This is the weeks 7 and 8 recap. I combined them because there is so little to report. Cold weather has made getting out a challenge. When we have been able to get out we have not been finding many birds.
November 26th
This was a trip to central Minnesota. We planned on hunting a Waterfowl Production Area (WPA) that we have had some success at in previous years. When we arrived, someone was already there, just like the last two times we have tried to hunt this area. So we adapted and tried an area where we had seen birds in prior weeks.
The cover was very well established and difficult to move through. Stella did track some birds but they were either hens or jumped far away. For the distance we walked, there were not many birds. Any roosters that we saw were at a distance.
December 1st
This was a solo trip to private land. We covered the property and did not see a bird. I do not think Stella ever got birdy.
December 6th
Another trip to central Minnesota and the WPA we tried for the week before. We arrived mid morning and there was no one at the parking lot. As we headed out a couple hunters walked out of the field at one of the corners. We had no way to know if they had hunted the field or not. We walked most of the field and Stella found a couple hens. Not what we were expecting.
We moved to another field and let Willow out. About 300 yards from the truck there was a cattail slough. She got into that and it looked like a little bulldozer was running around. She covered the entire slough before popping out, bleeding from the mouth. When I got to her the blood was dripping off the end of her chin. Her chest and legs were speckled with blood. I moved to an area that had been mowed and put her on a leash before walking back to the truck. By the time we got to the truck the bleeding had stopped. I tried to look into her mouth to see what was the source of the blood but could not find anything. By the time we got home you would not know that she had been injured. I watched her for a couple days and it appears that every thing healed up. I suspect that the edge of a cattail cut her tongue.
December 8th
Another solo trip to private ground. This time it was a little more exciting. As we walked away from the farm site, Stella went on point before I even loaded my gun. As I moved up, I saw the grass up the hill move, which I suspect was a rabbit. This is in the video.
We walked most of the farm without Stella ever getting birdy until we tried a fence row between two prairies. She got birdy and started tracking into the center of a thicket. I was able to cross the fence row to the other side. She then followed the fence row north. I crossed back over and moved to the end of the fence row. Stella looped around the back side and then stopped on a solid point. I walked up and a rooster flushed on the other side of the trees. When it flew into a opening I fired two shots and missed. This sequence is in the video.
I watched where the rooster landed so we walked to that area. Stella went into a thicket and then went on point. Thinking that maybe I had wounded the bird and she had found it, I tried to bust my way through the heavy grass and trees so that I could find her. After struggling through the jungle, I eventually found her, still on point. When I tried to flush, something took off through the grass. I thought it was something other than a pheasant, based on how the grass and trees moved. After that, she got birdy a couple more time but we did not see another bird.
Video
There was very little video from the first three trips that was worth showing. Fortunately, I did have three clips from the last day that were interesting.
I also tried something new by I adding a couple arrows to point out details in the video. Let me know in the comments whether that added any value.
Summary
This was the weeks 7 and 8 recap. Three out of four trips were pretty frustrating and we did not harvest any birds. The stats appear below.
The following graph shows the total number of roosters shot. You can see that as of right now, this has been are worst year on record.
Yes, the arrow helps, especially on the location of Stella.