Emma's Day

Yesterday I decided to give Emma a start and we headed up to the Piney Creek Covert. It held some woodcock both male and female no doubt flight birds. Emma gave me 4 productive points and several empty ones and I moved 2 birds as I wandered through the barberry, multiflora rose bottom. The creek that was almost dry on the first day of the season now is flowing nicely.

 

Two of Emma's points offered no chance for a shot. Then I got lucky and dropped a bird with my right barrel on a close open shot. I thought I had marked the spot where it fell but Emma soon moved out of the area in her search. I circled the spot tramping down brush and briers, calling Emma back to search more thoroughly. As the minutes slipped by I got that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that comes with a lost bird. Emma and I had lost a bird on our last outing and I was fearing the worst when Emma suddenly appeared with the woodcock, a small male,  in her mouth. It had fallen further out than I had estimated and I showered Emma with praise for a job well done.

Her last point was it fairly open cover, but I took the wrong route and became entangled in a multiflora rose clump just as the  bird chose to flush. I ripped my arm free and threw a shot after the bird but it winged it's way to safety.  I had aggravated my hamstring muscle while hunting in Canaan Valley so I called it a day and made my way back to the truck with the sweet memory of Emma's find and retrieve on a bird that I had thought lost.