Clever bird...

S

scott county vizsla

Member
Nearing the end of the second public area of the day on Sunday I had seen 7 hens in about 4 hours of walking. The dog and I were both ready to call it a day but I know that a small draw I could swing by in the way out often holds birds on windy days. Sure enough, Rusty starts tracking a running bird out of this draw. About 250 yards later, in the shape of a giant 'P', my dog is locked up in shin high grass. I approached the point with the wind gusting at my back, thinking the bird would flush and fly towards the escape cover. I was wrong, this bird, which of course is a rooster, flies directly at me. This would have been fine if the rooster continued directly into the wind, but he didn't. The bird began to drift at an angle that was directly in line with the back windshield of my nice truck(and 100 acres of timber). I waited and waited and by the time the bird cleared it was probably out of range but I couldn't resist sending a load of #4s. I missed, which is fine, and I've got the next two weeks off work to play the game again. I tested positive for covid-19 last night and I feel fine, the only reason I got tested is that I lost my sense of smell. Hope my dog doesn't get covid-19, if he can't smell we're screwed!
 
scott county vizsla said:
Nearing the end of the second public area of the day on Sunday I had seen 7 hens in about 4 hours of walking. The dog and I were both ready to call it a day but I know that a small draw I could swing by in the way out often holds birds on windy days. Sure enough, Rusty starts tracking a running bird out of this draw. About 250 yards later, in the shape of a giant 'P', my dog is locked up in shin high grass. I approached the point with the wind gusting at my back, thinking the bird would flush and fly towards the escape cover. I was wrong, this bird, which of course is a rooster, flies directly at me. This would have been fine if the rooster continued directly into the wind, but he didn't. The bird began to drift at an angle that was directly in line with the back windshield of my nice truck(and 100 acres of timber). I waited and waited and by the time the bird cleared it was probably out of range but I couldn't resist sending a load of #4s. I missed, which is fine, and I've got the next two weeks off work to play the game again. I tested positive for covid-19 last night and I feel fine, the only reason I got tested is that I lost my sense of smell. Hope my dog doesn't get covid-19, if he can't smell we're screwed!
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They're bastards. Good that you sent some hot 4's his way just to let him know you're there & that his days may be numbered.
 
scott county vizsla said:
Nearing the end of the second public area of the day on Sunday I had seen 7 hens in about 4 hours of walking. The dog and I were both ready to call it a day but I know that a small draw I could swing by in the way out often holds birds on windy days. Sure enough, Rusty starts tracking a running bird out of this draw. About 250 yards later, in the shape of a giant 'P', my dog is locked up in shin high grass. I approached the point with the wind gusting at my back, thinking the bird would flush and fly towards the escape cover. I was wrong, this bird, which of course is a rooster, flies directly at me. This would have been fine if the rooster continued directly into the wind, but he didn't. The bird began to drift at an angle that was directly in line with the back windshield of my nice truck(and 100 acres of timber). I waited and waited and by the time the bird cleared it was probably out of range but I couldn't resist sending a load of #4s. I missed, which is fine, and I've got the next two weeks off work to play the game again. I tested positive for covid-19 last night and I feel fine, the only reason I got tested is that I lost my sense of smell. Hope my dog doesn't get covid-19, if he can't smell we're screwed!
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I had one fly directly at me, with a 30 mph wind behind him! Missed him 3 times!!
 
scott county vizsla said:
I tested positive for covid-19 last night and I feel fine, the only reason I got tested is that I lost my sense of smell. Hope my dog doesn't get covid-19, if he can't smell we're screwed!
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Wishing you a speedy recovery! I'm quarantined as well my wife tested positive last week. Grouse season comes back in tomorrow so I will be in the woods as much as possible. Fortunately no symptoms for me. Good luck getting that rooster, post a picture when you do!
 
Miforester said:
Wishing you a speedy recovery! I'm quarantined as well my wife tested positive last week. Grouse season comes back in tomorrow so I will be in the woods as much as possible. Fortunately no symptoms for me. Good luck getting that rooster, post a picture when you do!
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Forgot to snap a photo but the assumed perpetrator tried to pull the same escape route today when I was out with my dad and he stopped the cackling on his first shot.
 
scott county vizsla said:
Forgot to snap a photo but the assumed perpetrator tried to pull the same escape route today when I was out with my dad and he stopped the cackling on his first shot.
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Notbing better then shutting up a cackled with your shot, little more satisfying then a silent flush! Glad you guys got'em
 
Twice last weekend, once on Sat and again on Sun, a rooster someone else crippled escaped the collective efforts of the Crew and I. The second day I saw how and it was impressive.

We were working the cover along the top of the banks of the Cannonball River. The river probably probably averages 8 feet wide there but narrows in places to just a couple feet and is frozen hard enough for the dogs to safely run on it. The banks are anywhere from 20 to a good 40 feet high, some places nearly cliffs, and have thick grass cover.

