Not just for the birds
On the steep ascent the winds were blowing hard and the dogs were having a hard time pinpointing the birds and singles were busting wild from the grasses and the minute you blinked one would take off like a missile. Halfway up the ridge, I stopped on top of a rocky outcropping to wait for …
Some things are rituals. It was never discussed on Saturday but over the course of the last four months it was customary or tradition that we'd bird hunt on every Sunday. Last Sunday morning while sitting in front of the wood stove drinking coffee and looking out the living room window toward the mountains, Bob …
Bob and I stood there at the bottom of the mountain for a couple of minutes looking up the steep ridge and up to a rocky outcropping high up on the ridgetop. We scanned the terrain for obvious paths made by animals. These paths usually prove to be the easier route up to the place …
I live for this moment. This sequence. My dogs look like they're onto birds. I sense it from subtle nuances and have learned from training and experience how to read their body language. If I'm hunting with just one dog all my focus is on that one dog. If both of my dogs are in …
Most of the snow lay clean and unmarked. We could tell nobody had hunted this spot since this first big snowstorm of the season, three days before. We were jacked. It was cold outside and early in the day, the pine trees, bushes, and grasses were frilled with snow, it was magical and beautiful. Hunting …
The week started off bad. The week also ended with many firsts. Tuesday started with Angus throwing up his morning kibble in the backyard. Later on, he refused a dog treat from the treat jar. This was a first time in his life that he's ever not wanted one of those multi-colored square snaps treats. …
It is early, and we are feeling it. It's on. Unusually cool weather for the opening weekend of chukar season made things more comfortable than normal, if "comfortable" is even legal to use in describing anything related to chukar hunting. Waterdogs We took the boat out on one of the many nearby reservoirs and found …
I admit it, I'm a sucker for trying to take a good shot or even a bad shot. A snapshot, that is. I always swear I'll leave my camera or phone tucked away while I'm hunting but end up breaking my own rule. Bob even went out a couple of times without his gun and …
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was carved by the world's great flood, and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by …
When Peat was 7-months-old, we took him hunting with Angus to a place where his day of hunting lasted exactly 15 seconds. Upon arriving to our hunting destination, we let both dogs out of the pickup and before we knew what was happening we saw Peat streaking a 200-yard beeline to a covey of Huns …