The woodcock are definitely here and in full mating mode. Tony and Lloyd Carney walked down into Red Barn the last two nights and have been listening to 3 0r 4 males peenting and the chittering of the females. I have another three males at my house and went out to another cover where I heard 4 or 5 males singing. It looks like we have the potential for a much better woodcock nesting season than last year when at this time we were still completely snow covered.
Working dogs today also proved productive. Big and Little Thud were up and the little one had a good grouse contact. Then LJ boosted a woodcock with gusto right in front of everyone. His days of fun are almost over. Last fall he pointed a lot of birds but now is busting a few. Next month when we are leaving the nesting birds alone, LJ will get introduced to the bellyband in the yard and then around pigeons before we go back in the woods for summer training. Frankie may also have busted a woodcock today but we weren’t sure. Tony moved the collar from his neck to his flank and we moved to another cover where Frankie had a really nice woodcock find. That had the bird count for the day at 3 woodcock and a grouse. Came home and ran Trip (LJ’s dam) just to see what was around and had 3 more woodcock and a grouse just on the lower part of the property one woodcock was in the raspberry canes right on the edge of the bird field. I’ll leave them alone for a while in hopes of getting some nesting woodcock that stick around for summer training. Tony took Big Thud for a walk through our primary summer training cover (without a dog) just to show him where we do a lot of our wild bird work and they walked up a couple of grouse. So, the days total was 6 woodcock and 4 grouse — not a bad couple of hours in April.