Good Reads

[Marc Retallack]

Richard

If you enjoyed Ruark's "Something of Value", I'd suggest you pick up "Uhuru" when you have an opportunity. It also is fiction set several years after the Mau Mau uprisings. It is more or less a sequel to "Something of Value".

Cheers
Marcus

[Labowner]

Dean, I just finished Bare November Days, If you get a copy and hold onto it long enough I think you will rely enjoy it.

[Dean Romig]

"Mud Bats", "Bog Suckers" and other such nicknames for the American Woodcock are colloquial misnomers for a wonderful little gamebird many hunters know very little about. Personally, I prefer nicknames that are a little more respectful of this little migrant of the uplands and names like "Timberdoodle", "Whistledoodle", "Sky-Dancer", "Little Russet Fellers" (from Burton Spiller) are a bit more endearing.
All I know about them is that they are delectable and I eagerly await the flights to come pouring into my Vermont coverts. . . can't be much longer now.

Bob, when I get my copy of Bare November Days back I will definitely hold onto it for a long time.

[Autumn Daze]

Dean,I checked with Jim M. over the weekend Sorry no luck.

Dean, I always wondered why there were so many "strange" names for the woodcock, but not all that many for the ruffed grouse. Last time I shot (at) timberdoodles, maybe 20 years ago, up near Baldwin hunting with now deceased friend Merle Nolph- we were hunting the "MayTag Covert" in late October and the flights had just come down- we put up many birds, some reflushes I'm sure, mainly just to watch his Brit work. Back then the limit on grouse and woodcock was five per day, I believe that has been lowered.

In my somewhat limited experience, I don't believe there is a better holding game bird for a pointing dog than the woodcock. Merle (aka- "Simmy") had a great bird dog that would actually retrieve them to hand. My Lab "Ace" who would at that time retrieve anything with feathers, refused to pick up a woodcock, so I stopped shooting them, or at them rather.

It's been that long since I was in good cover for grouse and woodcock, but hunters long in the game never forget what might be "birdy". I shot yesterday at the MI tower shoot near Marion- great open birdy country with scattered older farms and dirt roads. On the pickup hunt I went with two fellows from Midland and their GSP- back from the sorgum and milo patches, into a cover of aspens- we shot two "escapee pheasants" and a grey phased grouse flushed, a "bootstrap", but Jim dropped it- we all agreed that the patch of alders would be "birdy"-- Good luck with the VT woodcock hunting!

[Labowner]

Francis, I just finished Gunner's Dawn really enjoyed it.
I started on Pot Luck and found some words of wisdom in the first story. The character Dr Airlees philosophy on life, " Work and play. A proper balance between the two gives the best assurance of contentment and leaves little time for worry, or the harboring of regrets"
Never truer words written, especially when its hunting season.