At the end of May the dogs go on vacation for awhile while we wait for the native grouse and woodcock to grow and establish themselves in our training covers. We usually get started around the first of July but a number of factors, especially the high temps and humidity (which is unusual for us), have kept us out of the woods. So this morning Tony Bly and I met a 6:30 am to get some dog work in before the temperature climbed up near 90. The extremely dry weather of late has limited the number of birds we found this morning (around half a dozen woodcock) but as the summer progresses and the dogs get back in form the numbers will definitely increase. The grouse hatch is looking good — one of my neighbors called to say he saw a brood where the seven chicks were almost as big as the hen, and in another location he saw a brood where the chicks were about half size. Other broods we have seen have been on the medium to large size. There have been bad years when broods were small (1-4) chicks and great years when the broods were all approaching double digits — this year looks to be somewhere inbetween. We’ll have a better idea in a couple of weeks. Now that we’re back in the woods, I’ll keep you updated.
