My new grouse dog

[Tom Flanigan]

The place Bill and I hunted was state land, a portion of which was set up as a dog training, field trial area. Milo was planted in the fields which were surrounded by very thick hedgerows. It was the best quail cover I have ever seen. Few people used it other than the field trials and it was a very large area with great fields and hedgerows abundant. You were allowed to work the dogs and hunt starting September 1st. There were leftover quail there from the training and field trials but there was also natural reproduction that few knew about. When there with Bill, I remember the dogs found a covey of mostly young of the year. They must have been a late hatching because a number of the birds were half grown. It was a rare day when I couldn’t find a couple or three coveys.

I am generally a lone hunter. But the days Bill joined me were special. He is one of the few people I would take into my grouse coverts. If he were up to it, I would drag him to Pawling for a week of hunting grouse in the morning and ducks in the evening. I’ve got a bedroom with his name on it if he ever comes North.