More Waterfowl

I went out the other evening with John and his brother Jordan for some waterfowl action. It's always kind of a crap shoot this time of year. There are plenty of ducks and geese but if the weather is nice, you never know when they'll be coming off the fields. We've got it timed now to catch a wave at about two in the afternoon. However, the next day the action was pretty slow and it wasn't until after sunset that the ducks and geese started funneling in and the reality is, is that most of the ducks are waiting until late to come to water. They get pretty damn smart this time of year.

As for Cutter, he made a couple really nice retrieves that first evening. We actually shot a pintail that landed behind us in some really heavy cover. I took Cutter back there, hoping it had landed in the field but it didn't. It came down in the ditch in the heaviest brush around. I saw him get birdy and caught some movement on the ground. He dove into the brush and burrowed underneath but came up empty. The next attempt, Cutter jumped on top of the brush and was suspended about 3 feet off the ground until he fell and rolled down to the bottom of the ditch. He disappeared again in the thickest part and after a couple minutes I blew the whistle. He came around the corner with duck in mouth. Awesome.

Tonight we got into them again and although Cutter got schooled a couple times yesterday with some wounded birds, he definitely made up for it this evening. He swam across the entire river to retrieve a duck I dropped. He actually went to where I pointed him and when he picked up a visual on the drifting bird, he took an angle that would cut the bird off before drifting past him. He's getting pretty good although he's kind of shy when it comes to live birds.

Yesterday he went after a wounded goose that had crossed the river. He went to grab it and the thing whacked him in the head a couple times. He turned back and crossed the river to get back to me. You could see in his whole demeanor that he was bummed out or embarrassed or feeling a little defeated. I had shot the goose again and it was floating along the bank in a little eddy dead so I sent Cutter back to retrieve it. He got half-way across the river and turned back. I didn't push him because he is so young and at some point I was afraid he would run out of gas.

The last bird tonight he picked up and dropped on the island...I had to go get it. Well, two out of three ain't bad. I think what happens with puppies is when they bring you the bird it always disappears so at some point they figure out, "Hey, if I ever want to see that bird again, I better not bring it to him..." We haven't really figured that part of the partnership out yet. Maybe the 'at-a-boys' aren't enough so I might have to bust out the treats. It's coming. One thing's for certain though, gun-shots now mean dead birds; at least if I can hit them. Cutter likes dead birds.

Keep 'em where they live...