I'm used to hunting woodcock in thick creek bottoms and find it hard to believe that they use cover this open, but Emma pointed 5 woodcock, I had shots at 3, and was only able to drop 1 a nice hen, who when cleaned, had a nice layer of fat on her breast. In cover like this there's no nice mossy logs to get a photo op.
The first bird she pointed which I missed was in ridiculously open cover under this tree, but there was a stiff wind blowing and I felt like I was making figure 8's in the air with my barrels as I tried to focus on the bird as it made it's escape.
Here's Emma on point in fairly open cover. This bird ran and flushed out ahead of us not giving me a chance for a shot.
We came to a large beaver pond. I started around one side and didn't realize that Emma had taken to the other side until I heard her beeper sounding. I tried to circle above the pond , then realized it was much larger than I thought and had to backtrack to cross the stream at the dam. She held the point for several minutes but as I made my way to her the bird must have flushed as her beeper went silent and she appeared checking back in with me.
We later came to another pond. Emma pointed a woodcock that I missed and then went on point almost before I could reload my gun. As I walked in thinking another woodcock a grouse erupted and used some pine trees to cause me to miss, but it was nice to see Emma handle a grouse, a bird she's always had trouble pointing.
As we made our way back to the truck I gazed out over the landscape at all the cover and knew I'd have to return soon.
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