For three days the wind had been blowing really hard, in the 40 mph range. I had driven about 1300 miles into this strong wind but watching the weather report, they said the wind would only be 18 mph. That’s still pretty strong but not as bad. Well they missed the mark. It was still in the 40 mph range.
A water fall near where I was hunting.
The Snake River in the background.
I was going to show how thick the hedge row was and when Josie saw the camera she stopped.
Sun up in this region, this time of year, is almost 8:00 am. I was waiting on the sun rise the second morning. I actually believed the forecast for less wind. I had driven to the very back and my game plan was to hunt about half way then back to the truck and move.
I turned Sally, Mann and Josie out with the GPS and e-collars on. We went along the brush growing along the Snake river. The dogs were hunting hard and seeing more birds than I was. With the strong wind and everything rattling the birds were running and flushing.
As we came close to a cedar hedge row Josie passed in front of me and about 35 yards ahead of her a rooster pheasant flushed. That really got her excited. As I came up the hedge row, out in some low growing shrubs, Josie and Mann were working. Three quail flushed far enough in front of them that they never heard them or saw them. All three flew right over me but I never saw them until they were right over me and I had the hedge row on my right. They were gone before I could react and with the hedge row I couldn’t even see where they flew.
The three quail had flown toward the river so we went in that direction. We were in about a mile and I started working the dogs back to the truck but higher on the mountain. Sally went on point down by the river along a hedge row. When I got to her she tried to penetrate the hedge row but it was too thick.
Sally ran down the hedge row trying to get into it but couldn’t. That’s when I took a picture of the hedge row and Josie saw the camera out and stopped. Most of the time when I take pictures the dogs are on point. They get the idea they are supposed to stop.
I did notice that it counted the elevator in the hotel but we were on the second floor. Take 20 floors off it’s still a lot.
I ran Tur Bo in a AKC hunt test one time. They only have to point one bird to pass the Junior Hunter test and he had already done that. A judge on a horse was riding along talking to me when Tur Bo made a pass in front of us but too far out to get a picture. I told the judge I was going to call him in for a picture. When Tur Bo got close, as I raised the camera, he posed. He looked good. The judge laughed and said that was the first time he had ever seen a dog pose for the camera.
I went down both sides of the hedge row but never saw anything. Just as we finished I felt the GPS handheld vibrate. Mann was on point up the hill about 300 yards. I started to him. The way the birds had been running and flushing I watched the handheld, to make sure he was still on point. As I went to him I started wondering if we were way above sea level. I had to stop twice to catch my breathe on the way. By the time I got to him Sally was honoring. When I walked in a cotton tail rabbit scampered out of a brush pile.
I have an app on my phone that tells me how far I walked and it counts the floors I climb. Supposedly, every ten feet of rise it counts as a floor. When I got to the motel I checked it and I had climbed over 190 floors. Maybe that why I had to stop a couple of times on the way to Mann’s point.
Sally pointing along the cedar hedge row.
We went on back along the bluff. I had several points but they never lasted long. The birds were still running and flushing. When we got back to the truck I loaded the dogs and moved to near the east end.
After I ate lunch I turned Mann, Abby and Boss out with their GPS and e-collars on. We started into that strong west wind and almost immediately I saw Boss and Abby chasing a rooster pheasant. This must be where some of those television pheasant hunters hunt. In 3 days I never saw a hen pheasant. All roosters.
As we walked along I could see a difference in Boss and Abby. They were hunting with a passion. Boss at 7 months old was consistently over 150 yards and was going back and forth, hitting the thickets. Once, on the GPS, I saw him on point at 353 yards. By the time I covered half of the distance he was moving but he was hunting. Abby was doing the same thing.
Mann honoring Abby.
Another time I saw Mann was on point about 150 yards from me. When I got close he was on the other side of an impenetrable thicket. Boss and Mann, at a distance, look alike. I thought it was Mann moving around the edge of the thicket when he went on point and 3 quail flushed right in front of him. It was Boss. I was still too far away for a shot.
I went on to the thicket and a single quail flushed behind me and I shot but I knew I was too far behind. It had flown over another thicket and I only had time for a snap shot. When I shot another quail flushed that would have been a better shot had I been looking in the right place. By the time I saw it it was too far.
It’s a long way down hill to the Snake river.
There were probably more birds flushed out of that thicket than I saw but the wind was so strong I couldn’t hear them.
We continued on until we were where we had been, earlier that morning, then turned and hunted along the bluff back toward the truck. Abby got behind me and got lost. She kept going to the west as we went east. I kept calling her and she would get close but turn and go west again before she got to us. I think my voice was probably bouncing off the bluff that was close.
Another shot from the top down to the river.
It wasn’t long before Boss was behind me lost, also. That’s the good part of the GPS system. They can be lost but you know where they are. By the time Mann and I got to the truck Abby was 800 yards and Boss was about 600 yards west. I got in the truck and drove to them.
When I got close to where Boss was they both showed up. They were as happy to see me as I was to see them.
It was still early but I was really tired of the wind. I went back to the motel. I had been in the strong west wind for four days. Surely it wouldn’t be as bad the fifth day.
A long shot showing farm land across the river.