This is the week 2 recap. We managed to get out for a short local trip and a longer public ground hunt. With a schedule full of conflicting appointments and a couple days of rain we were only able to fit in two hunts.
October 22nd
On Sunday, I did a short solo hunt on private land in the South East sector. Conditions were a bit on the warm side but it was nice to get out. Willow struggles at this location as the fields are small and there is a lot of linear cover. I had two birds jump right in front of me while Willow was off running in the trees. It was still early and they jumped directly into the sun, so I have no idea if either of them was a rooster.
October 27th
It was a cold, blustery day in the South Central sector with winds 20+ MPH. While it had rained the night before because of the wind, everything was pretty dry by the time we started. We were hunting public ground where we hunted the week before, so we confident that we would see so birds.
Willow took off like a rocket. She was casting in front of us very fast, maintaining good distance and looking like a pro. We worked through some cattails and saw one rooster. As we worked around the Waterfowl Production Area (WPA) we encountered a few birds. In the video below, Willow tracks a hen to a point. Soon after she pointed another. We were able to harvest one bird from this location while missing a couple others.
We moved to a nearby Walk In Area (WIA). By this time Willow was pretty tired so we planned on a shorter loop. She ended up tracking several birds ending in a multi bird flush. One rooster was dropped. So we ended the day with two birds.
By the end of the day Willow had run just under 23 miles. This is way too much and it showed when she got home. I need to do a better job of managing her hunting time since she has no concept of pacing. Stella is coming off of injured reserve so it might be time to take both dogs and have them take turns.
Video
This is the week 2 recap video with dog and bird action. Using the GoPro still has its challenges but it is becoming more of a reflex.
Summary
Given the weather and scheduling conflicts we were fortunate to get out twice. Willow continues to make incremental improvement and we are seeing birds.
I’d add that Willow made a good retrieve on a winged rooster.