So Sat the labs get birdy about 10 feet down the bank in thick grass. we had already gotten two roosters in the last couple hundred yards so I was confident I was about to finish out the day's limit. When the flush came it was a wing tipped rooster that appeared momentarily about chest high above the waist high grass, cackled, and went straight back down. The entire Crew was within 10 feet or less of it and converged on the spot in the blink of an eye, I was maybe 10 yards from it. 20 minutes later after thoroughly searching both sides top to bottom 100 yards up & down the river from the spot, no bird. The river was maybe 20 feet below but wide & open enough I didn't see how it could have gotten to it and run on it w/o any of us seeing it, so I discounted that possibility. We continued on and bumped off a third rooster a couple hundred yards down.

Sunday morning we hit the same spot. About 100 yards after leaving the truck and maybe 200 down river from where we encountered it yesterday, Jetta finds obviously the same cripple on the top of the bank. Jetta's head & shoulders are actually out of sight in a clump of grass and the labby ass end I can see is locked up & just vibrating. She must have practically had her nose on him but that rooster had nerves of steel and didn't flush. I was thinking "tight holding hen" as I moved up next to her and kicked the clump of grass.

That rooster exploded out in our faces and flopped/glided the 20 feet down to the river. It was clear that was what it was trying to do. In an instant it was running down river on that narrow band of ice like it was a purse snatcher. Jetta bailed over the edge of the bank in pursuit, the other two labs were working the far bank and weren't close enough to help. I couldn't shoot without endangering Jetta so all I could do was watch that bird rocket down the river and disappear around a small bend 40 yards away with Jetta maybe 2 seconds behind.

I called the rest of the Crew in and moved down to the river to help. Up to and maybe another 20 feet past that bend was heavy grass cover that overhung the bank, leaving maybe 16" of bare ice exposed in the middle of the river. After that it was pretty much open rocky bank to the beginning of posted land.

Same story as Saturday, we worked every inch of both sides of the bank top to bottom and no rooster. The dogs could not pick up scent on the ice, even though the birds was just there. The only possibilities I saw were that it put stayed on the ice and put on a burst of speed like The Flash, getting well into the private land in the moments it was out of Jetta's and my view, or ducked into a deep hole in the bank under that thick overhanging grass. Either way, it seems to have figured out safety lay in getting onto the ice and running like hell.

Like I said, impressive...
 
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Labs said:
Like I said, impressive...
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They're bastards I tell you. Years ago my buddy & I were hunting with our 2 springers & he drops a rooster fairly hard, in thick CRP type grass, maybe 20 yards short of a creek maybe 6' wide. No ice whatsoever. Open, flowing water. The dogs weren't coming up with it, but mine (Walt) kept ending up over at the edge of the creek, & then he'd come back & search from the drop zone again. After quite a while, we finally chalked it up as a lost bird, when Walt came back from the creek edge again. I thought, OK, there's no way, but what can it hurt. So I sent Walt over the creek. Turns out it was deep & he actually had to swim. But after about 20 seconds on the other side, he found him. Very much alive, buried under snow & grass. He had 1 shattered leg. Both wings broke bad. It's a mystery to me how he would've even been able to run, much less cross that creek quick enough to avoid 2 dogs who were almost right on him when he fell. They're absolutely amazing critters.
 
They swim quite well. Decades ago I saw a buddy knock one down at the edge of the N fork of the Solomon River. It hit maybe 15 yards short of the very steep bank. Hunters and dogs converged immediately on the crash site. No bird. Dogs trailed it to the steep bank, we followed. There was the bird, swimming very quickly, halfway across the Solomon. The river was about 20 yards wide at that point.

The bird almost made a good getaway. Unfortunately for him, a Lab broke and made a "dock dog" leap off that high bank (and you always worry about a stick or rock under the water!) and then swam in hot pursuit. The Lab caught that bird right at the other bank.
 
Sgbode said:
I think a bird flying at you can be one of the most difficult shots!
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Concur. Very common shot when field hunting waterfowl, which until I moved down here was 95% of my wingshooting. Almost always miss well behind because the angle is continuously changing as the bird nears and for me at least, completely blotting the bird from view with the muzzle/barrel feels incorrect...
 
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Labs said:
Concur. Almost always miss well behind because the angle is continuously changing as the bird nears and for me at least, completely blotting the bird from view with the muzzle/barrel feels incorrect...
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Turn around, shoot them going away. The line of the bird will be under. It works best for me in windy conditions.
 
Chestle said:
They swim quite well. Decades ago I saw a buddy knock one down at the edge of the N fork of the Solomon River. It hit maybe 15 yards short of the very steep bank. Hunters and dogs converged immediately on the crash site. No bird. Dogs trailed it to the steep bank, we followed. There was the bird, swimming very quickly, halfway across the Solomon. The river was about 20 yards wide at that point.

The bird almost made a good getaway. Unfortunately for him, a Lab broke and made a "dock dog" leap off that high bank (and you always worry about a stick or rock under the water!) and then swam in hot pursuit. The Lab caught that bird right at the other bank.
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Right on labrador!!The king of retrieving.
 
I think they can go underwater for short periods of time. Last winter I shot one in some cattails, after awhile my dog started digging through the decaying cattails, then trying to break the inch of ice underneath it. So I got down on my belly, broke away more ice, took off my coat, rolled up my sleeves, and reached as far down into the muck/water as I could and pulled up the rooster.

I have also encountered one other winged bird early season that hid underwater near cattails.
 
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