We have come full circle now. Last November we lost our beloved Rio, not even 7 then. It took a while to recover but now we are ready to roll with our next GSP. We feel very fortunate to have found the wonderful dogs at Valhalla Hunt Club near Bennett, Colorado and have secured a fine boy. . . .Thank You Gary Thompson! We are looking forward to picking him up next weekend and for the adventure to begin!
Filed under Bird Dogs
These sweet pups are 24 days old. The litter has 4 females and 2 males and we will pick between these two males. One is about the largest dog in the litter and the other is the smallest. Other than the female in pink, which one would you choose?
Moose? This little fellow turns out to be our Tex!
Who doesn’t love a puppy! Here is a litter of irresistible black and white GSPs. Beautiful pups at 5 weeks.
Filed under Bird Dogs
We lost bird dog Rio last November and now the search is on for a new puppy. This morning we shot at some Chukars with Rio’s half-sister, Matrix. You sure can tell they are related, the resemblance is amazing. The hope is to have a pup by the beginning of summer.
We love those white & liver pointers.
Filed under Bird Dogs
This year it was a perfectly comfortable morning for the opening of dove season in northern Colorado. The day heated up fast but remained pleasant and bug-free if you stayed in the shade. We topped out in the mid-90s, which is hot for us but pretty nice compared to our sweaty friends in states south of us who hunted in 100+ degrees. Hope they kept their dogs watered.
In Colorado there is a reliable and unfortunate pattern to the dove migration around opening day. We see dove everywhere all summer long – perched on wires, cooing on roof tops, swooping from tree to tree and pooping on my truck – but sometime a week or so before 9/1 they disappear. This is usually attributed to a late August cold snap but this year it was hot up to the 1st and yet their pattern of disappearance still held true. I had not seen a dove for a week when we headed out on Thursday morning. We hunted with the nice folks at Longmeadow. They have about 4,000 acres and have built a really nice event center about an hour and a half northeast of Denver.
Though the number of birds were greatly diminished from a week or two ago, there were still plenty around for us to get our limit, which we did before lunch. It was not what you would call solid white hot action but there were times when we had more birds coming in than we could handle. It was a great start to the bird hunting season.
My hunting buddy enjoying a morning of truancy.
Filed under Wild Bird Hunts
Summer in Colorado is a wonderful time . . . fly fishing the Rockies, baseball in LoDo, sporting clays, BBQ on the deck, no bugs, no humidity. It is a great time to own a convertible! Summer is also the time to get the dogs in shape for the coming bird season. If you are partners with a bird dog, then you know that a walk around the block won’t cut it. These dogs need to run and run and run. I wish I had a section of land out my back door, as I am sure some of you do, but I don’t. Living on 1/4 acre allows me to keep my farming and ranching costs in check but I need a place to let the dog have at it.
Living in Denver we are fortunate to have a 69 acre off-lease dog park at the Chatfield State Park. There is a massive amount of public land in Colorado. If you live in town, little of it is convenient to visit with the frequency needed to keep your dog happy and in shape. This park provides a wonderful in-town alternative to let the dogs run to their heart’s content and is minutes from the house. Here are some pictures from our visits starting with a Meadowlark that sat still just long enough . . .
Filed under Bird Dogs
Today is bird dog Rio’s birthday. It has been a wonderful 6 years. We miss her puppy days, as destructive as they were at times, but now she is at her bird hunting peak and sweet as pie.
Whoever said “Money can’t buy happiness” never bought a puppy!
Filed under Bird Dogs
Cost and time effective, the hunting preserve provides an accessible escape for the time-strapped hunter. The shortcomings of a staged event are offset by the opportunity to get the dogs on birds and let them enjoy a morning practicing their art. Most compelling is that a bunch of points are a sure thing. Like finding a date at a strip club, the game is abundant as long as the $20s hold out. Last sunday we hit a perfect morning at Kiowa Creek Sporting Club and captured these shots.
Filed under Preserve Bird Hunts
Capturing the intensity of a covey nailed is a tough assignment. Most attempts fall short but not this piece that I read in Sporting Classics some years ago. It is by far the best I have found. It was written by Tom Davis, the Senior Editor and Gundogs columnist for Sporting Classics and author of “The Tattered Autumn Sky: Bird Hunting in the Heartland.”
“You turn the dogs loose and let them roll, and as they sift the wind – miners panning for gold – you feel yourself pulled along in the slipstream of their intense, unfettered joy.
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And when they strike point, transformed in a blazing instant from pure kinetic energy to living statuary, it’s as if the earth stops spinning, There is no past or future; there is only this moment, and what hangs in the balance, awaiting resolution, is nothing less than everything.”
– Tom Davis
Filed under Bird Dogs
Birdhunter 
