Thursday and Friday Hunts

On Thursday my friend Russell and I took Emma and headed north to the Church Hill Covert.  Just out of the truck Emma pointed a woodcock that used some trees to it's advantage offering Russell no chance for a shot.

 

 

We soon came upon a couple of rabbit hunters who were hunting the cover that I had intended to hunt so we changed our direction.  We found a large number of recently stocked pheasants who ran ahead of Emma's points and mostly flushed wild. After a large circle we returned to the cover that I had intended to hunt and started to find some woodcock. Russell put his grandfather's Model 12 16 gauge to good use dropping this bird that eluded me, with Emma making a nice retrieve.

 

 

 

Russell and the old Model 12 proved to be deadly this day and he dropped another bird over Emma's point.  Emma found and retrieved the bird no where near where we had thought it had dropped. Without her the bird would have surely been lost.

 

Emma found us a few more birds, but our shooting skills left us and we made it back to the truck with no more birds in the bag, but with some wonderful memories of a memorable day afield.

 

 

 

On Friday Thicket and I made the long trip north to the Muth Covert.

 

We only found 2 local birds with Thicket pointing one of them and I making the too close, too well centered shot.

 

We tried a couple of "marginal" covers but no birds were found so with the temps rising we called it a day.

 



Monday and Wednesday Hunts

On Monday Thicket and I hunted the Doll's Head covert.

 

The old road leading in.

 

The cover looked inviting.

 

Thicket hunted hard.

 

We found no birds until we made our swing back through the top part of the covert where Thicket's beeper went on point mode. As I walked in from the front she relocated and pointed again. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw movement and the bird flushed off to my left and behind me. It had been a runner and my reflexes proved to be too slow for me to get off a shot.  We finished our push through the cover finding no more birds.  Never the less I was pleased with Thicket's performance on the running woodcock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Wednesday Thicket and I headed to Piney Creek. In my haste I forgot my camera so no pics of this hunt.

We found a few more birds on this trip with me flushing two and seeing one flush from cover that Thicket was working through as we made our first swing through the cover. Soon after we turned back in the direction of the truck, Thicket went on point. The bird was a runner, as more birds seem to be, but she relocated nicely without flushing the bird. As I walked in for the flush the woodcock showed me that this was his "neighborhood" and dodged around a clump of maples making good his escape before I could get the gun to my shoulder.

Not long after this bird Thicket went on point again.  This bird was in thick saplings and although I dropped both hammers the bird flew away unscathed. We made it back to the truck with no more bird contacts but I considered it a very successful hunt with Thicket's two solid points.





Success

For those of you who have been following my blog for the past year or so you may remember the troubles that I was having with Thicket and her distain for woodcock. Today she took a big step in the right direction. We hunted Piney Creek for about 2 hours without any success. As I approached the truck her beeper went on point mode 30+ yards behind me.  She held the point as I hurried to her. I found her still on point facing a  fallen tree top covered with vines and briers. The woodcock flushed giving me a fine chance and I dropped it with the right barrel. It fell into heavy cover and I had to circle around some trees to get to the area. I searched anxiously for it as I called Thicket in. She searched diligently but the bird was no where to be found.  I was worried that we had lost the bird when suddenly she stuck her head into a mass of briers and pulled out the bird. I would never had found that bird and to say that I was ecstatic would be an understatement.

 

If she keeps turning in performances like she did today she just may be able to take Emma's place when the time comes.

And So It Begins

Monday Thicket and I started off the woodcock season with a trip to Piney Creek.  The cover is still hellish thick and Thicket found only one woodcock which I missed.

 

 

Piney Creek

 

 

Back at the truck. Hot tired, but happy.

 

 

 

Tuesday was Emma's turn and she didn't let me down.  We hunted the Church Hill covert and the woodcock were there.  She found most of the birds in scattered wild pear thickets.

 

Her first point produced a double flush which I missed. Then I settled down and dropped the birds in her next two points.

 

 

The day started to heat up so we called it a day. We moved a total of 7 birds in 2 hours, all native birds. It will probably be several more weeks before we see flight birds.