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Buddy found this wildlife area with a good population of chickens a few years back. I joined him this time.
Met at the RV park Friday evening. Hunted Saturday and Sunday. Sat morning was blowing pretty hard, making it tough for the dogs to scent. We both blanked. Harley (one of my dogs) apparently hurt his foot and went lame. So just hunted Bodie for the remainder of the weekend.
My buddy got 2 birds real quick in the afternoon hunt. Bodie pointed the first one, but his lab flushed it and it wasn't safe for me to shoot past my buddy. He got another 5 minutes later. I finished the day at zero.
Sunday morning was much calmer. Bodie found a couple colonies of birds in these giant fields of tules too tough to penetrate by humans. That's OK, cuz he stirred them up. Finally had one lift off in range and dumped him. Then 30 minutes later he briefly pointed one at the edge of a pond before the bird took off. Started out flying right at me until it saw me then turned and I dumped him.
Ran into my buddy and he had one. Went back out in the afternoon and my buddy converted for a second day of limits. Bodie covered 34 miles in the day per his GPS.
In the process, Bodie found a skunk and got nailed. Didn't have any skunk-off, so went to the store and made up a batch homemade (hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, Dawn). He got a cold bath of that, a warm rinse from the outside shower and dried off. Still a bit odorous, but way less. His dog collar is getting thrown away. His e-collars (1 for correction and one for tracking) have had a couple baths and prolly need to replace the collar parts.
Got Harley into the vet Tuesday. Couldn't really find anything too wrong. A hematoma (just blood, no puss despite the swelling) on his hock and some pin pricks the vet said remind her of raccoon bites. I really don't think he got hit by a 'coon. Snake had come to mind, but wounds didn't support it. He may have got it caught in something and/or sprained it. Treating the symptoms currently. Anti-inflammatory, antibiotics as a precaution and epsom salts compresses a few times per day. Swelling seems to be going down and he's using it slightly more. Wasn't in my plans as I don't expect him to be ready for hunting for a couple/three weeks. Of course he says he'll hunt on 3 legs. Harley the smarter and easier to hunt with. Bodie is an extreme athlete and kinda forgets we're a team. Harley checks in and Bodie checks out.
But a good time and saw more birds than anywhere in CA. I was hoping to hunt eastern WA this coming weekend, but don't really have a handle on where to go and with Harley laid up it reduces my enthusiasm. Even if I just end up scouting some places later for next year, thet'll be OK. I have a couple places close by that do fair chase planter birds.
Met at the RV park Friday evening. Hunted Saturday and Sunday. Sat morning was blowing pretty hard, making it tough for the dogs to scent. We both blanked. Harley (one of my dogs) apparently hurt his foot and went lame. So just hunted Bodie for the remainder of the weekend.
My buddy got 2 birds real quick in the afternoon hunt. Bodie pointed the first one, but his lab flushed it and it wasn't safe for me to shoot past my buddy. He got another 5 minutes later. I finished the day at zero.
Sunday morning was much calmer. Bodie found a couple colonies of birds in these giant fields of tules too tough to penetrate by humans. That's OK, cuz he stirred them up. Finally had one lift off in range and dumped him. Then 30 minutes later he briefly pointed one at the edge of a pond before the bird took off. Started out flying right at me until it saw me then turned and I dumped him.
Ran into my buddy and he had one. Went back out in the afternoon and my buddy converted for a second day of limits. Bodie covered 34 miles in the day per his GPS.
In the process, Bodie found a skunk and got nailed. Didn't have any skunk-off, so went to the store and made up a batch homemade (hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, Dawn). He got a cold bath of that, a warm rinse from the outside shower and dried off. Still a bit odorous, but way less. His dog collar is getting thrown away. His e-collars (1 for correction and one for tracking) have had a couple baths and prolly need to replace the collar parts.
Got Harley into the vet Tuesday. Couldn't really find anything too wrong. A hematoma (just blood, no puss despite the swelling) on his hock and some pin pricks the vet said remind her of raccoon bites. I really don't think he got hit by a 'coon. Snake had come to mind, but wounds didn't support it. He may have got it caught in something and/or sprained it. Treating the symptoms currently. Anti-inflammatory, antibiotics as a precaution and epsom salts compresses a few times per day. Swelling seems to be going down and he's using it slightly more. Wasn't in my plans as I don't expect him to be ready for hunting for a couple/three weeks. Of course he says he'll hunt on 3 legs. Harley the smarter and easier to hunt with. Bodie is an extreme athlete and kinda forgets we're a team. Harley checks in and Bodie checks out.
But a good time and saw more birds than anywhere in CA. I was hoping to hunt eastern WA this coming weekend, but don't really have a handle on where to go and with Harley laid up it reduces my enthusiasm. Even if I just end up scouting some places later for next year, thet'll be OK. I have a couple places close by that do fair chase planter birds.
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