A Red & White Valentine

An unexpected Valentine's day card, to be sure.

Aki found a way, an online service, to create a hardbound book of the first two years of The Red & White Project blog. The book is over 200 pages and has our training progress and our setbacks, along with the usual miscellania, minutia, and meanderings.

It is my most treasured Valentine.


The Red & White Project - - vol. I.

The dedication.

Remembrances of days afield.

The Acme 210 1/2 Spaniel Whistle

Aki and Lissen with Valentine's Day wishes

Sporting Classics

Sporting Classics is a genuine 5 star publication, but it gets 4 stars on this blog meaning you don't need to subscribe to it unless you really want to (and maybe you should). The reasoning is that Sporting Classics is not squarely aimed at the upland enthusiast, although it does not ignore him or her.

This beautiful magazine features fine writing on all topics afield. It is oriented to gundogs on a seasonal basis, as the 2009 autumn cover shows.

A feathered bird, a feathered dog, and a feathered fern.

At other times, it caters to hunting big game in far-off places, as the January 2011 cover in this entry's headmast shows. One would not be inclined to ask a Welsh Springer Spaniel to flush those Cape Buffalo, even if they were eager to do it.

The recent Hemingway edition (30th anniversary collector's issue),has a beautiful photo essay of a drive shoot in Scotland. The landscape, dogs, birds, and even those breeks are what every rough hunter dreams of, at least on occasion.

The magazine is printed on heavy, bright, glossy stock that makes these pictures almost frameable right from the magazine and makes it a bit of a heft to include on an airplane trip and (maybe unfortunately) difficult to toss away once you've read it.

Sporting Classics often dips into the treasure trove of years past. That Hemingway edition also has a readable and entertaining article by the great upland writer, Nash Buckingham ("Playhouse"). The article is richly illustrated with reproductions of upland scenes in oil.

In articles and in advertisements, Sporting Classics features quite a bit of beautiful game and natural art, including this forlorn bronze quail.

A bronze quail chortles from a fencepost.

An enjoyable feature is called "Passages: Thoughtful words that will live with us forever." It is an outdoor version of "Thoughts and quotes on the business life" that you may enjoy reading in Forbes magazine. Here is a remembrance on the autumn days spent afield with your dog:

The perfection of life with a gun dog, like the perfection of an autumn, is disturbing because you know, even as it begins, that it must end. Time bestows the gift and steals it in the process. George Bird Evans, An Affair with Grouse, 1982.

Ruffled Grouse

Ruffed Grouse, not ruffled grouse.

The ruffed grouse is known as the king of gamebirds. It's about the size of a small chicken and has several different presentations (called "morphs") that are reflected in subtle differences in its coloration. In New England, ruffed grouse are sometimes (or often) called partridge (pa'tridge in Maine), although it is technically not a partridge at all. The bird lives in areas where hardwood is predominant and there is a variety of clear cutting and new growth as well as old growth provided that the canopy is not too dense and there is brush plant below (see e.g., "Habitat Suitability Index Models: Ruffed Grouse," U.S. Dept of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service, Bio Rpt 82(10.86), April 1985). The ruffed grouse is a galiform, like a chicken or a turkey, and like any galiform, it flies as a last resort, making the the use of a dog, especially a flushing dog such as a spaniel, a necessity.

The Ruffed Grouse Society pubishes a quarterly glossy dedicated not only to the grouse, but to the other galiforms. This is an old-school publication devoted to conserving not only this bird, but the heritage of upland gamebird hunting.

There is always a column on dogs and on habitat conservation and restoration. The Winter 2011 issue describes the merits of clear cutting, new growth succession, and its (positive) effects on bio-diversity. The publication has the mandatory, but very welcome, column on gear & gadgets. The Winter 2011 edition has an interesting article explaining woodcock hunting season in North America.
Not only are there beautiful and understated photographs, but the publication will often feature the pen-and-ink or watercolor efforts of a game artist.

This publication earns its 5-star rating.

Upland Almanac

Upland Almanac is another 5-star rated publication.

The UA is a relatively brief (80 pages or so), glossy publication "for the bird hunting enthusiast."

The vet's column, "The Healthy Dog," by Dr. Walt Cottrell usually selects from some interesting cases, sometimes with a twist, and sometimes straight up. Either way, Dr. Cottrell's descriptions of the cures or next steps provide a look into the thinking of a gundog's vet.

The "For the Birds" column might provide a roundup of bird reports or initiatives of conservation clubs.

There are a number of articles on gear and gadgets ("The Tailgate Review"), addressing the neverending quest to keep all of the dog's junk in some sort of order. There's also a feature on someone, some spectacular lodge, or an impossibly tasteful classic upland gun of some sort.

The ads are part of the charm. Try flipping by the ads by Ceasar Guerini or Willoughby McCabe & Co. without pause. Mull on the invitation for a trip to Park Falls Wisconsin some October week. Glance through the book mart and maybe treat yourself to a copy of Ken Roebuck's "Gun-Dog Training Spaniels and Retrievers," if for some reason you do not have it yet.

There's also a recipe column for those quail, chukar, pheasant, grouse, or woodcock that you've managed to bag.

You've heard of slow cooking, right? Well this magazine invites slow reading.

GunDog

Wonder what you should be reading now? One important resource is GunDog magazine. For GunDog, it's all about the dog. The magazine showcases a gundog breed, as well as recurring features on the health and well-being of the dogs and gundog training. The spaniel/retriever articles are written by Jim Spencer, author of Hup: Training Flushing Spaniels the American Way, a well-respected book on spaniel training. Whether you have a spaniel or a pointer, the dog training articles are insightful and provide useful reminders such as reading the dog's mood in order to press him to learn something new and possibly unpleasant (such as the hold command), or easing back to bring back the fun, at a new and better level.

There are seasonal reminders about keeping the dog cool and hydrated and watching for invasive and harmful grasses and seeds (click here if you've never heard of these).

The website for GunDog magazine has some good short training videos. Click here for a short video on steadying your dog.

There are articles on gear, gadgets, and guns.

I rate GunDog magazine 5 stars.

Spaniel inspiration for desk jockeys

While you are working at your desk, someone else is out teaching his spaniel to quarter and retrieve.



Boykin retrieving a quail.
Courtesy: GunDog Magazine



"Different breeds of spaniels have different methods of quartering and flushing game. Generally, Boykin spaniels, cocker and springer spaniels are very bold flushers who will sometimes catch the bird in midair. American water spaniels, Clumber and Sussex spaniels are more methodical and often have a softer flush. Some spaniels actually stalk and circle the birds rather than charge in. Whichever spaniel you choose to own, they are all a joy to hunt with when taught to work close to the gun."

Pam O. Kadlec, Hunting Quail The Spaniel Way, GunDog Magazine, May, 2008.