We don’t have kids. Angus is our kid. But a friend who doesn’t bird hunt has a 10-year-old who read a book about bird hunting and wanted to go, so we took him today. Until we got out there on the hills I was worried he wouldn’t be able to keep up. Not that I’m such a mountain animal, but, geez, the kid’s ten and the hills are steep.
Not a problem. At all. I ran up slopes when Angus looked birdy, unable to resist my selfish desire never to miss an Angus point. Huffing and puffing, I’d turn to see how far back the kid was, and he’d all but run into me. On my heels all day. Impressive. Plus, he was just fun to have along because he asked good questions about what we were doing, and he taught Leslie and me things about the land that we didn’t know because he comes from a ranching family. Cows were getting moved (they play a part in the video; see below) and he told us what was happening, where they might be taking them for the winter, how many dogs they probably had…
And we got the first chukar of the year! He schlepped the 20-gauge the whole day, never was able to get a shot off, but never complained or got tired. We saw surprisingly few birds, but that didn’t deter him – he wants to go again soon. That’s good. I have new motivation to find more birds in this strangely sparse early season. Stay tuned.
Chirp away