He's an Oldie, but Goodie ...
A veritable cornucopia of weather conditions for us the last few days in the northern New Hampshire grouse woods lately. From a sizable snow storm on Saturday, then nice hunting conditions on Sunday, to rain yesterday morning, and finally a gray, but dry day today, we've had to contend with it all lately. The bird finding has been challenging at times, but overall we've had some good sessions this week.
Yesterday afternoon turned out to be a good day for hunting for our party, as the grouse were moving around some following the morning's constant rain. We encountered 16 grouse yesterday afternoon, and while not all of them were pointed or offered great opportunities for my clients, there were a few that could have paid the price but I guess that Chris and Jim were playing their part as "catch and release" bird hunters. We had some good work from Rosie and Bode, and Chirs's brittany Chotsie, but nothing to show for it from the hunters.
Yesterday afternoon turned out to be a good day for hunting for our party, as the grouse were moving around some following the morning's constant rain. We encountered 16 grouse yesterday afternoon, and while not all of them were pointed or offered great opportunities for my clients, there were a few that could have paid the price but I guess that Chris and Jim were playing their part as "catch and release" bird hunters. We had some good work from Rosie and Bode, and Chirs's brittany Chotsie, but nothing to show for it from the hunters.
Today brought a more concerted effort to find some woodcock, hitting several different covers, some upland, some lowland, and we were able to find 13 woodcock. Monty had beautiful points on several of them, and a couple of those birds cooperated, but it was only Jim that made a nice shot through a tangle of alders to bring his bird down.
The amazing thing about Monty's point on Jim's woodcock was that he was able to staunchly hold point for several minutes as we located him and found a way to navigate the alders and water to get in position. Thank God for woodcock!
The amazing thing about Monty's point on Jim's woodcock was that he was able to staunchly hold point for several minutes as we located him and found a way to navigate the alders and water to get in position. Thank God for woodcock!
Monty's staunch point helped Jim take his first woodcock
While we had a good day of contacting woodcock, our grouse contacts left something to be desired. We only moved four grouse in our travels today, and while Bode had a nice point on one of them, the others were very skittish, not letting us get close enough for a shot. It appears as though some of these grouse have become educated ...
We hit some amazing looking grouse cover today, but they simply weren't there. Wrong place, wrong time, as sometimes happens in grouse hunting. We'll be back at it the next few days and more updates will be on the way ...
