Quail Maybe Not So Hot The Oklahoma pheasant season opens tomorrow, Dec. 1, and runs through the end of January. Good news for Okies because the forecast is good. (Incidentally, the OK regs say that “legal means of taking” ditch chickens include “shotgun (conventional or muzzleloading), archery equipment, legal raptors, hand-propelled missile, slingshot…” so get […]
A SeriousBirdHunting.com reader named Chris emailed us after our Maine hunt reports were published with a question about woodcock: “How do you guys get the woodcock to flush by walking them up? I’ve never walked one up, actually did not think much of it without the use of a dog. Would be interested to know […]
by One of our buddies The electronic collar is one of the greatest inventions that anybody who wants to train a dog could ever wish for. But if used improperly, it can ruin a potentially good dog even more quickly than it can aid in eliminating unwanted behaviors. It’s a training tool for reinforcement of […]
Headline sound obvious? Maybe so. Read on. If you regularly track bird-hunting news, like we do, you unfortunately see regular accounts of hunting injuries, including a few fatalities. Driving a car is still far more dangerous than taking a shotgun afield, but that doesn’t make the stories about hunting accidents feel any better. One that’s […]
DNH. Did Not Hunt. Never thought it would happen, never had happened before no matter what the conditions. But on day 6 in Minnesota we were SOL. A record low-pressure storm – basically a land hurricane – sat on top of a huge chunk of the United States, including Minnesota. Wind, rain, snow, more wind […]
We knew some bad weather was heading our way later in the week, so our plan for day 4 was to get the most out of it – meaning hunt the areas where we’d found the most birds. That area was about an hour away, but after a disappointing day 3, we were all for […]
Even though the weather forecast was a little inhospitable, we had our hopes up for day 3. We’d found some birds, decent numbers, and thought we’d patterned them: We were looking for aspens or alders near aspens – all the right size, of course – with enough moisture in the ground to provide greenery for […]
Morning came late on day two, which gave us ample time to get our gear together and head on over to Reeds Outfitters just to see what kind of interesting stuff they had – like musky-sized in-line spinners that cost $20-30 apiece! We were amazed
After a somewhat disappointing launch of our ruffed grouse season in Maine, we were really looking forward to hitting Minnesota just right: the leaves down, the locals focused more on deer than birds and, not least, being in aspen central.
Neither one of us understands France much. So it’s no surprise that we don’t really understand this French version of bird “hunting” which allegedly goes something like this: The ortolan (a songbird) is captured in a trap (using a live bird as a decoy – that’s the “hunting” part), then “fattened in darkness for one […]
Still No Apology? Here are the rest of the details from the recent The Washington Post article about the world’s most famous bird-shooting accident: > No one in the vice president’s entourage said a word about it publicly until the next morning, when Katharine Armstrong, the daughter of the ranch’s owner, spoke with a reporter […]
Part 1 The most famous accident in bird hunting was, of course, when our former VP Dick Cheney blasted an alleged friend of his while quail hunting in Texas, nearly killing the gentleman in the process. Just how serious was the accident? What details abour it are coming out now? And did Cheney ever apologize? […]
by A buddy of ours There’s one critical concept to remember as you prepare to take a young pointing dog afield for its first season: Those first few hunts are for the dog, not you. Over the past 150 years or so, many great dogs have been developed through exposure to only wild birds. That’s […]
Biologists at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department say they are “cautiously optimistic” about quail prospects this season, which opened Oct. 30 statewide. But if you read below, looks like quail numbers are going to be down, though up from last year. As we’ve said before, it DOESN’T MATTER. You’re Serious, so get out and […]
Check Out This Video We were surprised to read about how many “hit by a pellet” incidents there were in the opening week of pheasant hunting in North Dakota. Not a ton, but any more than zero is disturbing. With a lot of hunters in public hunting areas – particularly when it’s the first time […]
MN, MI, WA, Resolutions, Prison Birds Pheasants are running for cover – okay, some are flying – all over the U.S. right about now, and here’s a roundup of some of what’s going on. Minnesota’s Brush Birds As we’ve said here before, Bob St. Pierre, Pheasants Forever’s marketing honcho, is a good writer and funny […]
CA Chukar On Fire Too Quail (and chukar) are looking “fantastic” in California, according to several reports, and California also is a standout in Quail Forever’s 2010 quail forecast. A few highlights on California from this newspaper column:
Off to MN! Here’s a partial list of what we learned hunting the opening week of the Maine grouse season – partial because we’re sure we’re forgetting something.
