upland bird hunting

I’ve been getting each dog out for a half an hour every afternoon. It is good for all of us to run around (in my case amble around) in the woods a little each day. The pointers are finding a few woodcock but not as many as we hear on our walk in the mornings.  Each day the snow goes a little more, on Sunday it was well over my knee boots in the woods and this afternoon there are patches of no snow and it is not over the tops of my boots anywhere.

Over the years I have become aware of the contributions that hunters have made to the conservation of our wildlife and open spaces. Over a hundred years ago now it was hunters who recognized that wildlife was diminishing and that something needed to be done. The current system of wildlife management funded by hunters has resulted in an amazing turnaround in wildlife abundance in this country. Granted there are still species that we all are concerned about, and things to work on; but overall things are much better today than they were at the turn of the last century.

I finished my upland bird hunting season at Libby Camps on Saturday. Luckily my hunter wanted to finish early that afternoon which allowed me to leave by three in the afternoon. The forecast was for snow up there and I am sure that they got some; the precipitation was a mixture of rain and snow as I drove south until Medway. I drove through wind and rain but made it home safe and sound by eight.
 

This fall has been outstanding in terms of weather. Granted there were a few days that were warmer than I like still though overall it has been beautiful. The last few falls have been marked by big rain storms that have created flood conditions and made everything soggy. We have had a couple of big rains but they were one day events that only brought water levels up to normal. I stopped by the St. George early this week and noted that the water level is almost perfect for late fall trout fishing.
 

This week started my month of guiding upland bird hunters. The dogs and I are spending most of October at Libby Camps chasing grouse and woodcock. So far the season is off to a pretty slow start due to the incredibly warm weather. Thursday it was 82 degrees on the thermometer in the Yukon when I checked at about 2 in the afternoon. Yesterday was a little cooler but not what you would consider fall temperatures. This morning is very cool and windy.

Sometimes things align to make life seem crazy.

Today was one of those days that you dream about for the rest of the year. The weather was pretty close to perfect. Not frosty this morning but chilly enough that you know fall will be here soon with nice warm temperatures during the day. No wind to speak of and a perfect blue sky uninterrupted by even one cloud. I am sitting n the deck this evening and you can hear the neighbors cows clearly mooing steadily a half mile away. The leaves continue their steady change but still are very much green.

Last week I added another English Pointer to my kennel. Copper is a pleasant young dog with an impressive background. Her mother is a winner of several national championship grouse trials. So far she seems to be fitting in very well and is very well mannered for a young dog but it is always nerve wracking to add another dog to the team. At first I only let her out on a lead so that I could be certain that she would not run off; after a few days I switched to putting an electronic collar on her so that I could enforce my “come” command.