What About the Woodcock?
This has certainly been one of the strangest upland bird hunting seasons that I can remember, and the prime culprit for this has been our unpredictable weather. Don't get me wrong, autumn weather in northern New England is a chancy proposition at best, but this year it seems that it has been unusually abnormal. This weather has had some consequences for us, so we've had to try to adapt to what mother nature has thrown us.
First off, we had over three weeks of unseasonably warm weather - anytime that it is routinely reaching seventy degrees or more, it is very difficult for both dog and hunter alike, and it becomes quite a hindrance in our search for birds. Unfortunately, we had to deal with an extended period of conditions like this, where scenting was very difficult.
Another unwanted byproduct of the warm weather has been the apparent stalling of the annual woodcock flights from Canada, as they pass through our area to points south. Fortunately, we have a solid resident population of woodcock here in northern New Hampshire, so we were still seeing our share of timberdoodles, but the lack of flight birds in some of our more productive woodcock covers seems to indicate that the majority of the flight birds have yet to reach our area.
So … we wait. However, perhaps we won't be waiting too much longer. On this Halloween night, the temp will dip to 29 degrees in Pittsburg (undoubtedly colder in Quebec), and a clear night sky, perfect for travelling woodcock, is gracing us this evening. We will also have a full moon on Saturday night, so this could be the weekend where all of us that pursue woodcock could have our day. We shall see …
First off, we had over three weeks of unseasonably warm weather - anytime that it is routinely reaching seventy degrees or more, it is very difficult for both dog and hunter alike, and it becomes quite a hindrance in our search for birds. Unfortunately, we had to deal with an extended period of conditions like this, where scenting was very difficult.
Another unwanted byproduct of the warm weather has been the apparent stalling of the annual woodcock flights from Canada, as they pass through our area to points south. Fortunately, we have a solid resident population of woodcock here in northern New Hampshire, so we were still seeing our share of timberdoodles, but the lack of flight birds in some of our more productive woodcock covers seems to indicate that the majority of the flight birds have yet to reach our area.
So … we wait. However, perhaps we won't be waiting too much longer. On this Halloween night, the temp will dip to 29 degrees in Pittsburg (undoubtedly colder in Quebec), and a clear night sky, perfect for travelling woodcock, is gracing us this evening. We will also have a full moon on Saturday night, so this could be the weekend where all of us that pursue woodcock could have our day. We shall see …
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We spent our first day in Vermont in quite a while and had a good morning, moving 6 grouse and 5 woodcock in our travels. My client took one wild flushing grouse and two beautifully pointed and retrieved woodcock by Bode. Though he bumped a couple of the grouse, he worked close and had a good morning with the woodcock. Our afternoon, though we were in a couple of good looking covers, was mostly uneventful - a couple of distantly flushing grouse was all that we were able to contact.
More updates to come …
More updates to come …
