Lil's lone hunt

So when I go out hunting I either just take my dog Remi pr both hunting dogs which includes Lily. Bother are German Wired Hair Point Griffons, Remi is 6 years old Lily is 3 years old.  I have this theory that when you have a really good dog at swimming for ducks and you get another dog. The second dog wont be as good at it because the good dog is always there to get the ducks. The theory is deeper than that but that is the gist of it, but I will get deeper into it on another post.

So I decided to just take Lily duck hunting with me for the first time ever. I was nervous that she would not swim out and get any ducks I shoot in the water. We get down to the hunting area the Run Way and sneak into our first spot. It is a spot where the ducks will be in one of two spots and you just have to guess which one. Well today I was wrong and I guessed the spot where the ducks weren't and a group of mallards got up off of the other spot.  A look down the canal I saw three swans. I have never seen swans in this area before.  After they saw me they took off like 747's with their wing tips slapping the water as the fought to gain altitude.

Lily

So I went to the next spot down the canal. It doesn't provide much cover for sneaking but usually enough.  Except when there are more swans and their three foot necks see you coming. Again when the swans busted me a small group of mallards left eh hole.

So far Lily has been doing a decent job staying in heal and listen to me. So we walk up to the upper holes and check them for ducks. I am beginning to think this day was going to be a bust. Then at about 200 yards I see a duck stretch it wings. Lil and I go way around and come from a direction so the tall grass would give us better cover.  I come up over the little hill blocking the ducks view of me and a Widgeon gets up and I drop it, then a teal and I drop it when another widgeon comes around my gun jammed and I did not get a shot off on it.

Lily jumps into the water and the Teal is swimming / running wounded in front of her at about 10 yards. I know she sees it and I yell "Get That Bird" and Lily just watches it run into the tall grass. I make sure the Widgeon is dead and make my way over to where Lily is. After searching for the Teal for about 10 minutes we give up. I was not happy I do not like losing wounded animals. I don't like losing anything I have shot. Anyway we go over to the widgeon and Lil walks out into the watch and retrieves it with no problem.

So we left the run way with one little ducks, hardly worth the trip. But it was nice to get out and get Lily some work. On the drive home which takes about 5 minutes I decided to pick up Remi and see if we could go get some grouse above the house. With the 4 inches of new snow we had it was a great walk through the snowy woods. But we did not find any grouse, although we did see a huge mule deer buck. He just looked at me and I got within about 10 yards of him trying to get a picture of him.