragmytes and cat-tails give adequate cover if one is well camouflaged.