Northeast Kingdom

New England's Northeast Kingdom is a destination worthy a visit for any itinerant, upland bird hunter. A biodiverse ecosystem encompassing over 2000 square miles of primitive wilderness area. The remote location is coupled with rugged topographical features allows this area to remain virtually unspoiled and wholly intact. Furthermore, the unique ecological diversity coupled with comprehensive, selective timber harvesting provides exceptionally healthy diverse habitat, sustaining a seemingly endless myriad of our quarries most desirable flora, in short, a seemingly endless amount of  early-successional habitat suitable to accommodate exceedingly large populations of both Ruffed Grouse and the American Woodcock. The combined effort and best-management practices has resulted in some of the finest Upland bird habitat anywhere in the world.

 

Red phase...

The air hung heavy, laden with moisture. As was the leaf-litter covering the forest floor. Fine scenting conditions for any young grouse dog.. Historically, flush rates have remained stable in this piece for a long time. Red phase birds dominate this covert, a genotypic variation of the area in general.

January Grousin'

Whistled up the pup, grabbed the snowshoes and hit a couple covers out of desperation this morning. It is always tough to watch the season slip away.

 
Moved a pair of birds out of this corner...roosting in the spruce as always. Can't they just bust across the open field one time? A nice day afield

Salmo salar

Really dig swinging streamers for Landlocks in November.  

My wonderful friend Alex from Argentina, aka "The worlds most interesting man" When in Rome they do as he does. Stay thirsty my friends...

Mixed Bag

Old, familiar, fallow farm pasture. Birds were a touch jumpy today. Moved half a dozen, most were runners. Cedar pinned Ruff' x2, affording a young lad the luxury of an education. I dinged one that  glided into a spruce blowdown, burying itself. "Hunt dead", he worked the area determinately for several minutes, popped out of the snag and dropped Ruff near my feet. 

Woodcock numbers were heavy today. Found them in a finger that meanders down a sidehill, sprinkled with young spruce, Poplar and Grey Birch, leading to a small, Alder studded creek bed with a couple old, scraggly Apple trees.

Woodcock Opener

Was able to take advantage of a rainy, damp and foggy woodcock opener today. Cedar and I were fortunate to find my favorite Longbill cover at full capacity, with flight birds this morning. He was electric in the tag alder, handling the big-eyes like a gentleman. He also set up ol ruff perfect for me only to miss him with both barrels, I've shot 7 rounds at that cock bird in the past three seasons, next time I will let him fly, he has earned it.

Sunday Float

He is connectedh wildnerrness is a transparency clearer than truth.

Early spring finds the woodsman back in his country. his heart laden with gratitude, soul nourished by immeasurable reverence, likely a product of his rich, ancestral ties to this piece of primitive wilderness his people have worked through generations. Realizing early on, their efforts to tame the landscape were in vain. The only proven way to coexist within the harsh landscape was a symbiotic relationship, one of slightly skewed proportion. The woodsman learned early that giving back more to the woods than was taken was paramount to the regenerative cycle of his world. Through endless, keen observation, patterns emerged, further deepening his understanding and reliance upon the rythyms hallmark to the natural world. 

  .  of Habitual in spirt, akin to the creatures inhabiting his wilderness. Each, freshly extracted from the wrath of a Great Lakes Winter. 

His initial saunter is not one of aimless wandering. This is purposeful, instinct-driven business. one Laden with sheer will and dogged determination. The snow on his northern exposed hillsides has mostly turned to water, freshening up the spate creek bed that meanders slowly through bottom, lined with apple trees, sprinkled with young Spruce and Alder, interspersed with thick, seemingly ancient wild grapevines, reaching skyward to the canopy.   and   and crags wind gently swings in from the southpreparatory ritual ensues, for the hardscrabble farmer inherently knows, preparations for the gales of November have already begun. This reliance upon cyclical, natural forces, of relative cadence conspire, initiating hallmark events, spurring the woodsman into action.

Hardscrabble travelers first loop with be the borders of his pastures, some fallow, some fertile. Regardless, the woodsman is thorough and works tirelessly, ensuring any and all fences compromised over the ruthless winter are made contiguous, once again.

 wilderness greets the steward communicating directly with his senses, namely through olfactory hues, as old as time itself. Upon arrival, A vast catalog, painstakingly procured, categorized and compartmentalized, a process initiated the moment his being was thrust through the veil and into existence.

 As the first drip of snow transforms into water and rolls down the northerly exposed hillside a foot flushed woodcock rockets from the alder tangle and corkscrews its way back up the hillside, banking hard to the left, as it lights in low, landing in a stand of Hawthorn. 

 have already been long underway.

merged where gratitude prevails.  

emerge 

The relationship with wilderness is reverence. 

A perpetual gift bestowed upon himself, and his pof eople as they 

The damp forest floor was blanketed in Club Moss, covered with the remenents of Autumn decidious leaf-litter consisting of Grey and white birch, Beach, Poplar and Crab Apple leaves, all in a state of decay and doing a fine job feeding the land.   Bir with  rises up on a thermal over the rivers surface, the ancient fragrance strikes a primitive cord in the adventurer. Pausing briefly in reflection, the woodsman realization overcome with emotionausing briefly, he reflecting 

 senses that were shaped by decades in forest. An

intoxicating, primitive stimuli, ancient in origin with dignified an d admirable purpose. Striking the primitive cord of man, symbolizes rebirth and