Surprisingly, today, I was back at it.

Was thinking not, being it was windy with rain in the forecast. But child duty was staring me in the face for Friday and the weekend; there would be no other time this week. I had to hit the timberdoodle woods Thursday.

I was just dying to see how my rookie pointer would do.

Well, he did fair. There were some good points. Young Hank stuck fairly close in the thick scrub brush and timber. I was expecting him to be rangy and bust way out in front of me. None of that happened. And I consider that the hard stuff to correct.

One of his weaker flaws was not being able to find the game even though I could tell his nose was onto something. He did get excitable at the wafting scent. I never saw him go on point at any time.

However, I am not discouraged. I know that stuff is natural to him. It's just a matter of getting it to click inside his head. More work is ahead. The way I plan to tackle this is with a scented dummy and bird wings hidden around the yard.

I must confess I've never trained a pointer, so I most likely will be refering to outside sources for help. But learning new things is always good.

And while Hank received a fair grade, I give the shooter a poor grade. Nobody is tougher on me than me. Let the ass-kicking session begin. How I missed three easy shots ... I can't even put it into words. Just ... aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Now that I'm thinking about it, those three birds I shot at, were all flushed by yours truly. So that's another badaboy for Hank. He'll learn. He's young. But the shooter ...

And to add insult to my flailing attempts, Henry the springer, was waiting at his pen when I pulled into the driveway back home. It was as if his eyes were saying, "You coulda used me today, boss."

No doubt about it. I'm not so sure the last shot I had was a miss. I searched the tall grass and briars for some time. Had the veteran walked point today, I would have felt more comfortable moving on to the next patch of cover.

Henry was awesome last year at finding downed woodcock on the forest floor. That is, when you could get him to stop long enough for a look. Found five of six birds that were shot over him.

So the early bird season has been a skunk thus far.