WoodieBoater

They certainly are quick and small.. And erratic haha. Did you flush it over in Tonawanda? No real breed specific quirks I don't think. Mostly training mistakes that I have made. When he was a pup I tried to boost his desire by letting him chase after a flush... that doesn't work well on a woodcock that only flushes 50 yards. We're working it out though. Knock on wood he's been very steady to wing and shot lately. He has a VERY soft mouth. To the point that he'll drop a bird now and again. That doesn't work well on a wounded duck. But I never force fetched him either. His retrieve is 100 percent natural and rock solid outside of that. But those are training issues not breed issues I guess one thing I'd say is breed specific from what I've seen is their brains and bodies are a lot slower developing than some other breeds. And the ones I've seen have been very "soft". You can't be harsh with them. Dutch will shut right down if I get frustrated. They work much better off of positive reinforcement and they really want to please. But.... every dog is different. They all have different breaking points and limits.

yeah he definitely has his quirks. as does any dog. but i'm super impressed with his hunting and bird handling. Especially for not even being 2 yet. Ive never had a dog that had such an ability to turn it on and off either. We hunted Saturday for about an hour and only put up one woodcock. Hoping to make the trip north this weekend for Grouse And woodcock. Keep posted.

We flushed 4 woodcock and killed one in a quick hunt this morning and then switched gears and killed some pheasants. I think that storm finally pushed some woodcock in. I'm hearing rumblings of some good woodcock hunts across the northern part of the state today and yesterday. My sister had an inch of snow up at Paul Smiths yesterday. It feels like the weather is finally here. Time to hit it

Well I hunted state released pheasants... the pheasant release area had grass about 8 feet high, and we found 7 predator killed birds. and that was it. Definitely looking to get into the grouse woods instead and hoping we get a good woodcock flight

I think yotes get the blame for killing birds that hawks deserve. don't get me wrong they don't help... but hawks are brutal on bird populations. Especially pheasants. Either way it would be helpful if more people still trapped.

Yeah I heard another guy flushed one there. Another guy told me that he gets into them at Rattlesnake down in Dansville. I usually don't do too bad around the Binghamton area but I've done years of scouting there and have a lot of good spots marked on the map. The only bad part bout hunting Maine is that it definitely spoils you.

Well here's the final Maine report. We didn't flush as many birds as we did last year. The weather was very warm and there definitely weren't any migrating woodcock. Grouse numbers seemed to be pretty good. We had about 30 flushes the first day and averaged 20 flushes on the other days, with one slow day in the mix. We flushed woodcock here and there and actually flushed a few snipe too. I think total bird count was 15 grouse and 12 woodcock and 3 hares. The pic with the birds on the step was mid-weekShooting was less than stellar, we could have killed a lot more birds but the dog work was great. Dutch was pretty shot by the end of the week. He lost quite a bit of weight up there despite having extra food and a can of tuna every day. Poor guy lost all of the hair on his face again but he was working his ass off. For anybody looking to do a bird hunting trip Maine is a good place to consider. Good bird numbers and a small game license is cheap. I have a buddy in the UP of Michigan right now and he's getting into decent bird numbers. Another in Northern Wisconsin and bird numbers seem to be really low out there. Everyone is saying the same thing. When are we going to see temps south of 70 during the day!?!?! brutal.. but the season is here and were making the most of it. More reports to come

We're up in northern maine. Ashland area. We didn't do as well today. 11 grouse flushes and 9 woodcock flushes. 1 dead grouse and 4 dead woodcock. We hunted some spots that were good last year and the birds just weren't there. Regardless it's still awesome to be up here. Dutch is doing great. More updates tomorrow.

Well here's the first day report. Hunted from 730 to 530 with a 20 minute lunch break. Had 34 grouse flushes and 21 woodcock flushes. Shooting was pretty rough.... we killed 4 of each. Should have killed a few more but. I guess the first day is for knocking rust off. Dutch had some awesome work.

Onion that's great. Hopefully she got bit by the bug. Allways great to get kids out. Missdemeanor that's a stud of a dog for being 10 months. Let us know how he does. Tg8 that's a great looking griff. Have you hunted her at all? We're all settled in and ready to rock in the morning.

Awesome. that's one that I looked at but crossed off because it was so far. Glad to hear it was a good experience. That seems to be a rule of thumb with griff breeders. Did you drive out to get her or have her shipped?

great looking pup. Where did you get her from? I know there aren't many to choose from close by.

Thatll be great. allways good to get kids out. Let us know how everything goes. Hopefully the weather cooperates and the birds are moving.

I hunted the southern zone (Broome County) Saturday morning and way up north Sunday morning. More woodies down south than up north but that always seems to be the case. We haven't really had any weather to push them out yet. If its warm they will stay. plenty of mallards and some teal in both zones as well. Hopefully this warm weather junk goes away and we get a decent migration push this year.

animal behavior is puzzling. we plant a lot of trees and protect them with like a corrugated plastic cardboard tree tube. no fail, 3 to 4 times a week I find a tube pulled down and chewed up by must be a fox or fisher. some smaller sized predator with sharp teeth. the best I can figure they're just using it as a playtoy. I've caught a fisher on camera in the vicinity of the tree tubes but never caught one in the act. to be continued...

We had a pretty solid weekend, although a bit of a whirlwind one. We just got back this morning. I was at the farm in Binghamton Friday night so I hunted ducks for about an hour Saturday morning there. put three woodies and a mallard in the bag and had some pretty solid dogwork (a little rusty but hey... I missed my first shot too). From there we hopped right in the truck and headed to the northern Adirondacks. The weather was less than stellar, a lot of rain and HEAT. but we made the most of it. Foliage was thick but we finally put everything together and connected on a big grey phase. Again, with some pretty solid dogwork. Bird numbers seemed to be pretty good up there. I was a little worried with how wet spring was but it seems like the birds still had successful nests. We moved a few even with the hot weather. Dutch ISNOT a hot weather dog. didn't move a single woodcock we head to Maine for a week on the 14th. I'm looking forward to getting up there and getting into a bunch of birds again, hopefully. It was nice to finally get out and knock the dust off this weekend. Hopefully many more reports to come.

Well bird season has snuck up and bit us right on the a$$ Its time to get serious