Here is part two of the photos:
1. Singles in the timber are a challenge; like shooting at miniature grouse.
2. Where this timber Bob fell. After struggling to cross the muddy creek, we found our prize, presented as part of a perfect tableau.
3. My two girls on the last day of the Missouri season.
4. Late season thaws present great weather and usually good bird movement, but also treacherous roads and lots of muddy walks. I'd never go down this road unless it was frozen...but there is always a covey in the field to the left.
5&6. After snow and ice hit our home covers, some long days on the beautiful Kansas prairie were restorative, if bird-less. The dogs enjoyed stretching their legs...and the horizon.
7. Finally(!) our chances came late on our last day -- a real beauty.
8. Aspen was completely worn out as he stopped to cool off in the mud on this retrieve of a bird we thought lost.
9. Posing one of our treasures with my "bird gun," a 104 year old DHE 20 with nice 30 inch barrels choked just right for taking wild Bobs over points.
10. How nice for nature, as it so often does, to put on a show to provide a benediction for our season.
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“Every day I wonder how many things I am dead wrong about.”
― Jim Harrison
"'I promise you,' he said, 'on my word of honor, I won't die on the opening of the bird season.'" -- Robert Ruark (from The Old Man and the Boy)
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