This is the week 5 recap. This week I did two trips in Minnesota. One local and one to the central part of the state. In previous years, I had access to private land that I would hunt on the weekends. The landowner sold the land and that has had a pretty significant impact on my hunting. Since I am retired I try not to hunt public ground on weekends. As a result I need to try to get a couple trips in during the week but that is proving challenging due to weather and other commitments.
November 10th
This was a last minute hunt on local public ground. I mainly wanted to get out for the exercise and to run the dog. I figured the ground was probably hunted over the weekend so I wasn’t expecting to see many birds.
The first spot I wanted to hunt had a truck parked. I do not know if it was a bird hunter or a deer hunter so I moved on. The next spot I tried was empty so we got ready and headed out. About 300 yards from the truck, Stella got birdy and tracked a bird about 75 yards. I saw it get up well ahead of us and I think it was a rooster. Things were looking up.
We continued on along the road when a rooster flushed and flew left to right, cackling all the way. Or at least until I dropped him. Since it was a wild flush I did not have the GoPro on but I did record the retrieve.
From there, we continued on until Stella got birdy again. This time it was a hen. We finished a loop and did not see any other birds.
November 11th
This was a hunt in central Minnesota at a field that we have hunted before. The cover was very thick and difficult to walk in, in spots. There was a strong wind from the west which made things challenging.
We started out due west from the parking lot and ran into some cattails. Stella got a little birdy but nothing serious. Walking was pretty tough so Kevin busted through the thick stuff while I looked for trails around the thickest parts. We ended up out in prairie when Stella went on point about 92 meters north. We walked towards her and she held the point. When we got close to her, a rooster flushed behind Kevin and he missed one shot.
From there we continued north and then east. Stella got birdy a couple times but we did not see any other birds until we got into a field near some houses. There she got birdy and tracked for a while. A rooster flushed and Kevin missed two shots.
We completed a big loop and saw a few birds, although there were no shooting opportunities. We were on our way back to the truck when two birds wild flushed ahead of Kevin. Then Stella went on a solid point. When I approached, a rooster flushed and we both fired at about the same time. Stella retrieved a nice mature rooster.
After a lunch break, we did another short loop, saw a couple birds including a rooster but had no shots. Overall, it was a good day.
Video
This week I finally got some video. Not great video but more than I have had the last couple of weeks. Of course, my lens was dirty so that reduced the quality.
When I did last week’s video I noticed that the render time was much longer than last year and the output files were huge. With help from ChatGPT I figured out that Davinci Resolve Version 20 changed how renders are done for free users. The updated version renders at a very high quality, more than what is necessary for YouTube.
The rendered files were huge. To the point that it would take all day to upload a 10 minute video. With ChatGPT‘s assistance I found another tool that will compress the rendered files. They are still big but at least uploadable in a reasonable period of time. The downside is that running a rendered file takes quite a bit of time. A lot less that uploading a huge file but still more than last year.
Lessons Learned
Several lessons this week:
- Look at the weather. I was wearing cold weather clothes when it early season warm.
- Clean the GoPro lens. Had some serious smudges that really show up due to the sun.
- Double check the GoPro angle on my hat. When the ground is tough to walk, I am looking down a lot and the footage is not that interesting.
- Garmin – Set a waypoint whenever we see a rooster. Maybe for hens too.
- Match the video time with a track point. This allows me to sync up a video with a location. Makes for more accurate waypoints for where birds are sighted.
Summary
This has been the week 5 recap covering two trips with two birds harvested. We are seeing lots of birds, although they are pretty spooky.
