It was a great hunting season! Not as many birds as we would have liked but Tex’s knees performed well and we are ready to take on the next 5 years or so. The bird hunting is over for a while and we look forward to the wonderful Colorado summer and Sunday afternoons at the dog park!
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Colorado weather is awesome. This weekend was in the 80s, we wore shorts to the Rockies baseball game but last weekend we had a foot of snow! We took English Setter Oak out on that snowy Sunday for a spin on some chukars.
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If you follow this blog, then you know that Tex tore the dog equivalent of his ACL back at the beginning of the bird season. The poor dog had to miss October through the middle of December. He recovered well and here are some pictures of his return to hunting fields.
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About 6 weeks ago, Oak the setter puppy and Tex got out for some time on birds. We had a great time and here are the pictures.
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Meet Oak. The sweet guy is a Llewellin English Setter from Paint River Llewellins out of Saugarties, New York. We took him out on a beautiful summer morning to learn what birds smell like.
“Oak”
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Tex loves to swim. If we let him, he would swim to Cuba, but thankfully he lives in Colorado and won’t get the chance to try! Merrick asked us to have an adventure and give an update on how he is doing on the Backcountry dog food so we picked a swim day.
Wet Tex
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The folks at Merrick asked if Tex would try their premium dog food. I occasionally get these types of requests and usually dismiss them but, since this is a really high quality product with great reviews, I thought we would give it a shot. Also, I noticed that the company is based in Hereford, Texas which is where my grandfather was born (1905), so I know good things can come out of Hereford! When Tex learned that this is the “game bird recipe”, he was very excited to try it.
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Barbed wire fences are ubiquitous in most of the places we hunt. We try to keep the dogs away but occasionally one will bust through a fence, particularly if they think birds are on the other side. About all you can do is watch and hope everything turns out ok. Amazingly many times no harm is done, but sometimes it does not turn out so well . . .
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It is hard to believe that Tex turns 3 years old today. Time has certainly flown by . . . all the more reason to hunt often and hunt hard! Hopefully we have a decade of hunting together in front of us.
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I suppose I should change the name of this thing to PicturesOfMyDog.com, but old Tex is a photogenic boy and until opening day this is all I got.
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It was a beautiful weekend here in Colorado. Here are some shots of Tex on a perfect Father’s Day.
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Tex begins his third spring romping at the dog park. He has that German Shorthair drive to run and swim like he is in a race. The park is the perfect place to let him burn up some pent-up energy and wear him out for a while. At 94 pounds, he is our big moose GSP.
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Here are two wonderful dogs sharing a point that will never happen.
The dog in the back is Rio, a true hunting machine. She was the dog I learned to hunt with and was my hunting buddy for 6 years. We loved that dog but she was a tough animal to have in the house. At times, she was like a wild horse and did more than her fair share of damage. All things considered though, the mischief and cost were worth it. A good dog can get away with quite a lot. Sadly, we lost her to cancer in November of 2011.
Tex, in the foreground, is the sweet boy who is with us now. He is a solid hunter (but not the maniac that Rio was) and is our beloved family dog. With Tex, we get the best of both worlds. Tex was born in February of 2012 so he never got to hunt with Rio. They would have made quite a team.
Hopefully this is a glimpse of heaven.
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Here at the Birdhunter significant effort is expended to produce the mediocre level of writing that you see in this blog. We are alright with that because the point here is the photography. But if you want to read great bird hunting stories written by fellows who know how to write then checkout this terrific e-book from the guys over at the Mouthful of Feathers blog. It is well worth the $5 and can be bought HERE.
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When you get old, Santa looks exactly like a UPS driver. A beardless skinny dude who wears shorts no matter what the weather is. This year Santa delivered a full frame Nikon D610 FX camera. This is an upgrade from the DX format camera that took all the pictures in this blog up until now. To test this thing out, Tex and I went to the dog park today and I snapped these shots.
This truly is a phenomenal camera. You can find plenty of reviews on the internet that tell you why this camera is awesome . . . almost as good as you can get. After a couple of days messing around with it, I believe them!
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Tex turns one and a half years old today and is celebrating at doggie day care with his pals. We have had a great summer and very soon Tex will be into his 2nd hunting season. Last year he hunted well and this year we expect him to come into his own. If the stars align, he might get to hunt 6 states this year. No matter what, it should be a great year!
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