The 2009 hunting season opened with our third annual trip to the western mountains of Maine in early October. The fall color was just off peak, and leaf drop was well on the way in the higher elevations. Attendance at our usual sporting camp was down significantly. This was the fourth year they were open through October for bird season, and the last two years marked the bottom of the grouse cycle. This year also proved to be slow.
We hunted coverts that had held bird before, and were rewarded with a few flushes. The Hill covert was so named because it is a steep hike up an old logging road that seems to go on forever (although it doesn’t). This covert yielded only one flush this year. My journal tells me we had nine flushes there three years ago. The Creek Covert also held one bird, where last year we flushed four. The Behind the Hill Covert was the winner with seven flushes. We spent a lot of time looking for new cover, and trying to find places that were out of the way and far off the main roads. These places were out of the range of the road hunters, and thus be more likely to hold birds.
Woodcock numbers were amazing. Due to an early cold snap the flight birds were in sooner than normal and sports were limiting on woodcock. One guide I spoke with said he was getting 30 or more flushes on woodcock every day. However, we chose to eschew the low and wet Timberdoodle covers in favor of pursuing Ruffs in the higher elevations. The drier and higher areas held only grouse, and as luck would have it we missed every one we fired upon.
October also marked my rediscovery of northern NJ as a place for woodcock, and I also flushed the first grouse I’ve seen in NJ for about 15 years. I will say it was north of Route 80, but that is all I’m going to share about that!
November marked the start of the regular small game season in NJ. I’ve been able to take off almost every stocking day so far, although it seems to have rained every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. My experiences hunting the stocked quail has not been shiny this year, as hunting stocked quail when it’s wet is like hunting a baked potato. You can just pick them up much of the time, and they won’t fly, so what the hunt turns into is a very bad situation that almost certainly will cause your hard dog training work to fail, and fail hard, especially with a dog that is not steady.
I also took a very fun and productive trip with some friends to Pennsylvania to hunt Ruffed Grouse for two days. There were a few birds, and there were a few flushes, but the three of us did manage to take three birds, miss a fair number of others, and watch a few more fly away without a shot. It was a good time indeed.
We have had good success with pheasants this year, once again going out in the late mornings and afternoons to pick up birds that everyone else missed. It can be tough, as the birds have been flushed and shot at a lot, and they are prone to run a long way before flushing out of range.
So now as we slide casually into December, the end of bird season looms ever closer. I have used up my vacation time, mostly. My time left to hunt birds is growing thin. I will make the most of it as I can, and as my dog allows. My Shorthair is doing well. I am resolved not to let her get by with bad behavior this season and to continually enforce the training we worked on all summer. I am being rewarded with a “mostly” well performing dog that has “mostly” been a joy to hunt with most of the time.
