Making the most of the Opportunities

Today I headed up north to my J & K covert a mountain that had been strip mined some years ago. Most of it is open fields with spruce and locust growing back but along some of the edges there are patches of aspen along side drainage ponds. It was in one of these patches of aspen that Emma went on a solid point and held while I walked up a woodcock that fell to my right barrel shot. Emma made the find and retrieve and I started to pose Colette the little hammergun and the bird for a photo when suddenly Emma's beeper went on point mode not 50 yards behind me. As I fumbled to put the camera back in it's case, reload my right
barrel and scrambled up the rocky slope to when she stood on point, Emma remained pointing staunchly. I moved in and flushed another woodcock that dropped to my right barrel shot, with Emma again making the find and retrieve. Two points, two shots and hits, and two retrieves in less that 2 minutes. Here's Emma making the retrieve on the second bird.

Emma's smile matched my own.

From the top of the mountain looking down at the little patch of aspen where it all came together.

We hunted another couple of hours through nice sapling cover that failed to produce any birds.

By lunchtime the temps were pushing 60 degrees and I called it a day. With the low grouse numbers Emma may never make a grouse dog but today she showed me that she had the woodcock figured out as she made the most of the opportunties presented to her and I drove home a happy man.