© 2012 Aaron Atkinson

Fencepost Pheasant

A bird hunter’s mantra is simple, always trust your bird dog.

Now in the midst of her fourth season Indie has had nearly 500 birds shot over her. It’s safe to say she knows the game. But every now and then when we’re not finding any birds, she tends to get a little bored and just for fun she’ll point the occasional sparrow, blackbird or meadowlark.

Last weekend I was forty yards from the fence on the edge of the grassy field we were hunting when Indie slid to a point 10 feet from a fencepost. My heart leaped and I started to move swiftly towards her until I saw a meadowlark perched atop the fencepost in front of Indie. I slowly wandered towards her, not taking much stock in this particular point.

Then the meadowlark twittered away.

I expected Indie to resume her search for pheasants, but her point held solid. I quickly covered the last 20 yards and at the base of the meadowlark fencepost a cackling rooster burst into flight and shortly thereafter folded at the blast.

As I praised Indie for remaining staunch for nearly three minutes as I doubted her find, she briefly met my gaze with her big amber eyes.

I’m sure she was thinking, “I told you so.”

2 Comments

  1. Posted January 7, 2012 at 5:10 am | #

    what was on the other side of the fence ?

  2. Aaron Atkinson
    Posted January 8, 2012 at 3:03 pm | #

    Before I shot, a pastured field. Afterwards, a dead pheasant.

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