It’s That Time of Year

Time for pre-season tuneups and getting everyone in shape.

We’re still having summer temperatures here, so you have to go out first thing in the morning to get a run or two in before it warms up. The northerly jet stream that’s cooling off other parts of the country hasn’t done anything for us.

Except drag in some forest fire smoke, which makes for the unusual for here red ball in the sky sunrise.

Forest grouse season is open but it’s still too warm for serious hunting, plus the young of the year Ruffed Grouse haven’t even grown out their tails yet. Better to give them a little time to mature so I stick with working the dogs on open country birds right now.

The smoke wasn’t bad enough to keep Talus from finding and pointing a couple of Sage Hens this morning.

And then he made this find.

But notice that he isn’t all that intense because…

Predators generally don’t have a significant impact on Sage Grouse populations and it’s pretty rare to find a kill. The dogs have found two this year though, which I want to attribute to more little young and inexperienced birds around, like this one.

In a couple more weeks I’ll be out trying to put tags on a big mature male or two. Shot only if it’s a nice find and point of course.

Lisa