Back about six years ago one of the members of the skeet group I belong to was working his dog in mid-February and the dog found eight dead woodcock on top of the frozen 'boiler plate' snow. Earlier in February a warm air mass pushed up from the south and it became very spring-like with crocuses and forsythias coming into bloom. the ground thawed and I guess the flights of woodcock began migrating.... then it snowed about ten inches - then it rained hard for a day - then the temperature plummeted into the teens for more than a week. The woodcock were trapped - no food, no water, and they died. No telling how many more in our part of New England suffered the same fate.
.
__________________
"I'm a Setter man.
Not because I think they're better than the other breeds,
but because I'm a romantic - stuck on tradition - and to me, a Setter just "belongs" in the grouse picture."
George King, "That's Ruff", 2010 - a timeless classic.
|
Hybrid Mode