First of the Season

[Dean Romig]

A rainy weekend in Vermont, to be sure.
About midday on Saturday we stepped out of camp to get in some grouse hunting between cloudbursts and the birds weren't very cooperative. I think it was too wet for their liking and they would rather run than fly. The leaves haven't started to drop yet but with a couple of good frosts they'll come down pretty quickly. After about two hours with no flushes where we could see the bird (a few birds had flushed that we could only hear) a pair got up and flitted about three feet above the ground. I fired at the rear bird (missed behind) and it must have been the shock-wave catalyst as the sky immediately opened up and we were drenched.
This morning dawned with sunshine streaming over Toot Hill to the east but the heavy fog soon came up the valley and we were socked in with extremely limited visibility for the next two hours. Finally we got out and hunted for about three hours with results similar to those of Saturday. I was on my way back to the truck and was winding down a side-hill with apple and poplar tangles when this bird went up just like a station 5 low-house and I pulled off a perfect head shot.