Wet Monday Morning

PA Pro Joe McCarl during his week here in New Hampshire

It was still raining at 5:45 when the alarm went off. But it stopped shortly there after and a quick check of the noaa radar showed that the rain was over for the morning, so I met Tony at the gate at 6:30. The first brace had two finds, then we ran Ginger in what has consistently been our weakest section of the cover and had five finds which was most likely caused by two factors -- the fact that the experienced dogs always seem to find the birds especially this year as they seem to be buried in thicker cover and the rain seems to help bring (or keep) birds in the cover. Abbie and Trey ran together in a section where Saturday Jack had five finds and his bracemate off of Joe McCarl's truck bumped 3 or 4 more. This morning the majority of those birds weren't in the same place although Abbie did have one find standing withing 20 feet of where Jack had been on one of his finds on Saturday. They we took Trey and Abbie into a little corner near where we park the truck and usually miss. There were four birds stacked up there.

One of the dog's off Joe's truck pointing a woodcock.

Of the three young dogs Trey continues to hunt the hardest and show the most advanced manners around birds. Trip is finally figuring out the woods and has started finding birds on her own. Tom Parker, a neighbor who has a pack of bear dogs, has taken on the task of bringing on a young pointer that I gave him. He has vast experience in the woods of our area with his bird dogs and has often tipped us off to spots he's found grouse while going to his dogs in the woods. He showed us a really nice spot the other day that we had driven by many times, we just hadn't gotten off the road and penetrated the first 30 feet that looked to dense to run a dog. Once in the cover it looked to be the perfect age of regeneration with a number of wet spots in the skidder ruts and gathering openings.

Tom Parker experiencing a different part of the dog world.