Monday, September 14, 2009

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                                    Test 1 and 2

The earliest disturbance at Headquarters was 5 am as Game Stewards, Tom Hawley and Ron LaDuke began to load up the birds. As the Campground awoke in the darkness, the constellation of Orion, the Hunter was prominent in the south. Nearby was the quarter moon and Venus, the morning star. For only one dog would the stars and moon be lined up correctly all week as we started day one. The caravan was ready to leave at 6:45am. It took a scenic back route for 30 minutes, passing by a flock of field-feeding Canada Geese a grazing white-tailed deer and a couple of dozen Turkeys. A sunny morning with a few scattered high cirrus clouds and temperature around 50 promised a good start.

Upon arrival at the first site, on the McCann family farm, everything was set up ready to go. The Honorary test dog was NFTCH NAFTCH FC AFC Prairiemarsh Madness (Tule) owned by Fiona and me shown after his retrieve with me to the left. Soon after, Jim Green ran the male test dog, FTCH AFTCH She:kon Kawera Hon:sti and Gerry Burmaster ran the female test dog, Graces Divine Detiny. Both "Hon:sti" and "Diva" did fine and the judges declared a go!

The test was a combined 1st and 2nd Series in a cut wheat field with stubble about 6-8" high. Triple land marks were run first followed by a Land Blind. The first bird, a drake duck was thrown to the left at 196 yards from the left pair of gunner. The middle bird at 175 yards was next, a hen duck also thrown left between two round hay bales.. The 3rd bird, a hen duck, at 90 yards was on the left. Between the two left stations but considerably deeper the judges had placed a couple dozen “bigfoot” goose decoys. After running the marks, the land blind was on the right at 215 yards and was a hen pheasant. Dog number 4, Miss T, run by Pete Plourde started at 8:12. The test is taking about 6+ minutes per dog which should get us finished shortly after 6pm. We’re having bird changes after every 15 dogs. Dogs are doing quite well on the marks although some hunt both sides and a few have started their hunts on the backside. The wind is a light cross-wind and pushing the dogs a bit but they soon smell the birds. The blind is being done by a lot of dogs in 3-5 whistles. I saw one line it so far but also several that had multiple whistles and struggled enroute. If the wind or lighting changes, the test could change and I’ll give you an update. Stay tuned, we’re off and running.

The Triple Land Marks

The Land Blind to the right of marks at station 1 and 2

2:00 pm and things are moving along quickly. There have been 3 bird changes already and it is now expected we will get done well before 5:00pm. The test has remained quite similar although the wind has picked up a bit to perhaps 15mph. We’ve had some very good work on the marks but it’s still easy to get backside of one. There has been only 1 handle on the marks so far. The blind is causing more problems for some dogs. Many start off to the right and then have dig back casts with the wind when handled. Others are flaring left, tighter to the guns and these require an early whistle. Overall, I think most people are just satisfied to get the first day under their belt. I expect my next report won’t be until we get Callbacks which should be early this evening.

Diagram by Fiona of the 1st and 2nd Series

The front row of the gallery

Starting to get quite hot now- over 80 degrees-wishing they had put up the tents!

Update on test finale. Right near the end we had 2 no-birds with Dog’s 74 and 1. However, we were still finished by 4:20pm. Unfortunately one of the last dogs, No. 3 picked up on the Land Blind.

Thanks to our Volunteer Gunners, Throwers and Blind Planters gently coerced into duty today by our Gun Captain, Jacquie Pepper. Today we had Al Moroz, Medie Robinson, Randy Seip, Pierre Mathieu, John Chevalier, Marg Murray, Ann Steer, Tony Schiller, Shirley Greener, Jane Thompson, Bill Kennedy, Gerry Burmaster, Greg McGinnis, Ron Malton, Glynn Matthews, Ron LaDuke, Jim Ling, Tom Hawley, Bill Cumming, Chris LaCros, Peter Martin, John Mairs and Carl Clarke.

Also today our thanks to the very experienced team of Orley Hamilton and Ron Craig, our Assistant Marshalls.

CALLBACKS just in! All dogs that picked up the birds are back! Unfortunately No. 3 lost.
posted by Canadian National Blog Team @ 10:53 AM