Considering the weather and some minor truck problems — the hinges on my tailgate were shot — it’s amazing how many times a day I drop the tailgate to get a dog out or put a dog into the back of the truck — we had a good morning. We started with a test run for Frankie here at the house and just ran him along the bottom where there are lots of edges and good flight bird cover. He had four woodcock finds and we moved a total of 10 to 12 birds.
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| Here’s Frankie pointing a family of woodcock this spring. |
We only ran him for about 20 minutes as he’s basically been on the IR list since mid-August. He showed his lack of conditioning but didn’t exhibit any lingering effects from his August collision with a stump hidden in the ferns. It looks like he’ll be available for some limited minutes in easy covers as he gets hunted back into shape. As we were walking back into the front yard a grouse flushed off the ground under one of the apple trees. I turned to Lloyd and told him that when we ran Trip a few days ago a grouse flushed out of one of the other trees that has apples still hanging on it. When I pointed to the tree a grouse flushed — it couldn’t have been better timed had the grouse been in a release trap.