Category: Pheasants
A recent post on the Pheasants Forever website quotes Steve Smith, head editor of Pointing Dog Journal and Retriever Journal, as saying the following to the question of “if you could have only one” dog: “If your idea of a good time is a German shorthair pointing, relocating, pointing, relocating all the way down a […]
We read recently about two Minnesota Pheasants Forever chapters having a Long Pheasant Feather contest. Entry fee was $40 per two-person team, and prizes were awarded for first, second and third place – of course for the longest tail feather. Love it.
One reason we like the Pheasants Forever guys so much is because they are Serious bird hunters. And in a recent PF column about hunting in snow shoes – we love it! – was the above photo with this caption:
We don’t – probably because we’re mostly grouse hunters…. But seriously – do you keep score? We’re talking dead birds here, not flushes, and then using that bird count as the ultimate value of your experience and your (alleged!) proficiency. We’re asking because of two things. One is that we got a note from a […]
Even if you followed Pheasants Forever’s recent Rooster Road Trip – in which PF staffers hunted only public land – you may have missed this great follow-up video. In it, PF’s Andrew Vavra talks about the reference books/atlases he and his pheasant-busting compadres used for finding the spots they hunted, and where to obtain said […]
Here’s the final part of the interview with Pheasants Forever’s Bob St.Pierre, Anthony Hauck and Andrew Vavra re: their rooster odyssey: driving 2,200 to hunt five states in 6 days (that’s Serious!) – aka the 2010 Rooster Road Trip.
Part 1 Who says you can’t find pheasants on public land? After Pheasants Forever’s recent Rooster Road Trip (RRT), the answer should be “nobody.” In case you missed it, the RRT was PF staffers Bob St.Pierre, Anthony Hauck and Andrew Vavra driving 2,200 miles in 6 days to hunt five states: North and South Dakota, […]
We don’t know how this was made or who the heck made it, but sounds like a hunter – note the Fox reference – except for the “ruffled,” which might have been on purpose to make it funnier. Why hunt every weekend for grouse? And we quote: “Because the ruffled grouse is the king, regardless […]
It’s the apocalypse. That’s the premise behind this “survival” vid published by the UK’s The Guardian newspaper. To quote, “Govt is gone, the water is off, electricity is gone, everyone is dead – well, nearly everyone.”
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 […]
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 […]
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:
Huns and Quail Too, Pheasants Not So Much We’ve been assured by some good folks in the Pacific Northwest – including the ex-HMFIC at G. Loomis – that even with our walk-’em-up ruffed grouse conditioning, we are likely not in “steep up/steep down” chukar shape. Which naturally makes us want to hunt chukars. Bad. Nevada […]
Bobwhites Too Although precious few states do it, they have every incentive to pump us all up for bird season. South Dakota has the birds and the PR machine to do it, and they do. Colorado is trying this year. Oddly, few other states – Pennsylvania and Maine come to mind – do it. Add […]
Brian Lynn at Outdoor Life recently posted an interesting follow-up to Pheasants Forever’s 2010 Pheasant Hunting Forecast, titled Sleeper States: Beyond the Pheasant Forecast. Full post here, some highlights below.
$220mm Train Keeps a-Rollin’ Could South Dakota’s pheasant population really be better than the average pops over the last 10 years? Apparently so, according to a well-written article by John Pollmann for the Sioux Falls, SD Argus Leader – and it seems to have improved partly due to bad weather. Seriously. Before getting into some […]
Pheasants Forever’s state by state (not all states) Pheasant Forecast for 2010 is out. Some of the state info is helpful, some not. Would be great to have it in graph form to see trends. Anyhow, here’s the overview plus the links for each. “Pheasant numbers appear to be holding steady in the Dakotas, Kansas, […]
The following bird forecasts are from Paul Fuller’s Bird Dogs Afield periodic emails (sign up here). A bit of explanation from Paul, and then edited versions of the forecasts: > Our bird forecasts are fresh and typically obtained within the past week [from wildlife biologists and] several folks…that are not biologists but are in the […]
It’s not every state or every species yet, but some info is trickling out. Here’s the skinny on three big bird states.
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 […]
