April Woodcock

The woodcock are definitely here and in full mating mode. Tony and Lloyd Carney walked down into Red Barn the last two nights and have been listening to 3 0r 4 males peenting and the chittering of the females. I have another three males at my house and went out to another cover where I heard 4 or 5 males singing. It looks like we have the potential for a much better woodcock nesting season than last year when at this time we were still completely snow covered.

Working dogs today also proved productive. Big and Little Thud were up and the little one had a good grouse contact. Then LJ boosted a woodcock with gusto right in front of everyone. His days of fun are almost over. Last fall he pointed a lot of birds but now is busting a few. Next month when we are leaving the nesting birds alone, LJ will get introduced to the bellyband in the yard and then around pigeons before we go back in the woods for summer training. Frankie may also have busted a woodcock today but we weren't sure. Tony moved the collar from his neck to his flank and we moved to another cover where Frankie had a really nice woodcock find. That had the bird count for the day at 3 woodcock and a grouse. Came home and ran Trip (LJ's dam) just to see what was around and had 3 more woodcock and a grouse just on the lower part of the property one woodcock was in the raspberry canes right on the edge of the bird field. I'll leave them alone for a while in hopes of getting some nesting woodcock that stick around for summer training. Tony took Big Thud for a walk through our primary summer training cover (without a dog) just to show him where we do a lot of our wild bird work and they walked up a couple of grouse. So, the days total was 6 woodcock and 4 grouse -- not a bad couple of hours in April.

Back to Work

After traveling all day Wednesday, I took Thursday off. Got back to working the dogs today. In our first cover we didn't see any birds. In the second cover we moved 2 woodcock and 2 grouse with Trash having a really nice limb find on one of the grouse.

In the last cover we ran Jack and Abbie (Dave Hawke's littermate to Tony's Frankie dog) whose with Tony for awhile in hopes of getting her going on wild birds. On the way out to the cover two Spruce Grouse were on the side of the road and Tony jumped out, slammed the door, and got Abbie out of the back of the truck. She ran right by them while the male was in full mating display -- It's no wonder they are called fool's hens. On her third pass she ran right up to them and finally realized they were there and followed in hot pursuit when they took to wing. We rounded her up and went on up the road where we ran her with Jack. In the next hour it was interesting to watch her go from relatively clueless as we led her in behind Jack to stopping on her on his fourth woodcock find. On one find we could see the woodcock sitting tight in front of Jack and brought Abbie up to get a nose full of scent. If we can keep finding birds for a couple of weeks she should be well on her way to knowing what her role in life is.

Reflections on the Invitational

The 14 dogs that ran in the Invitational

Littermates Autumn Moon and Wild Apple Jack have each been invited to 4 Invitationals and have earned a total of 10 championships (5 each including Jack in the 2007 Grand and Moon in the 2008)

Got back last night and most people probably already know that Tehaar's Elvis and Upper Cover Desert Devil were named winner and runner-up respectively. So this post is more about the Invitational as a whole. It is probably the toughest test of cover dogs that we have. It's possible for any of the dogs that participated to hit a home run and some of them like Wild Apple Jack and Autumn Moon have done it a number of times. The Invitational on the other hand requires a dog to show consistency for three days and that's what the winners did. Elvis found birds the first and last day and ran well enough on the second day and then scored on a grouse again in the finals. Desert Devil had grouse on the second day and an acceptable run on all three days. Bloom's Ole Dollar and Quail Trap Sadie took themselves out on the third day with races that were not up to the standards set by the judges.

Personally, I learned something. Wild Apple Jack has been a consistent performer over the years and one of his strongest attributes has been his bidablity. In Pennsylvania this week he showed that he could tune me out and run the country on a mission of his own. The only good part of this was that he showed athletically he is still strong and powerful as he saw more of the two courses he ran on in Marienville than any of the other dogs. It also shows that even an 8 year old dog with multiple championship wins still needs to be tuned up as well as conditioned. He was definitely in shape but he was on a different wave length. There is training to be done before his next run over at Mid-Coast Maine at the end of the month.

Day Two

Day Two was another blue bird day with birds at a premium.

Clean dogs with birds today were

Upper Cove Desert Devil on course one with a grouse

Bloom's Ole Dollar and Moss Meadow Traveler with two finds each one of which was divided in the third brace.

Quail Trap Sadie had a grouse in the fifth brace late in the hour in the middle of the day.

Day Dog -- Quail Trap Sadie

Finals

Course two Lamonaville

Tehaar's Elivs and Bloom's Ole Dollar

Course four Lamonaville

Quail Trap Sadie and Upper Cove Desert Devil

Reserve Dogs

Moss Meadow Traveler and Upper Cove Billy Babe

Invitational First Day

First a disclaimer: I am a participant but in no way is this an official report. I walked four of the seven braces and talked to people who walked the others.

The weather was clear blue skies, light wind temperatures went up into the high 50s. The worst weather for finding grouse in Marienville.

Brace One Wild Apple Jack ran a race that was probably too big even for Marienville. He was also a little rough. His brace mate Grouse River Ace had a bird right off the breakaway then ran a respectable race.

Brace Two Neither Needlepoint Tiger Lily had a bird.

Brace Three was the big excitement of the day with Tehaar's Elvis and Autumn Moon having two divided finds with a pair of grouse on each find. Elvis had a third find on a single grouse to earn day money. Moon had a third find but didn't get credit for it as the grouse flushed as Dave and Scott headed into the cover and neither of them saw it.

Brace Four The two Sadies (Quail Trap and River's Edge) ran around well but neither had acceptable bird work. River's Edge Sadie encountered a grouse but failed to point it.

Brace Five Neither Wintergreen Max nor Bloom's Old Dollar went birdless.

Brace Six Neither Tehaar's Rogue nor Moss Meadow Traveler had a bird.

Brace Seven Neither Upper Cove Desert Devil nor Upper Cove Billy Babe had birds.

Invitational Draw

Draw for the Invitational

1A Wild Apple Jack

1B Groused River Ace

2A Needlepoint Tiger Lilly

2B High Desert Dream

3A Tehaar’s Elvis

3B Autumn Moon

4A Quail Trap Sadie

4B River’s Edge Sadie

5A Wintergreen Max

5B Bloom’s Ole Dollar

6A Tehaar’s Rogue

6B Moss Meadow Traveler

7A Upper Cove Desert Devil

7B Upper Cove Billie Babe

Day Two

1A Upper Cove Desert Devil

1B Wintergreen Max

2A Upper Cove Billie Babe

2B Tehaar’s Rogue

3A Bloom’s Ole Dollar

3B Moss Meadow Traveler

4A River’s Edge Sadie

4B High Desert Dream

5A Quail Trap Sadie

5B Needlepoint Tiger Lily

6A Wild Apple Jack

6B Autumn Moon

7A Tehaar’s Elvis

7B Grouse River Ace

Wild Apple LJ

Today in the GNG Puppy Classic Wild Apple LJ placed third out of a field of 44. He ran a more forward race and reached out while still handling when called upon.

first place - Ehdes ESM

second Place - HiFives Unlisted

Third place - Wild Apple LJ

Fourth Place- Rowlings Nike