Christmas Day. Tim came Along

After an abbreviated lunch, son-in-law, Tim Mortimore and I went back to where I had hunted the day before. Plans were for a 3:00PM dinner so we didn't have long. There were some areas that I had passed the day before which drew me back.


I dropped the tail gate and started around a small half acre planting of close packed pines. They were twice my height with overlapping branches. The dogs immediately disappeared.

It was too thick to follow but I was hoping to heard any occupants down the ditch that passed along the south edge and proceeded west through the broad shallow valley. A minute later a cackling rooster banked to his left 40 yards above me heading in the opposite direction. I fired two wasted shots, the dogs then emerged from the tangle. I crossed a road bridge that put me across the ditch from Tim. We headed west. Off on the horizon we could see a larger and younger planting of pines that ran from the ditch up to the gravel road the distance of about three hundred yards. The plan was to walk a long rectangle; down the ditch, up to our right through the trees, then back down the road to the pickup.


The ditch portion produced nothing. We swung right into the trees 20 minutes later. This looked like good cover. In less then five minutes the dogs stopped on point 15 feet apart. We slowly moved in. The rooster flushed straight out ahead of Tim, but to my right. I yelled "Rooster!" and fired a second later just as Tim's gun went off. The bird fell dead. Lilly was immediately on the retrieve. As she was coming towards me with the bird in her mouth I got the idea that I should get a picture. This was my first time to carry a camera into the field.





I pulled out the camera, but before I could snap the picture she was at my feet. I tried to back away, she followed with a confused look. As I was suggesting that Tim take the picture. We heard the explosion of wings. Forty feet away Juneau had found another rooster . My lack of focus and distraction had left us off guard. Tim fired two shots as the bird passed 30 yards above us and banked to the west, with no affect. The lesson was, be wise about when you pull out the camera.

Twenty minutes later we were back at the pickup. We hunted another ditch abandon railroad grade combination for about half an hour then headed home.


A big Christmas dinner was waiting. Are we ever blessed!