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estinAtions Maybe one Vear I'll spend the entire seasonthe uag my
predncassorsdid; bird-hunting for months on end u:ith puopln I dneplycare about inthelnndthat timeforgot.
eorge Bird Evans once said, "I want there to be woodcock forever flying over in October, and solitude, and Hunter's Moons. But most of all I always want there to be grouse-of all wild thlngs the wildestin these endless mountains we call home." I do, too, and that's why I start my grouse and woodcock seasonin New Brunswick, Canada. My journey, which is no different from any other hunter's, is an endless search for wilderness. Ours is a quest for remote areas filled with far more game than people. It's a place so pristine and pure that when we find it. we will call it home. We will treat it with honor, respect, and dignity, and we will explore it with the same passion and joy that we did when we were hds. During that odyssey, we may sometimes feel like Don Quixote jousting windmills, a feeling I knowverywell. My pursuit for new bird coverts has become increasingly difficult, but unlike Quixote, the giants I face, those ofurban erpansion and hunter unfriendliness, are real. Over the past few decades I have lost more bird coverts to sub-developments and shopping malls than I care to count, and every season I do what everyone before me has done: I look for more. A long while ago I was sb..rnied. Bag limits in my New England coverts dropped from ffve woodcock per day to three. Grouse were on a down cycle, and with good dog-work and shalp shooting, a dayt hunt could conceivably end in the ffrst covert. That happened once when we found 17 woodcock in the Gold Mine. where we limlted out by 8:30 a.m. The
half-dozen grouse starts over the next sevenhours spreadacrosseight dogswas weak,and my pot boiled over. Momma didnt raise no quitters; no whiners here. So my quest for Grouse Valhalla and Woodcock Niwana in areas wild andremoteled me acrossinternational lines.Anlthing donein moderationshowsa lackof interest,me thinks,andsoI pushed north to New Brunswick. the land of a 75-daywoodcockseasonand an eight-blrd daily limit and an equally long grouse season with a six-birdlimit. An extendedseasonand elevateddaily bag soundsexcessive,right? Appearance is not realiry for the truth is that proper habitat begets excellent hunting. The New Brunswick wood product industry that supplies us.with everything from paperto lumber to finishedfurniture is as vigorousas ever,alsosupplyingus with a seeminglyendlesssupply of select and clearcut foreststhat provide grouseand woodcock with optimal primary and secondarygrou,"th.So it was then that I packedmy bagsfor areasunknown. The credit for this brilliant idea was neither mine nor was it unique. For well over a century generationsof sportsmen from the East Coast focked to the province for months on end. In an era when Teddy Rooseveltexploredthe world in searchof big game,Easternsportsmen from Philadelphia,New York, Providence, and Boston left the states for New Brunswick. A series of trains shutded them to New Brunswick'scaoitol citv of Frederictonand from the.e a buckboard wagonbumped them down the dirt roads until they finally arrived in camp. Journeysas arduousas theirs meant
SPORIING
CTASSICS
that these sportsmen didn't return home anytime soon. No, they hunted for a mixed bag of moose, deer, and bear, puddle and diver ducks, geese, ruffed grouse, and woodcock. A strong run of fall salmon was the icing on a cake they could have and eat, too. Provincial law requires visitors to hire a guide, and over the years I've sampled quite a few. I now hang my hat at Debbie and Dale Norton's Upper Oxbow Mention Debbie's maiden name of Blackmore in
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the uror.'ince and folks nod their hetlcl. Theii appror.ing silence references her farnilvs distinguished outfitting linetrge turcltirelessconsen'ntiorreflbrts to rtrotect l r e l l l e l o re d A t l i r r r t i sc i r h r r o r r . The Nortons' cilml) is traditior-rtil ir-r e\/er)' \\/rl),,froD'r tl're iptimistic chatter arourd the breakf:lst trrble to the tales at clav'sencl of victory ancl clef'eataround the firenit over cockt:rils. I lling lnlr o\\nt dogs,settersrrt tliirt, and hurit rvith Brett Silliker. Like Debbie.
Brett's fi'om a sirlilar linerge of guicles,with Jll/n, hisotd hrker VH 20 gaugein hand, a pleasnnthvist: He's rrdogrran, too, one of the author headsto New Brunswickin the best in the province. When he's not early autumn where, despitethe thick guiding for. salnon, he'.s mnring liis leaves,he enjoysgood successfor both Br"itttrrrysto find nerv coverts, sol-rething grouseand woodcock.New Brunswickb that is never lacking or vely f.rr arviw woodcock seasonruns 75 days, with a I don't travel to Nerv Brunswick clurilg daily limit of eight birds. t l t e p r i r r t e - t i r t tw e e e k so f r r r i r l - O c . t o l r.e.r ' . yet. I will at some point, rtnclthere I'll likely find sttrrts on n.rigratory rvoodcock of 60-80 per d.ry iurcl grouse sttrts upwerrdsof 20. For norv, I g<l the neek
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