The pheasant opener ....

[Birddogs]

Well we were pretty revved up for the opener , to see how the Supreme Gundog was going to do now that he is two ....

We encountered an elderly gentleman who told us he lost his dog ..
We said we would keep an eye out , anyway 5 hrs later they found the dog
dead , suspected rattler bite ....
We spent several hour looking for the dog ,so the day was a bit of a bummer ...

Griphen Le Griffon did pretty good , the tailless one was a good
1/2 mile chase down and retrieve ...I could see the bird was not being co-operative and getting quite a workover on the way back...

Snakes ....Yuk... makes burrs seem irrelevant ....BD

Tried to post a pic , says JPG file to big how do you get around that ... Thanks

[Birddogs]

I figured it out I hope ....

[Junior]

Nice Pics and thanks for sharing. I never knew that snakes would still be a problem at this time of the year? I thought come October there would be less chance of seeing them? Does Alberta have alot of rattlesnakes? Sorry to hear about the guys dog.

[Spear]

Rattle snakes in Alberta? Really? So I did a search and this came up. I was surprised.

In Alberta, Prairie Rattlesnake populations reach the northern limits of their range. Records prior to 1978 suggest that the distribution of Prairie Rattlesnakes was formerly greater than is seen currently. These historical records indicate that the range may have extended along the Red Deer River to Trochu, and along the Bow River almost to Calgary. However, the current distribution of the Prairie Rattlesnake in Alberta is restricted to the southeastern comer of the province, and does not appear to have changed appreciably since Prairie Rattlesnake distribution was studied in 1977.

In general, the distribution of Prairie Rattlesnakes appears to be closely associated with major rivers. The majority of records from Alberta occur along the South Saskatchewan River drainage (including the South Saskatchewan, Red Deer, Bow, and Oldman Rivers) and the Missouri River drainage which includes the Milk River. Away from the river valleys, the relative abundance of the Prairie Rattlesnake decreases.