Last Woodcock of the Season?

Tuesday we ran Wild Apple Samantha here at the Kennel as Katie was home for the week and wanted to go for a walk around the property.  Sam started out with a beautiful find on a grouse that was about 30 feet in front of here in some furs.  She's now holding some of them until I flush which is great progress for a nine month old puppy.  She went on to have two more grouse contacts and a stop then flush on a woodcock that Katie heard whistle out.  The last woodcock I'd seen before this one was November 12th.  The bird Tuesday was right next to one of the many seeps on the hill behind the house.  This is one of the spots I often find an early returning bird in March.  This year I probably won't have to wait until March to see more woodcock as I'm planning to spend some time in Kentucky this winter hanging out with the family and working a few dogs.  

After resting the dogs this week (except for the short run for Samantha) I expect to be back in the woods this weekend.  Although this time of year we usually have to wait until late morning for it to warm up a little bit and then the sun sets pretty early (4:07 today) making for some short hunting days.  It means that we only run three or four dogs a day but after a long season that's probably enough.

Wild Apple Samantha in the bird field last summer.

Brrrrrrrrr!

After a very long and relatively mild fall, it suddenly seems like winter here in Northern New Hampshire.  Yesterday the high was in the mid-teens and the wind howled all day long.  In fact it's still blowing pretty hard.  Hunted Saturday up in Pittsburg with temps in the mid-20s and it was a typical late season grouse hunt.  Many of the places we wanted to go were already occupied by deer hunters and hunted much of the day with only one bird seen but not pointed.  The final hunt of the day with Big Thudd handling his little namesake saved the day with five points -- three singles, a pair and a group of five when we were back insight of the trucks after climbing well up the side of a mountain.  Sunday we came south but it was so cold (mostly because of the wind chill) that we only lasted 20 minutes and then threw in the towel.  Have family plans this week and then plan to get back at it next week if the weather lightens up a little.  There's no such thing as normal weather in late November and early December here in Northern New Hampshire -- we can have snow, rain, below zero temps, or days in the 40s and some weeks you'll get all of that within a couple of days.  Looking at the 10 day forecast we have 49 and rain on Wednesday and a low of 2 on Saturday morning.  Any warm afternoons I'll be taking out the puppies but the older dogs have earned a rest after a long fall and more hunting to come down South.