First Impressions
Three days in the books, and everything is going as it should in the grouse woods. The dogs were a little ragged to start, but both Bode and Rosie have been pointing the majority of their birds the last few days, and Monty performed well in his limited time out there on Tuesday.
We have also given Millie woods time each day, and while she has not yet pointed a bird, she is handling very well for me and is responsive to my commands. Her energy is undeniable, but she has a tendency to bump birds more than point them, which is undesirable for a guiding situation. We'll keep working at it, but it may require some amount of bird work in a controlled setting (i.e. at a preserve) to fine tune Millie's abilities and eventually have her become part of the rotation.
As far as the hunting is concerned, we had a tough day in the wind and the rain (at times) on Tuesday, then suddenly the birds appeared out of nowhere on Wednesday (19-20 grouse, 5 woodcock and a snipe moved). Quite a tale of two days and how weather conditions often play a part in whether a hunt is successful or not. Yesterday took much more effort, and boot leather, to find birds. We ended up moving around 10 grouse and 7 woodcock yesterday, but the rapidly drying grouse woods translated in to some mighty jumpy grouse.
Chris and Jim had a few chances on Tuesday, many more on Wednesday, and precious few opportunities yesterday to put birds in the vest, but only one woodcock paid the price. The birds were flying fast, some unexpectedly so, making for challenging shots for the hunters. We all walked a lot the last few days - around 24 miles, according to my iPhone, so my cardiac rehab is going very well. I feel great as a matter of fact, perhaps better than I ever have the last few years.
While we haven't found a ton of woodcock, the one that we killed was a female, perhaps indicating that we're still in the middle of the migration. This week should be a good one for pursuing timberdoodles, and the males are usually bringing up the tail end of the migration. We had an interesting thing on Tuesday, as Rosie pointed several pairs of grouse that morning - in fact, we didn't find singles that day. All of the 19 to 20 grouse we saw that day were in pairs or slightly larger groups. Another reason to remember to not let your guard down if a bird flushes - there might just be another one with it!
We have also given Millie woods time each day, and while she has not yet pointed a bird, she is handling very well for me and is responsive to my commands. Her energy is undeniable, but she has a tendency to bump birds more than point them, which is undesirable for a guiding situation. We'll keep working at it, but it may require some amount of bird work in a controlled setting (i.e. at a preserve) to fine tune Millie's abilities and eventually have her become part of the rotation.
As far as the hunting is concerned, we had a tough day in the wind and the rain (at times) on Tuesday, then suddenly the birds appeared out of nowhere on Wednesday (19-20 grouse, 5 woodcock and a snipe moved). Quite a tale of two days and how weather conditions often play a part in whether a hunt is successful or not. Yesterday took much more effort, and boot leather, to find birds. We ended up moving around 10 grouse and 7 woodcock yesterday, but the rapidly drying grouse woods translated in to some mighty jumpy grouse.
Chris and Jim had a few chances on Tuesday, many more on Wednesday, and precious few opportunities yesterday to put birds in the vest, but only one woodcock paid the price. The birds were flying fast, some unexpectedly so, making for challenging shots for the hunters. We all walked a lot the last few days - around 24 miles, according to my iPhone, so my cardiac rehab is going very well. I feel great as a matter of fact, perhaps better than I ever have the last few years.
While we haven't found a ton of woodcock, the one that we killed was a female, perhaps indicating that we're still in the middle of the migration. This week should be a good one for pursuing timberdoodles, and the males are usually bringing up the tail end of the migration. We had an interesting thing on Tuesday, as Rosie pointed several pairs of grouse that morning - in fact, we didn't find singles that day. All of the 19 to 20 grouse we saw that day were in pairs or slightly larger groups. Another reason to remember to not let your guard down if a bird flushes - there might just be another one with it!
Rosie, with one of her woodcock points in New Hampshire. She also had many points on grouse the last few days.
