“Memories”

When the wind howls and sub-zero temperatures make it down right unbearable outside, I often find myself digging out photos from past fall’s hunts. One glimpse of my dogs working the uplands and grasslands warms my soul and makes the winter months a bit more tolerable. I close my eyes and remember the good times and a game bag full of memories.

Several goose hunting trips with the in-laws and my two boys found us on the edge of a private lake and marsh south of Wautoma. Each fall, we set up on the marsh and watch thousands of Canada geese, some of which are lured into our spread of decoys. Bringing home these large birds for the crock-pot is made easier when they cup their wings and glide in close.

I remember with a smile, the week spent in North Dakota with close friends and a couple truckloads of dogs. The pheasants were plentiful, the camaraderie outstanding and the dog work grand. My eldest German shorthair, Buck, at twelve and a half, hunted his heart out. Not knowing how well he’d be hunting next year at nearly fourteen years old, we stopped for pictures after each rooster shot over him, thinking it might be his last pheasant. I got plenty of pictures.

One, or two flushes per hour for grouse was the rule for us this fall. With the ruffed grouse 10-year cycle at its low point, flush rates were far and few between this season. Grouse hunters across the Great Lakes states are wearing down more boot leather than using up shotgun shells this year. On a brighter note, woodcock were found in good numbers. While I didn’t keep track of our flush rates, we had many days afield with 10-20 flushes. We found flight birds through the end of the season, as milder temperatures kept these migrant birds in the Badger state well into November.

A few early December grouse hunt with my boys yielded not much more than memories. Occasional pockets of birds can be found in the best of covers and I heard several reports from hunters doing quite well this year. But this year will go down in our history book as one of the slowest. If the snow doesn’t get too deep, there’ll be plenty of opportunities to chase grouse through the end of January.

Strangely enough, our home covert held six birds. Those six birds, with a home range that doesn’t extend far from our forty-six acres, are fairly safe and secure within our boundaries. You see, there’s an unwritten rule that says grouse can’t be shot unless one of our pointing pups handles them perfectly. So, except for an occasional marauding goshawk, or owl, the majority of our grouse flock should survive until spring.

There’s nothing better than wild birds for training young gun dogs. We’ve been fortunate at our kennels over the years to have access to wild grouse and woodcock. Add to that, pen raised game birds and pigeons, and we have an ample supply of birds for our dogs each year.

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For those of you not familiar with woodcock, they migrate south, ending their journey in southern states like Louisiana. I caught this message on an internet gun dog news group, “a good report from Louisiana….I have been afield extensively waterfowl hunting. Have had the pleasure of seeing what appears to be a significant increase in woodcock numbers. Fact is I am seeing more woodcock this year than I have seen in the last 20 years. The area I am hunting is bottomland of the Mississippi River just north of Baton Rouge. What is most incredible is that the numbers of birds I am

Seeing is very high and I am not even looking for them. We simply encounter them at daylight while waiting for legal shooting time. As can be expected this type of sighting only last for about the first 20 minutes of daylight in the morning. Best count so far during that short early morning period was somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 birds. It has been many years since I have seen bird numbers like this and I am looking forward to what might just be an exceptional year. I hunt woodcock with Golden Retrievers.”

Want to visit this gun dog newsgroup on the internet? Check it out and see what others are saying at http://listserv.tamu.edu/archives/gundog-l.html.