Woodcocks and Wagging Tales!

Well Saturday was the opening day of woodcock season here in East TN. In short one of my favorite times of the year. So I got all my hunting gear ready, decided to take out my old Franchi Falconet 20ga ( my favorite shotgun ever!) and loaded up rowdy for my secret woodcock hunting area. before I go any more in depth of the hunt let me explain the interesting little bird i am pursuing in this adventure. The American Woodcock is a shorebird.... that lives in forests .... yeah just go with me on this one. They are also called timberdoodles. They are superbly camouflaged for the forest floors and sit still until you about step on them , and more then once I have flushed a bird and had then erupt in a frenzy with in inches of my feet. needless to say it always catches you off guard. They have neat flexible bills that they are able to move to find worms in the mud. and I love their call . kind of a nasally peep sound... ok back to the hunt.

So we pull up to the classified hunting spot. and be it the first day of the season expectations were low but i knew there would be a bird or two around. the first tn minutes was basically rowdy getting rid of some extra energy I am guessing. and that's when I jumped the first timberdoodle of the day. couldn't get a shot but saw where he flew too. After finally getting Rowdy Dog to listen, we moved on in the direction where the bird flushed to. needless to say it was in the thickest part of the area in briers , thorns, cedars, and alders all in your personal space and no place to escape them. then as i persuaded Rowdy in deeper into the brush I heard the tell tail chirp of a woodcock flushing and then wingbeats like a miny helicopter and through the brush I picked it out .... and missed...

Moving on through the area Rowdy flushed another bird and it was one of those instances where when he cleared the underbrush the gun came to my shoulder and i felt the recoil as if it was reflex and I collected bird one of the season. Rowdy and I ended up flushing up about 10 more birds with a few more re flushes most were after I got my three bird limit and just wanted to see how many birds where in the area at the time and also wanted to get Rowdy in the bird season state of mind. All in All a good day a field.

Now it is time to get ready for the chili cookoff. If anyone is in the Morgonton NC area stop by Catawba Valley Brewery and see us. 1 dollar gets you in to taste and judge chili!!! I will let you know how it turns out.