Preseason Cover Checkup

It's probably going to be a couple weeks before we start going into the woods full-time for training but Tony and I check out  few of our regular covers and a couple new ones.  It seems that every summer the birds are hard to find in June as the grouse hens keep their broods in pretty tight cover only coming out briefly to the edges to feed on bugs and pick gravel.  The woodcock are also bunched up in family groups and in a few weeks will be spread out and a little easier to find.  Spiggy and two of the Bud Bros were on the truck yesterday and birds were tough.  Fortunately for the youngsters that I have Tony has a couple of experienced shooting dogs to help us find the birds.  Yesterday Frankie had a couple of woodcock finds and Spiggy got her nose and eyes on one of them and thought it was pretty interesting.  She runs pretty hard but her application into the cover kicked up a notch after seeing that woodcock and being shot over.  Trash and Spot went birdless while Tee was nearby when I walked up a grouse.

Today we had Birdy, Fiona, and Tick on the truck along with Frankie, Little Frankie, and Trash.  Little Frankie and Birdy were down first thing and both ran hard in a cover that had a number of woodcock nesting in it.  Now that everything is fully leafed out it was extremely thick in the cover and the birds may have moved out as Birdy had one find and that was it.  Frankie and Tick were up next in what is more of a grouse cover and although Frankie had one stand we never heard or saw a bird.  The last brace today was Fiona and Trash.  Fiona continues to impress me as she really goes at the woods and seems to be hunting hard.  She got brought in twice to back Trash, once on a woodcock and once on a grouse.  She got good looks at both birds and was a bit of handful for awhile afterwards.  She did have one woodcock on her own.  I heard the bell stop after a short period of time she moved up and bumped the bird.

Most of the dogs will continue with the pigeon and yard work program as we get ready for going back into the woods for the majority of the training.

Birdy busting cover this morning.