Day Two

After putting up big numbers yesterday, we had some bluebird weather today that slowed things down a bit.  the morning started off well with LJ pointing six woodcock and having two grouse finds.  He also had trouble handling a brood of about six that were running all over a hillside and flushing one at a time.  lloyd and Steve were with me and Tony and Joey went their own way.  All the dogs we ran had bird contacts.  In addition to LJ, Trip pointed two grouse and bumped one.  We also had a couple of Tony's dogs on the truck.  Ker B had a stop-to-flush on a grouse and The Missile had a pretty good run bumping a couple grouse, pointing one, and pointing a pair of woodcock.   That gave us a total of 14 grouse plus five (including a Spruce Grouse) that we saw on the road and didn't even slow down for, and 8 woodcock.  We quit early as the sun came out midmorning and the afternoon temperature rose to near 70 with increasing humidity.   Tomorrow is a school day (even I have to work once in awhile) then I'll hunt Thursday morning before heading to New Brunswick for the Leslie Anderson Derby Classic on Friday and the International Amateur Woodcock Championship over the weekend.  John Bilodeau is riding along to enjoy the festivities at the John Gyles and visit with lots of old friends.  At last count they had 29 dogs for the Championship which is more than they've had in quite awhile.  It should be a good weekend.  Hopefully they've got the kinks worked out of the wiFi at the motel and I'll be able to post results and updates from New Brunswick.  Jack is in the 8th brace and LJ is in the 12th which should put them on the same course Jack had last year -- it's the only course you can really let a dog lay out to the front on without having to call him in to turn on a regular basis.  Seems like a good omen.