I flushed 4 birds and brought 2 to bag. A big healthy female and a smaller male, probably a first year bird. All in all a great day, certainly better than being at work. I'm hearing that the migration is more concentrated west this year in PA due to the conditions, but still off. Other reports are saying there are birds still up north where in years past they would have moved out from already. A site online that tracks banded woodcock shows only a few females have left Nova Scotia for Maine, but so far none of the birds they track has come down the coast. This is only a small sample, but in years past it has at least shown when the birds left the tagging areas en masse. It looks like we are going to have a late migration this year, if it materializes in my area I hunt in any good numbers remains to be seen.
My fingers are crossed for deep freezing weather up north and some wet weather with strong steady winds from the north east to get the birds moving.
Of course Reynard got the nod and I chose the 30 inch barrels that have tighter chokes than the 28 inch barrels but tried to offset the potential handicap by using 7/8th ounce RST spreader 8's. All in all it was a beautiful day and now I'm home and showered about to sit down to some enchiladas and get ready to watch the Eagles game. Life is good.
