Odds and Ends
Guiding operations shifted over to Vermont today, and we'll spend another day in the Green Mountain State tomorrow. My clients today were Randy and Conrad, and we had the pleasure of hunting behind Randy's pointers Ginger and Axel. It didn't take long for Ginger to get things going on the right foot as she pointed three woodcock in a short amount of time and Conrad helped her remember exactly why she's out there by taking two of them on skillful shooting.
While Ginger patterns well, hunts reasonably close, and points steadily, Axel can be a bit of a wildcard at times. He's a pointer through and through, and points well but sometimes lets his excitement in our endeavors get the better of him. He can run big at times, and while we didn't see it last week when Randy and I were together on another Vermont hunt, he was "out there" at times today. He got his shot, but with daylight burning, we decided to give Ginger another chance. She did well again, and we moved three more grouse, two of which she briefly pointed (and Conrad shot in the direction of) before we departed from the woods for the day.
Ginger retrieves her woodcock
Art with a hard earned rainy day ruffed grouse
Yesterday, as expected, was a tough weather day in the north country. The rain caught up with us for good around 10 AM or so, and my client and I hunted until noon and by then we were drenched and cold. It started off well with Bode, moving several grouse and a couple woodcock, mostly near evergreen cover as they must've anticipated the coming weather. When it was a full on downpour, we still found birds with Rosie, and she even pointed a woodcock and trailed and then pointed a fleeing grouse. Art took one bird, but it was hard earned for sure.
The weather was definitely a factor, as the rain helped us perhaps get closer to some birds, but the gusty winds took whatever advantage we may have had away, as it was hard on the dogs to focus on the bird scent and the birds were even more skittish than usual. As you might imagine, we had the woods to ourselves yesterday morning.
The final item is a short video I took of one of Bode's points on a woodcock from Saturday. It illustrates a couple of things -the cover that we were in was pretty thick (stem density again), and it also shows his steady pointing ability. By this point, I had shut off his beeper collar so that we could approach silently.
Please excuse the commentary as well, as I attempted to give my client an edge to take this bird. While this woodcock made it to safety, just an hour or so later, my client took a couple of woodcock over Bode's steady points to fill his bag limit for the day. Don't feel too bad for him ...
