I'm sad to report that some of "my" spots have been getting pressured harder than ever before this year. One spot in particular I've been seeing lots of guys out there. There's one group of local teenagers, really nice young guys. It's great to see them out there enjoying the outdoors and when I'm there they hunt with me over the dog, but I'm afraid that their after-school forays without a dog are educating some birds! I was there yesterday and I could not believe how skittish the birds were. I approached all good cover (I know the spot very well) from downwind, even when it meant lots of extra walking. No bell on the dog and an absolite minimum of verbal commands/whistle. Because all the grass is dead/flattened by a recent blizzard (has since melted) the birds don't run out of the cover, but flush wild when they detect us - often this was at more than 100 yards. The most surprising thing to me were the birds that were in shoreline cover on the FAR bank of the river. I have never seen these birds so skittish that even they were busting out to flush farther away from me as I worked the opposite side of the river! The nice thing to see (for next year) is all the hens. I have never seen so many. Unfortunately we have a bit of a coyote population explosion going on in Nova Scotia, and some local "hunters" bang away at hens and claim that they thought that they were grouse. Neither seems to be happening much here. We have a trapper working the area now, so I think that's helping with the coyote problem (even though it means you ahve to be extra careful with the dogs). I'm hoping that the cold rain forecast for Sunday will come as some fresh snow to hold the birds a bit more for the last week of our season (closes Dec 15). Meanwhile - I've got a doe tag to try to fill this weekend. Every time I've thought about going out for deer my dog Ruby has given me the big sad brown eyes and I've caved - guess I'm a "bird man" through and through! Oh well, last ditch effort for the last day of deer hunting tomorrow.
-Croc
-Croc