Another good day of pheasant hunting

We hunted pheasants this morning at the same spot as last night. We hunted from 8:45AM until 12:15p.m. We killed four roosters, but only were able to recover three. The one that got away was trailed by Winnie for 500 yards (yardage determined by GPS), then we lost the trail of it. The best part of this trail was that Dan actually saw the bird running and trying to fly somewhere between the 400 and 500 yard area, but it was quicker then he could get a safe shot off with Winnie nearby.

For the days total, we flushed five roosters and six hens. Of those, Winnie had four or five points. Winnie hunted the first hour alone, then Mag joined her for the next two hours.

Today's first rooster was a total team effort and will be one we'll remember for a long, long time. Winnie had a beautiful point, followed by a good shot by Dan. At that time, Winnie was hunting solo. The teamwork part came into play because the bird was pointed and flushed on the edge of a large lake and flew out to sea as Dan shot it. After he shot it, it continued to sail away from us. When it finally spiraled and splashed down, it was between 200 and 300 yards off shore. Oh, did I mention that it was extremely foggy and you could barely see as far as the bird fell. Making a valiant attempt at a retrieve, Winnie got into the water (which is about 33° right now) and swam all the way out as far as the bird before Dan tried to handle her to it because she was about 50 yards on the wrong side of the wind. As the handling was unsuccessful, I dropped my pack and ran back (about 800 yards) to the truck to get Maggie. While I was gone, Dan did his best to keep an eye on the bird in the fog while also trying to warm up Winnie by taking off his coat and wrapping her in it. After Maggie and I ran back, she executed the blind retrieve in a manner befitting a GMHR...

The two of them hunted together for the next couple hours, and produced three more roosters and several hens. Of today's roosters, two of them came from the scrubby, brushy vegetation along the lake shore. Maggie put one up out of the cattails. The fourth was someone else's wounded bird that Maggie trailed for 50 or so yards and then caught while it was running away (saving me the cost of a shotgun shell). The other bird came from a grassy area interspersed with small trees.

 I know the attached pictures will not do justice to the difficulty of the water retrieve, but I'll include them anyway...