Jay, Thank you, my buddy is originally from Indiana, he hunts almost every day, he has 2 brittanies. He has lived up here about 8 years, so he is constantly trying to learn more about grouse/woodcock. He is always checking stomach contents etc. to see what their feeding on, when he said the woodcock had a lot of fat on them, I could take that 2 ways, like a bear eating a lot before hibernating, maybe a woodcock would eat a lot before starting the long trek south? Or they were local birds with a normal amount of fat? He said he has seen more woodcock even before season and early season than he has since he moved up here. Thats why he thinks some flight birds are still due. I went out yesterday with a guy from the fox forum and we had a lot of points, only 2 woodcock held, usually if its a grouse running you will hear them fly away but the bird would run and we couldn't hear or see a bird taking off which is why I thought those might be woodcock. Last year when the guys I hang out with told me the flight birds were in, I noticed more birds overall in the areas I hunt. This year I only have had one day (early last week) where there seemed to be a half dozen or so birds concentrated in one area, but I had never hunted that area before so I did not know if there was that many birds in that area on a regular basis. Thanks for the input. Ed
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