Training Begins
Two frosty mid summer mornings last week (low 40's) gave us the perfect opportunity to get in to the woods in search of grouse and woodcock. What a treat it is to get out there at this time of the year to get the dogs on wild birds without mosquitos bothering us and perspiring to exhaustion.
We checked out some of our favorite haunts in Vermont and were rewarded with a few birds. Bode was first up on Wednesday morning and he managed to stop to flush on a couple of single grouse and a wild flushing woodcock, then he bumbled in to a brood of grouse later on. The brood was large I would say - 7 to 8 birds. After the first two flew, he received a quick "whoa", and he held his ground as the others flew off as I made my way to him. A couple of them came mighty close to hitting him in the head, but he remained rock solid. Good exposure for him in nearly two hours of running - about 10 or 11 birds.
Rudy ran for about 1.5 hours on Thursday morning, and he picked up where he left off last year. First, he pointed, relocated, and then pointed again a running grouse that ended up flushing downhill from us. Then he stuck a grouse beautifully in a patch of shady evergreens - really nice work. He finished his run off with a point on a brood of grouse (different from the day before), with the hen pulling the broken wing routine. I came in calmly and led him out by his collar so that he would not further disturb this family unit.
What do bird numbers look like for this fall? After last year, I have decided to take myself out of the prediction game. Bird seasons are what we make of them - seeing more birds usually means more effort needs to be made. More research and scouting for new covers, more training of our dogs and ourselves, and more boots on the ground. I believe that the latest predictions from Upland Almanac for New Hampshire and Vermont are for "fair to good grouse hunting" up here for the 2015 autumn.
We shall see … and I can't wait.
We checked out some of our favorite haunts in Vermont and were rewarded with a few birds. Bode was first up on Wednesday morning and he managed to stop to flush on a couple of single grouse and a wild flushing woodcock, then he bumbled in to a brood of grouse later on. The brood was large I would say - 7 to 8 birds. After the first two flew, he received a quick "whoa", and he held his ground as the others flew off as I made my way to him. A couple of them came mighty close to hitting him in the head, but he remained rock solid. Good exposure for him in nearly two hours of running - about 10 or 11 birds.
Rudy ran for about 1.5 hours on Thursday morning, and he picked up where he left off last year. First, he pointed, relocated, and then pointed again a running grouse that ended up flushing downhill from us. Then he stuck a grouse beautifully in a patch of shady evergreens - really nice work. He finished his run off with a point on a brood of grouse (different from the day before), with the hen pulling the broken wing routine. I came in calmly and led him out by his collar so that he would not further disturb this family unit.
What do bird numbers look like for this fall? After last year, I have decided to take myself out of the prediction game. Bird seasons are what we make of them - seeing more birds usually means more effort needs to be made. More research and scouting for new covers, more training of our dogs and ourselves, and more boots on the ground. I believe that the latest predictions from Upland Almanac for New Hampshire and Vermont are for "fair to good grouse hunting" up here for the 2015 autumn.
We shall see … and I can't wait.
