I woke up three times before my alarm even went off, and it was set for well before the sun came up – I was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning. Today was the first day of upland bird hunting for me this year.

A few weeks ago, I was on Cape Cod for my niece’s wedding and Jeff and I had a morning free before we had to be at the ceremony. I suggested we visit Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge, which was only about 20 mins away. We left the hotel before 7 and happily avoided the typical traffic one encounters on a Saturday in August on the Cape.