Finally, we got some cooler weather. After checking the weather on the Weather Channel I chose to go on a bird hunt near Greensburg, Kansas. To get on walk-in property you have to be hunting something. You can’t just run dogs. The prairie chicken season doesn’t extend this far south west so I guess I’m dove hunting.
Betsy pointing a single quail.
Tur Bo pointing a covey of quail.
Luke pointing a covey of quail.
I set my alarm for 3:30 to come down here and woke up 35 minutes before the alarm went off. I guess I was ready for the hunting to start. It was about 10:30 am when we got to the first place to hunt. This place is a pasture that has a lot of plum thickets as well lots of cover. They must have got some timely rains because the cover is very thick.
I turned the girls out first, Dolly, Sally and Betsy. We started into a strong north wind along side of a wheat stubble field. Dolly and Sally were staying in front of me and I was working hard to keep Betsy in, too. She’s not easy but she stayed in front until we had hunted about a half mile in then swung around to go back toward the truck. She kept going north.
The next thing I knew Betsy was over 400 yards from me on point. I started to her and without thinking about it walked away from Sally. Sally is only about 16 months old and isn’t used to finding me. When I got to Betsy she was trailing. Betsy was on my right close to a plum thicket. About 25 yards to my left a covey of quail flushed. They only flew about 50 yards and spread out along another plum thicket. I called Betsy and Dolly in to hunt the singles. Now Sally was over 400 yards away.
As Dolly and Betsy went along the edge of the plum thicket, side by side, they both went on point. I took some pictures then went in front, which is really hard to do in these plum thickets. A single flushed and as it did at least one more flew off.
The dogs went back and forth along this plum thicket. Betsy pointed and Dolly honored. I took more pictures. (Being able to take pictures and not worrying about shooting, is fun.) I started into the plum thicket and a single flushed.
Both dogs were still working the edge of the thicket and both pointed. Maybe one was honoring but I couldn’t decide who had the bird. More pictures then I flushed about 3 singles that were close together.
Sally was getting farther away so we started toward where the GPS showed her being. As I went to her I lost her off the hand held. We got almost to where she had been but she still wasn’t on the hand held.
We were heading toward the truck and as we went along I saw Dolly trailing. I got behind her and after she trailed maybe 50 yards a covey of quail flushed about 20 yards in front of her. We were going with the wind so Dolly didn’t have a good chance but this time of year the birds shouldn’t be running and flushing like this.
I didn’t see the birds all the way to the ground but the others didn’t fly very far. We worked back over near where they had flown. I was standing on a little hill watching the dogs and a quail 15 yards from me flushed. No dogs near it. Dolly pointed and I tried to get Betsy in to honor before I flushed the bird. Just me calling Betsy, the quail flushed in front of Dolly.
Betsy pointed but I was getting worried about Sally. She still wasn’t on the hand held. We went on back to the truck and I put Betsy and Dolly in their box. As I drove down the road the GPS showed Sally 750 yards north of me. I drove around the road but couldn’t get any closer. I went back to the area I had her on the GPS and turned Luke and Tur Bo out.
Tur Bo pointing quail.
She showed up on the GPS after we were in about 300 yards but she was still 400 yards from us. As we started toward her Luke went on point. He was buried in a plum thicket. I tried getting to him by going around the thicket with no luck. I tried bulling my way through the thicket. I started out 35 yards from him and could go no farther when I was 20 feet from him. My threshing through the thicket must have flushed what ever he had. I saw nothing nor heard anything.
Finally, we got within about a hundred yards of Sally and she came to me. She didn’t act like it was a big deal. I was a lot happier to see her than she was me. We went back to the truck. I don’t like my bird hunts to turn into a dog hunt.
I let the dogs rest for about 2 hours while I drove and looked at walk-in properties. About 3:00 pm I turned Luke, Tur Bo and Sally out on a farm that was about a mile by half a mile. It was pasture that hadn’t been grazed down with lots of plum thickets. This farm had a lot of rag weed growing, especially, along the low spots.
We had not walked very far, maybe a 100 yards when the GPS hand held vibrated. It showed Luke on point 92 yards to the north. We had been going east. For Luke 92 yards is like being underfoot. I got to him, took some pictures and waited on Sally and Tur Bo to see Luke and honor. Sally got close and pointed. She didn’t see Luke but there was birds in front of her. Tur Bo saw Sally and honored. As I was taking pictures the quail started flushing from all over the plum thicket. There were birds in front of Luke and in front of Sally. These quail flew to the north and I figured we would get them on the way back. We went on to the east.
Betsy on a single, I think.
I was standing on a hill watching the dogs. There was just a small ditch running toward the north with a few scattered trees growing near it. It was maybe 200 yards long. About the time I thought we should check that Luke started along the ditch. I couldn’t see him all of the time but I was following him on the GPS. He was 170 yards from me when he went on point. Sally and Tur Bo stayed with me as I headed his way. I saw him in some thick cover. The other two dogs were off to my left and Luke was to my right. I got almost to him and the quail started flushing. I was still twenty yards from the closest bird. This was a big covey and they flew to the north east. I thought we’ll get them on the way back.
Luke pointing quail.
We got almost to the back of this place when Tur Bo pointed with Sally backing. I took some pictures but when I walked in front nothing happened. I released both dogs. They took turns pointing and honoring. We must have gone over a hundred yards when finally a covey of quail flushed. I had already decided it was pheasants the way they were running. This covey went to the south.
I decided that we would try to find the singles from the last covey. It was warming up and the south side of the property had more water than the north. We worked the cover along the south edge all the way back. Sally made one point and a hen pheasant flushed about 30 yards in front of her. We hunted back to the truck.
This had been a really good day. We had found 5 coveys of quail and saw more pheasants than I mentioned in this post. Nearly all of the birds were running and flushing before we were near. When some of these coveys flushed they made almost no noise with their wings, so they must have been baby birds. This is still September, they are young and dumb. Why don’t they hold.
I must say it again, this was a really good day. Any time you can get your dogs out for a bird hunt it’s a really good day.
Sally pointing quail.
Sally honoring Tur Bo.
Dolly pointing a single.