First Hunt of 2016

Went out yesterday to start the season.  The weather's too hot but had to get out.  I took Emma and tried a new spot, the Harrier covert , named after the Northern Harrier hawk I saw there. It's reclaimed strip mine land growing back with patches of aspen, locust, and birch. Waist high goldenrod gave the woodcock plenty of cover.

The 'cock seemed to be running on Emma as she gave me several empty points. They had to be native birds as it's too early for the flights to come through.  I flushed one myself so I knew that there were some birds there.  She finally gave me a nice solid point but as I approached from the left the 'cock flew out the right side of the cover and I didn't have a shot.  After a couple of hours with the temps pushing into the upper 60's I called it a day. With no birds in the bag I was still satisfied to find a new covert that held woodcock this early in the season. I'll be going back later when the flight birds are moving through to see if they use this cover.

The weather forecast for the rest of the week calls for hot and dry weather until Friday when there is a 90% chance of rain.  Next week looks to be much cooler so hopefully the dogs and I will be doing some serious hunting.