Conditions, $1 Mil Bird, Exotic Dancing, Trivia Oddly, there haven’t been many reports about early-season hunting in the pheasant capital of the world, maybe because early conditions aren’t ideal. But Google and ye shall find. Let’s start with the conditions, from The Daily Republic:
Our last day hunting Maine this year, and the weather forecast was for a sunny, cool day. Great…except for the 16 mph winds. And for once, the weatherman was right.
Just read this article on hunting ruffies in MN this year. So much of it, while well-intentioned, is wrong. Here goes: > The good news is, counts were up 34 percent this spring in parts of northern Minnesota. Counts remained stable in southern Minnesota. This COULD mean that there’s more easy birds (young ones) early […]
Lessons from 2012 Maine-NH Hunt
Don’t know if we’ve fully recovered yet from our not-quite-a-week of hunting Maine and New Hampshire for ruffies and woodies. We all actually bailed 2 days early, having put in 5 consecutive days instead of our usual 7. Felt like wimps about it, but hey, we were BEAT…from 5 days of the most brutal hunting […]
No Grouse Comeback in SW Penn?
Sounds like ruffed grouse will never be as much a part of the landscape of southern Pennsylvania as they once will. “Never” sounds ominous. Permanent. But that’s the conclusion of an article by Bob Frye in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Why should you care if you don’t live or hunt in PA? Reasons: > Pennsylvania is […]
Hey: All Ruffies Drum Differently!
Did you know that? Not until now…. This info won’t help us hunting, but it’s interesting – and makes sense. Here’s more, from newscientist.com: Male ruffed grouse are the first animals known to make unique non-vocal sounds. Humans and many other animals, particularly birds, can be identified by their voices. But no one had looked […]
Ran across this quote from an article about Iowa’s pheasant count: > “I haven’t even gone pheasant hunting the last couple of years because the birds just weren’t there,†said Tim Wolf, a 61-year-old bank president who lives in Waukee. YES THEY WERE! They most definitely were there. Maybe not like this… > “But I’ve […]
Top 10 Reasons To Go to Phez Fest
Pheasants/Quail Forever’s Pheasant Fest/Quail Classic is coming up soon at KC, MO (see info in right column), and just in case you’re thinking it’s too far or whatever, here are the Top 10 – really just 10 of many – reasons to go. We’re doing it Letterman-style, 10 to 1. 10. What else are you […]
Across the Pond Bird Follies, Vids
Ah the UK, the land that gave the world 17 pieces of silverware on the table, animal rights and other questionable stuff. Okay, it wasn’t all bad – that’s where our bird hunting came from too. But it’s different here…or there, depending on your perspective. Here’s some recent bird news plus some interesting vids. Katie […]
Do Congress, Tea Party Hate Pheasants?
We make it a point to try not to get suckered by political hoo-ha, so that’s not what this is about. We ran across a blog post on the Discovery-owned treehugger.com titled “Why Does Congress Hate Pheasants?” and a related one, “Do Tea Party, Heritage Foundation Oppose Hunting?” Interesting stuff, written by the same gent, […]
Quail, the most beleaguered of our beloved gamebirds, is getting a helping hand in Kansas. Or rather, a bigger helping hand. The state just announced that it’s “launching a new quail restoration initiative aimed at making a difference in declining bobwhite quail populations at a landscape level.” Here’s more: > Includes the designation of two […]
Worms and Birds: What Else Don’t We Know?
Believe we’ve talked about this at least once, but a recent Wall Street Journal article on the plight of Texas quail got us thinking about it again. Here’s the applicable stuff: …Rolling Hills Quail Research Ranch, a 4,700-acre spread an hour west of Abilene. Last month, researchers there found that the levels of parasitic worms […]
Top 10 Reasons To Go to Phez Fest
Pheasants/Quail Forever’s Pheasant Fest/Quail Classic is coming up soon at KC, MO (see info in right column), and just in case you’re thinking it’s too far or whatever, here are the Top 10 – really just 10 of many – reasons to go. We’re doing it Letterman-style, 10 to 1. 10. What else are you […]
Lone Star Outdoor news recently carried an article on a speech given by Dr. Dale Rollins of the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch near Rotan, Texas. Seems that a major threat to quail, at least in the Lone Star state, may be an eyeball worm. News to us! Highlights: > Especially mysterious were the continued […]
