The cool weather lasted for a few more days so I went prairie chicken hunting again. I met Don and Linda Hansen near where we were going to hunt. Most of this area is large pastures without many row crops. The first one we hunted was a full section of land, 640 acres. It had been cross fenced and it looked like the rancher had pastured this area then moved his cattle to another area of this section. I don’t like to hunt close to cattle mainly because I’m sure the farmer will not like it. If we upset them they may pull their land out of the walk-in program.
Mann on point with Goofy honoring.
Sally on point.
My 20 gauge side by side.
Don turned two of his pointers, Tigger and Goofy, out with track and train GPS collars. I turned Sally, Abby, Boss and Mann loose with GPS collars and e-collars. As I walked along I noticed that my GPS handheld wasn’t showing any of the collars. I had forgotten to turn them on. Getting old and forgetful makes life interesting. Makes it a lot of other things too.
For some reason I had turned Abby’s GPS on but not the others. I called Sally and Boss to me and turned theirs on. Mann was on a ridge across from me and was really birdy. I could see him well so I let him work that area. He pointed a couple of times but moved on. Tigger and Sally worked that ridge and were birdy, too.
A bird flushed from right in front of me and flew straight away. I couldn’t tell whether it was a hen pheasant or a prairie chicken. I didn’t shoot. Don was over to the side and he said it was a prairie chicken. I have to see chickens from the side to tell the difference. Their tail is more blunt than pheasants.
There were a lot of grasshoppers and I think that, possibly, a covey of chickens had been spread out feeding on them and flushed out ahead of us. With me fooling with the GPS collars, I wasn’t watching as close as usual. This bird was one that didn’t flush with the rest. Maybe.
As we went through the pasture with 6 dogs spread out before us we saw a wind mill and worked toward it to get the dogs cooled down. After watering the dogs we went to the back of this pasture, where it had been cross fenced. Across the fence were cattle so we went on to the east. Mann was on point for a while about 200 yards ahead of us but was moving before we got close.
As we went on to the east Mann came in front at about 75 yards and went on point. The other dogs honored. This is the picture above with Goofy honoring. When we walked in they all started trailing. A little later Sally pointed but when we got to her she started trailing. This may have been the area that Mann had been on point earlier and some birds left before we got there. Prairie chickens don’t hold as well as quail do, most of the time.
The release trap close to the puppies.
Our dogs haven’t been worked much, or any really. We made a circle that took in a couple of ponds to cool the dog off and went back to the truck. We drove to another walk-in property several miles away. As we looked it over we saw a cow heading away from a pond to join some other cows. Thinking she was the last one to leave the pond we turned dogs out.
Don turned Goofy and Ace out and I just turned Boss and Mann loose. Sally and Abby are heavier dogs and wore out quicker than the boys did. With enough running they will get in shape.
As we went toward the lower end of the pond we saw about ten cows in the shade of some small trees. They moved off to the north and we went around them to the south. We went along a ridge just off a small creek. The creek had some pockets of water. When we got to the south edge of this property we crossed the creek and went to the east then turned back to the north.
Another picture of the puppies on their stakes.
As we were moving to the north I saw a small pond and worked the dogs in to cool off. I was a little way ahead of Don and Linda as we left the pond. I saw a calf lying in the grass. I thought it was dead but I couldn’t see any wounds. I kept looking at it then noticed that it’s eyes were blinking. The calf was okay but it’s mom had evidently told it to lie down and not move. I kept the dogs away until Don and Linda could see it. We moved on before we got between the mother cow (that we never saw) and the baby.
We hunted on around until we got back to the truck. We passed the old home place where I took the picture of my side by side leaning against the foundation wall. I went about 200 yards out of my way to take the pictures of the home place. When I see these foundations or just old abandoned homes I always think how exciting it must have been for the original owners to move into a new home and now it’s all or mostly gone. It’s sad.
The morning had been good for the dogs and their owners. When we got back to the truck it was about noon and in the seventies. We loaded our dogs and headed home.
After I released them I let them smell the trap.
I’m still working with the puppies, Gabe and Buck. Yesterday I had them staked out so I put a release trap close to their stakes and released a couple of pigeons by hand. I held the pigeons so their wings could flap to excite the pups. After I released a couple I put a pigeon in the release trap and released another pigeon from my hand right above the trap. They were jumping around and watching the pigeons as they lit near them.
I took a pigeon in my hand and when I got their attention I released a bird from the release trap. They didn’t pay any attention to the trap. They just watched the pigeon fly away. I have hidden pigeons in tip up releases, let them play with lock wing birds when they were just a few weeks old so they are bird crazy. All together I released 8 pigeons from my hand and from the release trap. The Dogtra traps don’t make much noise but they make some. I like to make sure there is nothing to bother the puppies before I start having them point the birds, in the release traps.
The puppies like the loose pigeons.
These pups have been raised with the Master’s Voice gun conditioning CD being played twice a day from the time they were 3 weeks old until 10 weeks old. They have had a lot of people around them, been allowed to run my back yard to gain confidence and lived through some thunderstorms without being traumatized. But I will be this cautious when I introduce them to a gun. It’s easier to go slow and get them used to something than it is to cure a bad fault. I don’t do, “let’s see what this will do to them”.
Next week I will start hiding the release traps in the grass strips and along the edges of the bushes. As soon as I can tell that they smell the bird I will flush it. They should start pointing pretty quick. It’s always fun to see the puppies learn.