My second bird...

 I am proud to have been born in Iowa. Through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy, it was a place of adventure and daily discoveries - the wonder of the growing crops, the excitements of the harvest, the journeys to the woods for nuts and hunting, the joys of snowy winters, the comfort of the family fireside, of good food and tender care.- Herbert Hoover, 31st President

 Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

This will be the last post about our trip to NW Iowa.  It will be short.  I have what I think is a really good video of Rory and I working together to share with you.

We got word that there were birds seen just up the road from Ryan's place in the ditch.  So, we drove up, gunned up and detrucked.   Brandon and Ryan crashed through the large cover to the left side of the road and Michael plunged down the embankment and started wading up the narrow ditch on the left side.  

A side note.  The alert reader may be concerned that I remained up on the road.  In many states, hunting from a road is not legal.  I checked Iowa's laws and I think I'm good.  Your mileage may vary.

I thought it was obvious that the birds would be in the bigger cover to the left, so that's where I encouraged Rory to go hunt.   I was wrong.

In any case, Michael flushed a large number of hens and roosters out of the narrow ditch on the left and I went into wing shooting fugue.  I don't recall mounting the gun or snicking off the safety but I do recall thinking that in this situation I'm confident it's safe to shoot and I'm not trying to catch up with the birds.  I even had some confidence I'd get a double. 

I had no idea where the bird fell because I was going for the second higher bird.  You can see that I was behind the second bird when I shot. 

Rory came up out of the cover on the left and I wondered exactly how I was going to talk him onto a bird I didn't know where was.  But he must have marked the fall, because he confidently dove into the far ditch and by the time I got over there he had it found.  

I think the video of him retrieving it to me is really nice and I'm proud of him.  It's not a perfect obedient retrieve - Michael distracted him with a shot up the road to our right - but it's pretty good.  

That was my last bird of the day.  By then I was worn out, so I did a lot of driving to the blocking position for the rest of the day. 

The last thing I want to brag on Rory about is that he is really good with other hunters.  He spent the rest of that day quartering with the other three guys and finding birds.  He delivered to hand for them and just did a great job. 
    

 We wound up bagging 9 birds that day.  I think Rory found and retrieved 6 or 7 of them.  To get him to sit still for the picture, I gave him a bumper.  He still wanted to go run some more.

We filleted those birds out and I got a lot of the meat.  That was very generous of the guys.  Ann and I plan to make a big pot of pheasant wild rice soup for the annual Winter Solstice family party.  

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad/Geoff 

ps, As I was proof reading this, Michael called to say he enjoyed the earlier posts.  He also said that he and the other guys took their sons to that same intersection this last weekend and got lots of birds.  Way cool!