One tough mother

[TARNATION !!!]

Ma Nature that is. It's been about a month since CHARLIE and RIO got the birds, while Jack and the GHE just looked on.

CHARLIE and KYRA get a daily hike, no matter the weather - and they will never let me off the hook. Today was snowshoeing along a nearby creek. CHARLIE flushed four huns from under a spruce tree that is along the edge of a golf course that borders the creek. They did not fly in the explosive manner that huns normally do. At first I thought they might have been sharptails, but they were too small. Didn't think much about it after they left and we carried on along the creek. The dogs will never want to go back but eventually I do. Calm day, so the -20C (4 below zero F) didn't seem too bad (dressed for it). Nice thing about snowshoes is the return trip is easier when you follow your own trail back. We were about 200 yards from the car. CHARLIE poked her nose skyward picking up scent. She buried herself into the cattails and snow and came out with a hun. I found this strange, as those birds normally put your heart in your mouth when they explode from cover with a cry that sounds like a couple dozen guys trying to cross barbed wire fence all at the same time. CHARLIE dropped the hun onto the snow. I picked it up and it seemed to weigh next to nothing. Took it home and opened it up. Crop had a small ball of green grass (from under the snow on the golf course) The breast was essentially the bone with about as much meat on either side as a healthy robin. The bird was starving to death. A cloud of 7 1/2 shot in December would have been a kinder end.

I felt badly for the bird and the others I know that won't see spring. For the non-hunters this is the apparent contradiction, the hunter's paradox - a conundrum. Yes, we kill and eat the same bird during a certain period and then feel sorry for them or work conservation projects or even rescue when it's not hunting season. Brings to mind a post from Richard Flanders and a rescued chick (grouse/ptarmigan can't recall).

Enough rambling. Ma Nature - she's one tough mother that's for sure.
Jack