Finally Some Preseason Birds

A number of things have kept me from getting Thicket into some preseason woodcock.  First was my kidney stone surgery which laid me low for about 3 weeks. Then very dry weather sent the woodcock somewhere other than my usual woodcock hotspots, and finally my fall apple tree plantings have kept me busy trying to get all my trees planted before the grouse and woodcock season starts.  We have gotten some good rains recently and I got a good many of my apple trees planted so today Thicket and I headed for the Doll's Head covert.

The vegetation is still thick.

She found 4 woodcock. Two points that I had a hard time getting to her through the alders and hawthorn and she either bumped the bird or it flushed on it's own, I don't know. Another bird flushed in front of her as she was working some cover, and one bird she pointed nicely in some thick cover which made getting a pic tough.

It was a nice morning afield with Thicket showing me that she hadn't forgotten everything she had learned about finding and pointing woodcock from last spring.

It's going to be an exciting fall for us both.