The first day of our Amateur Wild Bird Classic is in the book. Tomorrow we have 2 braces left to run, plus the juvenile stakes. I got to admit, under the brutal weather conditions of snow, ice, wind, & very cold, I'm amazed how the trialers preservered & the dogs continued for their whole hour.
By my rough count (stressing mine & not the judges), we had about 6 clean dogs We had no Grouse finds, but we were very fortunate with good numbers of Woodcock. Hopefully tomorrow, with 2 braces left, we'll experience the same. There were a few of the "bird too many" situations. And, there were some great command performances. Here's the break down, by brace, of birds, pointed, bumped, seen, crashed on, or walked up on courses.
Brace 1, 5 WC (3 on 1 point) brace 2, 2 WC brace 3, 5 WC brace 4, 3 WC brace 5, 7 WC (word around was the locals thought a war was going on for this brace) brace 6, 3 WC