The area of Maine I’m hunting is big country. Outside my door are thousands of acres of ground , and almost all of it is accessible. That’s great. But it does present a problem: Where the heck do you find birds? In such a big area to scout, you can spend days scouting for covers.
Fortunately, I’ve been up here a couple times and I have a few covers on my maps. These spots produced birds in the past, and so far they’re still popular with the area’s grouse & woodcock.
This afternoon Puck and I headed out to one of them: A cover that’s a mix of wet, boggy areas and poplar & alder growth. Turns out it was a good call.
In about an hour of hunting, we moved 6-8 woodcock and two grouse. I had a 3-4 opportunities on the woodcock, but put only down 1 bird. Both grouse either ran out from Pucks points, or were pointed from far off. Whatever happened, both were heard and not seen.
The weather started out cool and cloudy with breaks of sunshine. By the end of the day a snow squall moved it and things got pretty white for a while. With a little luck, the cold, changing weather will drive more woodcock into the area.
