Jack and I were on a mission. We arrived at Pihitia late Sunday afternoon. He asked if he could drive around as we scouted. I told him to drive between the ruts. He drove in them and we were soon stuck. Toby was away so I called Ian next door. He came and pulled us out with the tractor. That will cost a couple of boxes but we were grateful for the rescue.
It was dark by the time we got out so did not have a chance to pick out the calling peacocks as they settled into their roosts. We went to a couple of known spots and picked up a few birds. Jack tripped over a couple of times and I was wondering what was up with him. We went to the deer paddock bush which is now fenced off to keep stock out. It is a beautiful patch of bush and now there will be some native regeneration. That is a win win situation.
I stepped over a narrow but deep creek and jokingly told Jack to be careful. His foot found a hole under a root. He went head first into the chasm wit his leg caught. I was in the hole in a flash to support his weight as I was sure his leg was broken. Turns out it was just his pride as I lifted him out. He was pretty sore so we called it a night after that.
I slept in the old deer shed and Jack slept in the back of the truck. The wind became fierce as I was drifting in and out of sleep. He woke me up and told me to move my truck. There was a large euc branch dangling precariously above the truck. I moved the truck away from any trees and tried to go back to sleep. I got up at 0500 and stalked a calling peacock in his roost. I collect him and the other big peacocks, breasted out the hens and was back to the truck by 0700. Jack was still asleep.
We packed up and went for a drive around. There is nothing like it used to be when we first started culling there but there were still some mobs of birds around with the males in full display.
The real mission was to collect Wendy's new huntaway pup. It was good to get some birds while we were there.
