Thirty/Thirty

Fall colors were near peak for opening day of bird season.

October First is finally in the record books and we hunted nine dogs for a total of 30 grouse and 30 woodcock moved.  At least that's the number we came up with at the end of the day and we probably undercounted a by a few of each.  It's hard to keep track sometimes especially when you're running young dogs that might bump a bird or two.  The most exciting find of the day was for Ginger III went on point way up on the side of a mountain.  Steve Groy and Joe McCarl were shooting, two guns being more than enough.  I was standing behind Steve when a woodcock got up and he swung and shot.  I also heard Joe shoot twice.  I thought they were both shooting at the bird I saw and Steve and I went to retrieve while G III seemed to be headed in a different direction.  She pointed again and when they got to her there was another dead woodcock -- I called this a Pennsylvania double.  One of the reason that the numbers were so high today was that we ran Jack in one of our best covers and the old boy didn't let us down.  He pointed 12 woodcock and had a stop to flush on a 13th and had four grouse finds that included 7 grouse giving him close to 1/3 of the bird count for the day.  LJ managed 3 woodcock pointed and a grouse.  On one of the woodcock, Lloyd shot it at rather close range right in front of LJ who remained steady for wing, shot, fall of the bird, and a brief feather snow flurry.  Trip had two woodcock finds and a stop to flush.  Bee had a nice piece of work on a pair of grouse and we walked up a small bunch with 3 or 4 grouse in it.  I didn't see some of the dogs go as we started out in two groups but all the dogs in the other group had grouse work.  We ended the day with Joey running Chris Mathan's dog Rita.  Rita had two grouse finda and a stop to flush on a grouse that made the often fatal mistake of flying up into a tree.  I asked Joey if he wanted me to kill the bord for the dog and he said yes.  It landed about 4 feet in front of her and she remained steady for the shot and the fall of the bird.  It was a nice end to a somewhat damp but enjoyable opening day.  Tomorrow we meet at the church at 7 and will head out to a different set of covers.  Chris Mathan is supposed to join us so we'll probably form into two teams again.

Tony leads the way into one of the covers followed by the PA double and Lloyd Carnoski.

Papa Smurf directing traffic on a find.

Steve Groy on the left wing.

Joe McCarl on the right wing.

Lloyd "phone-boy" Carnoski marking another of our covers in his I-phone.