Our first woodcock.

The above woodock is not the one we saw just a pic of one from the general area.

(if you can't find it click on the pic for a bigger view.)

Today started off with a bang..or should I say a quick run down the hill followed by an even quicker stop and fall on my butt in the road. I had put Gunner on his CC to see his girlfriends on their walk up the street. Unfortunately I underestimated his strength in pulling me down to see them. Yep, one quick yank and down I went. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to add that to my list of injuries this week. But it did set up a scenario for us seeing our very first Ohio woodcock.

I'll explain, due to somewhat twisting my ankle in the lovely downhill this morning and needing to get Gunner some exercise. I decided to take him to a rarely used road in the forest. That way I could stay on the road and he could run loose and investigate the roadside, ditches and brush along the way. We get to the road and park in a pull off and off we go. Gunner in his hunter orange E-collar and reflective hunting collar and me in my Hunter orange vest..it is still bow season after all. It is nice and cool and quiet. All I can hear is an occasional bird and Gunner moving on the fallen leaves. We get about 15 minutes out and he goes into a ditchy, wet and soggy area. It has some fallen trees and stuff but not too much. Gunner goes on point and I can see him from the road. So I call him and he glances at me and then right back to intense point. So I grudgingly go into the mushy, squishy stuff to see what the heck he has. I get about 6-8 feet from him from the side and up flies a bird. Brownish, gray-ish with a really long beak. Up the hill about halfway and into some brush. Gunner moves about 2 feet and stops. He looks at me like Momma why didn't you shoot it. Well for one we don't hunt from the road and two I don't have a gun with me. About that time I realize that we have just seen our very first woodcock. I have seen pics of them but never seen one in person. I hug Gunner and tell him what a great, smart boy he is and he does his little happy butt wiggle dance and we go off up the road. The rest of our walk was uneventful and we get to the top of the road and turn around and start back and go back to the car. As soon as I get home I look online to indeed verify that it was indeed a woodcock. I am so happy and need to work on trusting Gunners nose and not be so sceptical sometimes. After all he is the one with the good nose. It was a good day even with falling down the hill and all.