Molly and Dottie in Grouse Land

Molly and Dottie learning the way around the Home Cover.

Yesterday was rather interesting here at the kennel.  Tony and I have agreed to stay out of our main training covers until at least late June to give the grouse and woodcock chicks a chance to get to the flying stage (although the woodcock will be flying long before then). So we ran in a cover near the house that is usually just a flight cover in the fall with an occasional resident woodcock or grouse in the summer.  It's always been someplace that good to just let the dogs get some exercise.  Well, yesterday we ran a couple pairs of dogs through this cover and found to separate woodcock that at this late date are definitely resident birds.

Then After Tony left I decided to make a loop up behind the kennel to give Molly and Dottie some exercise.  In the past we have had very few spring and summer grouse in the home cover.  It is usually a lot more active when the apples, cranberries, and other fruit and nuts are ripe.  I reported early on the two grouse win the yard the other evening, while yesterday we didn't disturb those two as we made a larger loop, but we moved six grouse in less then 30 minutes and  heard three drummers that were in theWild Apple cover or nearby.

I going to have to reach deep in the bag of tricks to find places to run the pups until we're back in the woods full time.

The King of the Woods

It has recently come to my attention that “The Friends of Dave Hughes for the Field Trial Hall of Fame” have used my name in an ad that appeared in the May third issue of the American Field.  The ad states, “Craig Doherty in a feature article called Hughes The King of the Woods.”  That was the title of an article that ran in the Winter 1999 issue of Field Trial Magazine as a sidebar to the main article on the Grand National Grouse Championship which had run in New Hampshire for the first time in November 1998.  Had my name not been used in this context to promote the Hughes campaign for the Field Trial Hall of Fame, I would have quietly stayed on the sidelines, but since it was I feel compelled to let everyone know that I do not endorse Dave Hughes for the Hall of Fame nor do I plan on voting for him.