Scouting Continues
A ruffed grouse tail feather - a good find when you're out there wandering in the woods looking for them. There's a dichotomy though. While you've obviously found a section of grouse woods that grouse (at least sometimes) like to call home, tail feathers don't fall out easily. Perhaps a hawk or owl got this one, or one of the many ground predators that also love grouse. In any event, we never caught up to the owner of that tail feather.
In fact, that was as close as we would come to finding bonasa umbellas yesterday morning, as we scouted a new area for this fall. Monty got his first run in of the season yesterday, and though he hunted hard, his only bird contacts were on two separate woodcock, both pointed. He did a great job holding steady to wing and shot on the first bird, but his exuberance got the better of him on the second one. A quick correction and he was off again in search of birds.
Bode took the bagel yesterday in his run, but he probably had a session like that coming. Bode had a good morning on Wednesday, as he contacted a single grouse (pointed), two single woodcock (both pointed), and a brood of grouse (stopped to flush after the first one went up). The brood ended up having five or so grouse in it, a little better numbers than what we had been encountering. Bode held as each grouse flushed out and he's generally been having good sessions since we started a few weeks ago. He's handled really well out there. Rosie also got some time in on Wednesday and though she ran hard, she came up with nothing in an area that we hadn't walked through in perhaps 7 - 8 years. While we hadn't seen huge numbers of birds here in the past, there was always something there ... not this time. Another area to stop wondering about and move on to greener pastures in our scouting for the fall hunts.
I still think it's a bit too early to reach a conclusion on how this fall might pan out. Preseason scouting, as I've noted many times before, is difficult at this time of the season. The grouse broods are still together, so one can walk many miles before encountering much and then, all of a sudden, you encounter a bonanza of grouse. It's a feast or famine situation out there, in other words. However, it seems as though we're not encountering as many as last summer, so hopefully that's not a harbinger of things to come ...
Looks like we have hot and humid weather coming next week, so we will probably not be in the woods much. It'll just give us more time to think about the areas we will be scouting next.
In fact, that was as close as we would come to finding bonasa umbellas yesterday morning, as we scouted a new area for this fall. Monty got his first run in of the season yesterday, and though he hunted hard, his only bird contacts were on two separate woodcock, both pointed. He did a great job holding steady to wing and shot on the first bird, but his exuberance got the better of him on the second one. A quick correction and he was off again in search of birds.
Bode took the bagel yesterday in his run, but he probably had a session like that coming. Bode had a good morning on Wednesday, as he contacted a single grouse (pointed), two single woodcock (both pointed), and a brood of grouse (stopped to flush after the first one went up). The brood ended up having five or so grouse in it, a little better numbers than what we had been encountering. Bode held as each grouse flushed out and he's generally been having good sessions since we started a few weeks ago. He's handled really well out there. Rosie also got some time in on Wednesday and though she ran hard, she came up with nothing in an area that we hadn't walked through in perhaps 7 - 8 years. While we hadn't seen huge numbers of birds here in the past, there was always something there ... not this time. Another area to stop wondering about and move on to greener pastures in our scouting for the fall hunts.
I still think it's a bit too early to reach a conclusion on how this fall might pan out. Preseason scouting, as I've noted many times before, is difficult at this time of the season. The grouse broods are still together, so one can walk many miles before encountering much and then, all of a sudden, you encounter a bonanza of grouse. It's a feast or famine situation out there, in other words. However, it seems as though we're not encountering as many as last summer, so hopefully that's not a harbinger of things to come ...
Looks like we have hot and humid weather coming next week, so we will probably not be in the woods much. It'll just give us more time to think about the areas we will be scouting next.
