Looks like it should be a good year for Doves. I have been seeing them everywhere. Hopefully we’ll get a few. Just a couple more weeks.

Here’s a picture of Cooper doing his best Gene Simmons impression after retrieving a dove on a previous hunt.

I have been trying (key word there is “trying”) to become a half decent photographer. I like taking pictures. Todays group of photos I think is not quite as good as the last set at the pond. I used a different ISO setting and I think it was the wrong choice. I did get a couple of fairly nice ones.

A very nice example of a Sage Grouse struttin’ his stuff. The hunt is getting closer.

SageGrouseHoDaddy, originally uploaded by Steven Ford /snowbasinbumps.

I had a couple of hours to kill in Bountiful tonight, so I loaded Spooner up and we hit the pond. He is getting really good at his water entries. Some extreme air time. We had a great time.

I snapped this picture in the yard this afternoon. The California Quail, or Valley Quail as it is also known.

Today I had the great opportunity came up to help with Sage Grouse Counts. What a great time all in the name of research. These counts are done in areas not currently opened to Sage Grouse Hunting within the state of Utah. Efforts are being made to increase the populations. We were under the direction of a biologist and this was a project being worked on by Utah State University. Hopefully through these efforts, Sage Grouse hunting will be expanded to other areas of our State in the coming years.

My alarm went of at 2:30 this morning. Wow that was early. My adventurous 7 year old daughter Camryn agreed to come along with me. We were loaded up with all three dogs and on the road by 3:30. We made good time and were at the rendezvous point at sunrise.

We were led out to the areas we were to work through. And we got started.

Camryn was a trooper. She walked….

…and walked.

The dogs did great. It was hot. We took lots of breaks and had plenty of water. Any shady spot will do…

The highlight of the day was when we did find some birds. Cooper was out 100 yards running with the wind. He hit scent and spun an instant 180. Locked up solid. It was a beautiful sight to behold. I got about half way to him and the birds flushed wild. Cooper held solid through the flush. And he stayed there till I released him. 7 Sage Grouse. That was our count for the day. I kept holding the camera to get “just a bit closer”. Missed the shot. Still that little bit of great bird work made the whole trip worthwhile.

We traveled through hostile territory on the way out.

It was a lonely ride home.