Even if you’re not a hunter, you know that “skunked,” as in many other pursuits from cribbage to baseball, means you didn’t score. Birds one, hunter zero.
And while we often console ourselves with the cliché, “it’s not about shooting birds,” blah, blah, blah, it really is about shooting birds. Or is it?
A birdless trip opens your eyes to the rest of the outdoor world, from the merganser brood bobbing past, to the subtle whiff of pastel green as you brush against a sagebrush. You may sulk for a while, putter in your vest, but soon you actually do find better things to think about.
Like the play of sunlight on moving water. Blue sky contrasted with snowcapped peaks. The earnestness with which your dog performs his age-old job. How about the fact that you can visit such places, stand on a rocky mountain top and marvel at a three-state view?
Or something simpler, like spotting a Bohemian Waxwing for the first time, and knowing there are still places and things awaiting your discovery. Come to think about it, who needs a shotgun?
I’ll bet last time you were skunked, you got something memorable out of the trip. What was it?
Scott Linden Outdoors 
Just being out in quail habitat with my dogs is a great time. If we find birds in that covert, great, if we don’t we’re still having a great time !! Yes we get skunked a few times a year……or did we?!?
If my dogs are out in front of me it doesn’t matter. Birds no birds clean or mud up to their eyeballs snow rain or a beautiful day……….. If we are out in the field together nothing else matters it’s a great day.
Oh yeah … as I know from (our) personal experience – together! Happy new year Tom.
sadly we have been “skunked” many times. but we always say we had a great time anyway. If you stop to think about all of reasons that you hunt, then every trip should be a win.
You got that right!
As you get older these feelings come more and more often. The words “oh my god what beauty” are frequently used. The satisfaction of hunting with your precious dog. Training my 10 month old chocolate Lab after losing my 11 year old last year. The smells. But it is nice to get a bird once in a while for the dog.Wink Wink.
So true, Brian.