Got to see for myself #61

Each year when the leaves change from green to either, red orange or yellow, that serves as my cue to put my fishing gear away and bring out the shotgun in anticipation of partridge season. And each year I try to determine how the bird population will be by my frequent summer trips to the North Maine Woods, as well as asking those who spend time in the woods if they were seeing any birds.  Now, I must admit that the past couple of years should remind me that getting Intel on the subject does not always give me the right answer. If TC and my time in the woods this year counts for anything, it should show that I did not see many birds. Couple that with the conversations I have had with other folks in the woods that say the same thing, and you might conclude that the birds did not have a good winter and you could quickly form the opinion that the bird season is going to be a wash. But, if you are a hard core woodsman like me, you need to see it for yourself, and that is exactly what I did.

When October 1 came, I was invited to join twelve other people for a bird outing in the North Maine Woods. Our base camp for the three day excursion was going to be at Chandler Lake Camps. We all met there around noon and broke up in groups of two for an afternoon hunt. Jason and I headed out of the camp and made our way to a couple of old roads that had always served me well, and when we got there, it was clear that the intel I had gotten and the opinion I had formed was grossly incorrect. From one PM to 6 PM, Jason and I saw twenty four birds and got seven. Many were multiples where we saw two groups of four in a flock. When we got back to camp that evening, the stories from the other guys were equally as exciting, with many of them getting their limits. That evening, I sat there wondering what the next day would bring, and was this just a one-time thing.

The next morning, I was joined by Ryan. We traveled a different loop and Ryan had his limit before eleven am. We headed back to camp, primarily because of an equipment malfunction. See, I had just purchased a brand new Stoger over and under 20 gauge that had performed very well the day before, but would not fire on this day. Thank goodness I had brought another shotgun. Well, after lunch at the camp, we headed out again and by three pm, I had my limit. We were seeing birds everywhere. To make matters worse, after we had limited out, we made our way back to camp over another one of my favorite bird roads, and within twenty minutes, we had seen ten more birds.

When the day was over, we took a count, and out of thirteen guys, and over two days, we had seen over two hundred birds and had shot close to one hundred. Yes, the result was far from the Intel I had gathered during the summer. The bottom line is that I had to see for myself what the season was going to be like and it was far different than what I had anticipated. I could not have imagined that there would be so many birds. We also saw young birds that had yet to develop tail feathers, and we were told that there was a definite second hatch.

But, as you might know, what you see one day may not be the same the next, and that held true when TC and I went again on Saturday. Our travels that day took us through the Fish River checkpoint in Portage across to the Reality Road, then over to Jack Mountain and finally to the Pinkham Rd. During that time, we only saw three birds. So, the bottom line is things don’t always remain the same. If you think you have it down, don’t be so sure, because it can change in an instant. Hmm! I wonder what it will be like the next time we go out.

Photos courtesy of Sherilyn Morris