A day with Dickie

Last couple of weeks have been a bit silly work wise, so not much posting. Besides which, if you have nothing to say, why bother saying anything at all? That’s where the pollies fall down I reckon, so much yap, so little content. Anyway stepped off a plane from Sydney some stupid time Thursday morning. Barely seemed to have got to sleep when the alarm was buzzing. Some time in the past couple of days I’d arranged to pay Dickie back for his generous donation of turf from his business Rolawn, for our pheasant rearing pen. Had a chat with Mick, he’d had a good day the previous weekend, having taken his first pheasant limit, nice work! Wasn’t sure what the weather would be doing, so arranged with Craig to get there on Saturday morning gentleman’s hours for a walk. Arranged with Helen to pick up Dickie at an arranged time, and before I knew it, it was Friday evening. I packed up the gear and chucked in all the rain gear as well, as forecasters were predicting steady rain.

Rocked up to Dickie’s a tad earlier than the “6.30 to 7am” that I’d promised Helen, and helped Dickie load his gear into the wagon. He had a few brace of nice birds hanging, as he’d been beating at Matangerahi Station the day earlier. We set off and made good time on the trip down, arriving to find Shanks’s house spick and span, him clean shaven, and the whole deal looking a bit more civilised than usual! The Aussie farm stay girls had certainly stamped their mark on the place! We grabbed the gear, waited for the girls and then headed out. The day was fine and relatively warm, got a bit of a sweat going on the first couple of hills. The first gulley saw a couple of birds get up and way out of gun range and that’s how the hunt progressed. It was one of those days where I couldn’t put any birds in harm’s way. Craig scored first after he and Dickie had missed a chance or two. We walked the release pen bush and Max the dog busted out a good bird, again away from the guns. At least I was seeing a few! We split and covered some good looking ground, but for not much. Down through the cavern tunnel, up and around some nice gulley area, over the top and down to the water wheel where I saw a couple of birds run up the hill. Caught up with Dickie and Craig, Dickie had knocked down a good long bird and was quite chuffed. Told them about the birds that had run uphill and we set up a pincer move. Craig busted a good cock that almost beat him and then Max made a strong downhill retrieve, quite pleasing dog work. Down one gulley a cock bird got off and I fired and folded him, quickly realising that Craig had fired at the same time. Even though we spent 30 minutes looking around some rocky outcrops we just never found him. Lots of hidey holes up there, so we knocked it off and continued on our way. We walked the farm boundary past the old release pen, then crossed the river. By now we’d covered quite a bit of territory – the birds were just not home so we crossed the river to work some relatively new ground, but nothing home. So we wandered back to the car and headed back to the house for a coffee then we hit the road – but not before Max tore the bird I was taking home to bits! (Sorry Craig, had to tell the tale). 2 tired boys arrived at Dickie’s house, and after a coffee I got home in time to make dinner.

Didn’t take the camera along so no piccies - sorry. Tally from PPPP around 65 birds now, well up on the 45 odd from last year.