Roman Candle

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Wondering if anyone on here saw or heard what happened out at Scatter Creek Sunday morning (don't worry, nobody was hurt....heck, hardly even any birds were hurt!)

I had my Brittany out along with my GF and her daughter. Beautiful birthday weekend to get the dog and girls out for a little Wet Side phez hunting. We were hunting the North side, entering about halfway between the big, gravel lot on South side and the dirt lot on the North end. Any how, we were all lined up, dog hunting well and responding well to me (I really reign him in during the first hour hunts so he doesn't get so far out to mess with other folks "hunting lanes")
Well we're nearly to the 2track road that cuts the length of the property and I remark that I'm shocked not to hear any shooting yet. Made me start to wonder if maybe they didn't release any birds.
It felt like just seconds after thinking that that I see a rooster flying straight up about 70 yards in front of me and just on the edge of the 2 track road. My first thought was Cutter, (yup that's his name) had bumped the bird, but immediately after that birds started erupting from that exact spot. I also realized Cutter was locked up and holding while all these birds were taking off in a kind of half circle around him. Must have be 20+ birds alltogether. When I realized he was holding I took one hail mary shot on a bird that flew about 60 yards out, no feathers on that one. 
The guy next to us was declaring that he'd never seen anything like it. Maybe 6-7 bunched up, but never that many..........

Got me to wondering just what the heck happened when they released them. My first thought was somebody must have been really lazy and just dumped em all out in that one spot..........But I hate to jump to such critical/negative thinking..........maybe the crate fell off and all the birds were accidentally released, or some other unplanned event............
I thought it a shame to have all those birds concentrated like that.....Whole bunch of them flew right into the trees and hardly anybody got any shooting on those (for me, I only shoot at birds Cutter's pointed and held on. he doesn't get rewarded for bad behavior).

The one really cool thing was that as I move around and past Cutter (who was still locked up even with  puppies and young dogs running around us)
I flushed two more birds and shot one of them. That single point made my day.

Also curious if anyone's seen this sort of thing on the release sites. (I've seen it just a couple of times with wild pheasants late in the season..........but that's another story)

[cbond3318]

You will have to tolerate my ignorance but, what the hell does Roman Candle have to do with this?

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Ever watched a roman candle go off? Typically they're shooting straight up (except for some redneck parties I've been to), and they fire off one at time. The bigger ones seem to go on forever...
This group of birds were like that,................almost all of them launched straight up and they were going up nearly one at a time for what seemed like a full minute.

[cbond3318]

I gotcha , I was kinda thinking that. thanks

[Special T]

a buddy of mine relsease birds for the WDFW. It was a cool experience to see it done. Boxes of birds usually consist of about 15 birds+- MOST places get a acouple of boxes Min. When i went and helped release we let birds out one at a time. you do this because the birds want to gang up and will follow the last bird released and end up in the same spot.. Its possible that some of the birds got out during one relsease. It soulds like an unusual experience. Glad you had a good time hunting!

[Stilly bay]

the roosters will call to each other and the birds will pile up. Holdover birds will move all about the release sites following each other's since it usually means food or a mate.

granted I don't think I have ever seen as many as you described in one spot before, but it happens. Sunday afternoon my dog kicked three out of one spot, which seemed excessive.

[duck1187]

I was to the left of you and saw about half that cluster come our way we shot 3 rooster from it .yes i have seen it before last year towards the end of the season my short hair locked up i went to flush it and had 20 or so pheasants come up all hell broke loose around us. I was in the same spot as yesterday

[Sportfury]

Bracer my son and I were over in the south side (field two) of Scatter Creek and we had a similar experience. Usually there is shooting right out of the gate, especially over by the barn, but on Sunday there was nothing. No shots just confused hunters wandering around. It wasn't until about ten minutes in that shots started to come from the back field. We headed back there and ended up getting up two roosters. I missed the first one (shot behind) because I had to swing through sea of orange (swing - orange, orange, orange, orange, orange, where did the guy go who followed us, okay no one there, long shot, miss) that invaded the back field because that is where the only shooting was going on. I personally think that maybe the guy who normally releases the birds got sick and someone ran out just before 8:00 a.m. and threw the birds out or maybe didn't throw any out in the south side and we were hitting hold overs. Most of the shooting was in the trees and not out in the field.

[Forks]

Most years each field gets 100 birds on sat and sun and 50 on wed, this year not quite as many. Sometimes, in a hurry, the birds get dumped on the go to get both fields planted. It is what it is, release site hunting. Be safe.

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  My intent in the original post was mostly an inquiry of what others have seen out there (and not griping or complaining).
Also gave me opportunity to do a littlee bragging on my dog.
Cool to hear from others (duck1187)who were out there too.
Release site or wild, I'm always happy to be out! Looking forward to trip to WW this weekend!