Back from a Month in Northern NH

[Chris Pope]

Enjoy reading the posts and seeing the photos describing member’s bird hunting experiences from around the country. Just returned home from spending almost the entire month of October in northern NH behind 2 Griffs. Have hunted there for over forty years. But before I retired it was a week up there if I was lucky and the other three weeks at my work dreaming of being there. I feel so lucky to have that much time afield now. On a rainy day I don’t feel compelled to hunt but rather give the “dogs” a rest day- sometimes.
Our grouse numbers were down this year or I guess I should say they weren’t as “up” as they had been for the past several years. Still, we found decent numbers. The woodcock numbers were definitely up for us and that was especially fun. We hunt along streams mostly and the pups were rewarded with a number of challenging water retrieves.
Photo 1- 3 year old “Arcas” with a grouse he pointed;
Photo 2- “Arcas” making a water retrieve of a woodcock below a beaver dam;
Photo 3- 8 year old “Gunny” keeping a close eye on a woodcock at the “Bikini” covert.