Hi Don,
I hope everything went smoothly with your trip to Maine to pick up Bella. We were at our spot at 5:30 this morning to stake our claim. Just as well – after our first pass we ran into a solo hunter and then a party of 4 with two dogs. Ruby flushed at least 13 individual roosters and 3 hens. Total flushes was over 25 – we stopped counting. We both got our limit early on, and then stopped on the way home and picked up a pair of woodcock as a bonus! What a great day! Ruby was very good once she settled down, but ran after the first rooster despite my commands. It was only by sheer luck that she did not flush any others when she did that. She also got after a runner and flushed him out of range, but other than those two incidents I was very happy with her. My proudest moment was as we were walking back towards the car with 3 roosters – we were following the four other guys hunting with a Brittany and some kind of pointer. They were working an alder hillside only about 20 feet wide and so we were sure it would be empty as we followed them along. Ruby found some scent and flushed a big rooster that they had somehow missed and we got it to finish our limit!
-Dave
