Easy Come, Easy Go ...
Millie, with a beautiful point on a woodcock on Monday - fortunately for the timberdoodle, my hunters were already limited out on them.
Another great point, another woodcock that was allowed to pass as we had already limited out. Rosie had this point.
That was Millie, back on Monday of this week, relishing a woodcock taken over one of her points by my clients. She had several good points on woodcock in her session, and one on a grouse as well, but it seems as though our time with the "Little Russet Fellers" may be coming to an end. We noticed a drop in the amount of woodcock in our coverts today, and many of them may have skipped town for points to the south just last night.
Yes, it can happen that fast - literally "here today, gone tomorrow" with the woodcock migration. We've had a wonderful season chasing them, however, so even I knew this day would come, as it always inevitably does. There are still a few around though (we did contact two this morning), so we will gladly go after any stragglers that we meet over the next two weeks.
True to form, we have seen more male woodcock than females taken over the last week or so. Apparently, the females migrate first and then the males bring up the rear of the journey southward, and what we have witnessed is an indicator that we may not see too many more passing through this year.
I hope that I'm wrong, as this has been a generally slower season on grouse, in my opinion. The woodcock have kept the spirits of both dogs and hunters (and guides) up, and not having them to rely on will make our days tougher, in all likelihood.
Still, it's grouse hunting and there's nowhere else I'd rather be. While we contacted precious few grouse yesterday, we had a decent morning (6 grouse and 2 woodcock contacted) today. The highlight was a staunch point that Millie had on a quick-escaping pair of them. We just couldn't get in position fast enough to take a shot, and they were gone in a flash.
The weather seems to have taken another turn in the last couple of days, becoming more mild (mid 60's today), with very little wind. Tougher scenting conditions for the dogs, and tomorrow appears to be even warmer than today. It was a far cry from the nearly perfect weather conditions we had earlier this week, where the dogs did their best work.
This weather pattern will keep up until Sunday, when another cold front comes through, bringing the possibility of a bit of snow early next week. On the positive side, the cold weather should get the grouse feeding more actively and spreading scent around for the dogs to find - let's hope they find some.
There are a couple of weeks left in our guiding season, and hopefully the grouse cooperate for us.
Yes, it can happen that fast - literally "here today, gone tomorrow" with the woodcock migration. We've had a wonderful season chasing them, however, so even I knew this day would come, as it always inevitably does. There are still a few around though (we did contact two this morning), so we will gladly go after any stragglers that we meet over the next two weeks.
True to form, we have seen more male woodcock than females taken over the last week or so. Apparently, the females migrate first and then the males bring up the rear of the journey southward, and what we have witnessed is an indicator that we may not see too many more passing through this year.
I hope that I'm wrong, as this has been a generally slower season on grouse, in my opinion. The woodcock have kept the spirits of both dogs and hunters (and guides) up, and not having them to rely on will make our days tougher, in all likelihood.
Still, it's grouse hunting and there's nowhere else I'd rather be. While we contacted precious few grouse yesterday, we had a decent morning (6 grouse and 2 woodcock contacted) today. The highlight was a staunch point that Millie had on a quick-escaping pair of them. We just couldn't get in position fast enough to take a shot, and they were gone in a flash.
The weather seems to have taken another turn in the last couple of days, becoming more mild (mid 60's today), with very little wind. Tougher scenting conditions for the dogs, and tomorrow appears to be even warmer than today. It was a far cry from the nearly perfect weather conditions we had earlier this week, where the dogs did their best work.
This weather pattern will keep up until Sunday, when another cold front comes through, bringing the possibility of a bit of snow early next week. On the positive side, the cold weather should get the grouse feeding more actively and spreading scent around for the dogs to find - let's hope they find some.
There are a couple of weeks left in our guiding season, and hopefully the grouse cooperate for us.
