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| Once I got the fox on the video, I got bored with him running circles around us, so Rap and I went off for a long ride around to the upwind, highway side of this covert. ( As I mention in the blog, we also just wanted to get away from the hordes of mosquitoes!) |
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| Leaving the meet , as I pulled out onto the highway, I spotted this vixen sitting on her den in a field on the opposite side of the highway from where we hunted. . She had her cubs at her feet. I could see the little black cubs moving around her. This is a cropped version of one of the two photos I took that look like the one below. (It's the best my camera could do) She was probably about 200 yards away! |
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| This is how far away she was! |
... as the mantra goes, "plan your hunt and hunt your plan". Which I did today, with no regrets! Because of the high winds forecast, the guys decided to hunt the County House woods- it is an area that the Ireland family has been hunting for generations, long before the highway that borders its' north side was ever even a paved road. This is their favorite meet when the winds are howling because one can stay on the dirt road that cuts right through the middle of the woods and remain close to the hounds -unless the fox decides to go straight away. (Which he usually won't do when the wind is this bad).
I brought Rap and parked on the west end of the covert, then hacked down the road about 1/2 mile to where Tommy, Bobby and Curtis were to turn out. Surprise!!! A guest from Delaware arrived with 1 1/2 couple. Now I was really glad my hounds were at home!( see earlier posts in archives!)
11 1/2 couple went into the woods at the "crossroads" at 8 am. At 8:10, a short burst of music emmanated from the pines , but faded quickly. A cold trail. At around 8:30, hounds finally got the fox on the move, through the pines and into the "ivories" ( I have no idea why these dense evergreen shrubs are referred to with that moniker). An itchy tailed fox was the quarry, although for a brief time the pack split on a second fox. But when both foxes returned to the pines, hounds converged on just one. This one ran back and forth over the dirt lane several times- so much so that I got bored and decided to run Rap around to the upwind, highway side of the covert with the hope of catching a glimpse of Reynard should he decide to run the edge of the woods that borders a wheat field on that side. I really just wanted to get away from the damn mosquitoes that were driving both Rap and me crazy. That plan worked. No bugs, warm sun, but at 9:55 the wind came up with a vengeance, which meant that I couldn't hear a blessed thing over there. That is, unless the hounds and the fox were right on top of me. That did happen -and I had the camera on, waiting and hoping that I would catch a glimpse of the fox. However, I did not plan on Rap having to take a pee at that particular moment. My normally still -as- a -stone, well-mannered , hunt horse suddenly began fidgeting and dancing around while I was trying to point the camera towards the approaching choir. It was a missed photo opp - not sure if the fox heard Rap's fidgeting or his waterfall ;-)
For the last hour , I played catch-up with the pack- not really trying to get close to them, since it's not possible to ride behind them in the County House unless the fox is gone away. Which, as hoped, didnt happen. (that mantra thing again!). At 11am, I heard via my radio that the hounds would be picked up the next time the fox crossed over the road. (With the increased wind, every time the fox went into the south side of the woods, no one could hear the pack) I had decided to go exploring to find a way across the swampy branch on this south side and had succeeded in finding my way into Douggie Gray's back field. (Something I would NOT attempt on Mel- he would have sunk right in up to his belly, like he did a few weeks ago someplace else!) I was now on the downwind side of the covert, and could hear the pack well even though they were on the other side of the road that cuts through it. I heard the tally-ho, and the subsequent hollering as they loaded the hounds. By the time I crossed back over the branch and arrived back at the crossroads, the guys had just finished sorting the hounds.
When I hacked out of the woods and into the open near my horse trailer, the wind was gusting over 40 mph . This hunt could have gone so, so bad if that fox had decided to run with the wind and leave the County House....that didnt happen today . Still glad I left my bitches home, though.
No hunting on Tuesday oe Wednesday this week, but a hunt with all the puppies and the regular pack together, this Thursday!! A "graduation" of sorts, for the "R" pups!!
Some video of our pilot and the hound music from the hunt:
You Tube asked me if I wanted them to fix my shakey video -now all the subtitles are flying all over the place,! I wont do that again,lol!
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