Monday, March 14, 2011

Disappointing Weekend

Got out this weekend for some woodcock chasing, sadly that's what it amounted to. We hunted some classic cover on Saturday with Emma bumping one and me flushing one.

On Sunday we found them.

Ugly cover to a tree hugger beautiful to a woodcock hunter.




Emma tore up the cover looking for birds.




You comin' Dad?





Not your typical plodding Ryman.





The disappointing part of the weekend was she bumped 5 or 6 birds that I saw
and only held her couple points for a few seconds and then rushed in and flushed the bird. As she approaches her fourth birthday it's becoming painfully clear that she may never make it as a birddog. I've given her as many opportunities as I could in the last four years but the "light" just hasn't come on. I'll hunt her hard this fall but will begin to plan on a new pup perhaps for the spring of 2012. Not to worry, Emma will have a good home for the rest of her life cause she's part of the family, but as I watch my number of hunting seasons start to lessen I yearn for a solid pointing dog to walk up to and experience the thrill of the flush before my hunting days are over.







As always I look for anything unusual to take a pic of. Here's a nice fungi of a color I've never seen before.







At first I thought spike buck, but the "horns" seem to be attached to the skull more like a true horn than an antler that is shed every year. Any ideas ???


Hope to get the old dogs out next weekend for some solid points before the woodcock begin to nest.








2 comments:

Ed said...

Emma may have had cabin fever, and just need to burn some energy!
I believe that the horns on the skull are the base's from which the horns fall! & A pup couldn't hurt!!

David said...

Great looking covers Rick, glad you ran into a few Big Eyes in there, they have yet to arrive in NY. I can relate to the bird bumping, more so on the grouse but it is a tough pill to swallow. New pup is always good! Gave Cedar an ear scratch for ya. Be well.