At the risk of "wearing out my welcome" I'd like to add a postscript to our hunting posts. We are finally home after enjoying a wonderful trip that included so many firsts for us. We have already made plans to return. I hope I'm still here when the next Fall comes around. The older I get, the more I hope.
I feel like we had good grouse numbers, but to check my reality, here are the numbers: our flush rate for the trip was 2.7 flushes/hour, but I teased out the difference for our experienced dog Aspen, and little Rill, for whom this was her first real hunt. With Aspen our flush rate was 4.4 flushes/hour -- as good as I could expect on a year forecast to be moving to the bottom of the cycle (for what that's worth). My shooting was pretty much standard for me: 53% on grouse and 75% on woodcock ( a small sample size).
The weather was the real hero in this trip -- Indian Summer to start, and brooding cold to end...just as October in the Northwoods should be. The leaves were both brilliant, and then, gone (like gypsies as George Bird Evans would have said).
I'll start looking for flight woodcock in home coverts, and hit the quail fields and duck marshes prior to the firearms deer season. What a rich time of year this is. I give thanks for it all.
Thanks again for reading my posts and commenting.
Photos:
1. For Chris P.: Here's Aspen enjoying time on the couch at the Cabin. He will always tell you he doesn't get enough couch time.
2 The leaves turned gypsy and were gone by the end of the 2nd week (thank you, GBE), and the "birches looked dream like on account of the frosting" (yep, James Taylor, thanks to you).
3. This is a frame from a nice video that Elaine caught of a grouse pointed by Aspen that crossed in front of me on the trail. Look closely and you'll see it just over my left shoulder. I felt like I was in a William Harnden Foster drawing when this bird decided to give me a shot...and I made it (not always the case
)
4. Rill strikes a point that Elaine was able to capture on camera. She's stylish, but, unfortunately, I could not get a shot at this bird which was flushing too far out. Still, I hope this foreshadows a good future for this little pup.
5. We rode by old landmarks to commemorate our last day, something we've done for 20 years or more. It's nice to have a sense of place.
6. Aldo Leopold wrote so beautifully of grouse hunting, and the "red lantern" blackberries that led him from covert to covert. Like Leopold's guiding lights, the lanterns were dimming with the end of Indian Summer, but hopefully they will burn bright again next year for all of us who love to follow bird dogs in grouse coverts.