It has been so long since my last entry, I need to introduce a new member of my bird team.  Last October I received an eight week old liver Brittany puppy.  This is my 3^rd dog and is my last for a very long time. His name is Gorman’s Maxed Out (Max).  Due to his young age he did not hunt any wild birds last season.  So, this will be his first chance to show me what he’s got.  I am hunting up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with my long time friend and grouse hunting buddy Ed Alsteens.  He has been experiencing good success so far this season.  Hank, Sadie, Max and I are ready to help Ed and his 3 Gordon Setters do a little damage on the grouse population.  I arrived on Friday midday and the weather was very warm.  I was anxious to get out so Ed and I headed out to one of his favorite spots for a short hunt.   He had been seeing good numbers of both grouse and woodcock here.  We let Hank & Max out to see what max would do.  Hank was there in case and crafty grouse tried to fool Max.  Well it was just too hot.  In 90 minutes we flushed 7 grouse and 6 woodcock.  Hank pointed the only bird, a woodcock.  I usually don’t shoot woodcock unless they are pointed, but because I was trying to get Max excited about birds, I shot 2 woodcock.  I was happy that Max found one of the dead birds, all on his own. 

The coming days are supposed to be much cooler so we were looking forward to the rest of the week.  Saturday morning Ed and I Hunted his veteran Gordon, Maddy and my Sadie.  Maddy did great having several points.  Sadie disappointed me; she did not find many birds.  We got one woodcock, but the week is young.  Off to a slow start for grouse.

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Max with one of his first woodcock!

Next we went to my favorite spot for woodcock and threw Max down by himself.  It was much colder now; let’s see what he can do.  We hunted for 90 minutes. We saw 5 grouse and 9 woodcock.  I am very happy to say he pointed 3 woodcock.  Ed and I were very very happy to collect 2 of the little birds for him.  He did get cautious on a couple of the grouse but no points yet.  Looking very forward to the rest of the week and maybe a few grouse.  I plan on bow hunting for deer later in the week as well.  Will update you soon!