I headed to the Marysville Kansas area on the last day of the Kansas quail season. I turned off the highway onto a gravel road and before I got to my first walk-in property I saw twelve bald eagles sitting in a harvested soy bean field with 5 or 6 flying around. I drove on for about a half mile then stopped and got my camera ready. I drove back by and turned around to get the eagles on my side of the truck. Most of them started flying but I finally got a picture of two eagles that didn’t fly off. They were about 150 yards from the truck. I think they were feeding o a dead deer.
Eagles sitting in a field.
Tur Bo pointing a single quail.
Sally honoring Tur Bo.
When I got to the walk-in property I wanted to hunt I turned Lucky, Sally and Tur Bo out. Lucky and Tur Bo had Garmin GPS and Garmin e-collars on. Sally just had a Garmin GPS on. We crossed a corn field to get to a fence line that ran between this property and private property on the south. The private property had been soy beans and part of the walk-in was also in soy beans.
About a quarter of a mile down the fence row Tur Bo went on point. Before I could get close 2 quail flushed in front of him. All 3 dogs were acting real birdy. I stopped and encouraged them to hunt the area real well. Tur Bo pointed and Sally honored. I took pictures then when I got close to Tur Bo a single quail flushed. When it dropped Tur Bo pounced on it. I went to him and said, “give” and he spit it in my hand. I had the dogs check the area. We never found any more birds.
That must have been a covey coming to feed in the field and we caught them spread out. The others could have run off or flushed when I was looking the other way. We followed the fence line to the corner then the dogs ran the north south fence line to the road. When they came back we hunted a ditch that ran diagonally from the south east corner to the north west corner. We hunted back to the truck without seeing any more birds.
We drove west about 10 miles to another walk-in property. This property is about 320 acres with most of it in CRP except for about 20 acres in a bottom on the south and another 20 acres on the north. I turned Luke, Dolly and Sally out. Luke and Dolly had e-collars and GPS collars. We checked the CRP on the north side of the harvested soy bean field. Luke ran the north side of the soy bean field then came back down the south side along the creek. I called him back to check the CRP on the north side. There is a draw that runs to the north and an area that looks like a grown up strip mine area. All 3 dogs ran the draw then came back as we started through the strip mine area.
I was about half way through the strip mine area when I checked the GPS and it showed Luke on point about 40 yards ahead of me. It was so thick that I couldn’t make a straight line to him. When I saw him he was on a mound of dirt in a thicket and I had to go down, around then back up to get close. When I got close I saw a quail running in the thicket then it flushed out the other side without giving me a shot.
I called all of the dogs in to check the area. I hadn’t seen a covey, just the one bird. All 3 dogs were trailing, then Dolly pointed. She was only about 10 yards from where Luke had pointed. She was on the same mound but was pointing into another thicket. I hadn’t moved off the mound and I saw her go on point. When I got beside her the quail flushed out the other side of the thicket. Two points, two quail and no shots.
We hunted on to the road on the west then crossed the creek to the south and hunted along a hillside back to the east. We turned north and hunted along a draw then through the CRP back to the truck without seeing any other quail.
There were a couple of places, several miles to the west, that I hadn’t hunted in a few years, that I wanted check so I ate lunch on the drive over. The first one had another hunter just quitting as I drove past so I went to the other. I turned Luke, Lucky and Sally out. This farm was 160 acres and most of it was soy bean stubble. Near where I parked was a small (3 acres) CRP field with a creek next to the soy bean field. I went to the south down the creek.
Sally Joe pointing a pigeon.
The creek went off the property about a quarter of mile south so we went down the fence line. Lucky went to the east along a hedge row and Sally and I followed. Luke stayed along the fence row and the creek. After a little while Sally, Lucky and I went to see what was keeping Luke along the fence row. He was birdy and trailing and when we got there the other two started trailing, also.
The dogs were heading toward the truck and into the north wind. They got close to the CRP near where the truck was parked and Luke went on point. Lucky saw him and honored. I took a picture then started toward them. Sally came in front of me, saw Luke and Lucky and honored. I took another picture. I walked in and a nice covey flushed. I missed with the first barrel but dropped one into the brush with the second barrel. Sally saw it drop and grabbed it and brought it out. Not to me but she got it out of the brush. She held the bird with me calling her. After about 20 seconds she laid the bird on the ground. I went to her, picked the bird up and petted her.
We checked the CRP for any singles that had stayed on the walk-in property but didn’t find any. These birds were near the line and they all flew off. These quail haven’t made it to this late in the season by being dumb. They have this figured out.
I had one more place I wanted to try before quitting time. I had hunted it a few weeks ago without finding anything except a couple of hen pheasants. It’s only 80 acres and the first time, several years ago, that I hunted it I found 2 coveys of quail. I turned Luke, Sally and Dolly out.
Luke pointing a single.
There was a buffer strip, along a creek, next to a corn field and on the other side of the creek was a soy bean stubble field. About half way through the buffer strip Dolly went on point with Sally backing. Before I could get close or even get the camera out a hen pheasant flushed. Then another one. We followed the buffer strip to the west edge of the property and I wanted to go north along a hedge row but the creek had too much water in it. I walked back the way I had come almost to the truck before I found a place to cross. We then went back to the west edge then north along the hedge row.
When we got to the fence on the north we moved over closer to the soy bean field and went back. We hunted back to the truck without finding any quail or any more pheasants.
Not a bad way to end a quail season. I hadn’t killed a lot of birds but I got some nice pictures and Lucky will be 13 years old in May. This may be his last hunt. This year he was good for about 2 hours or a little longer. Dolly will be 11 years old in two weeks. May be her last year. If it is they have been good bird dogs and I will miss them but I have dogs coming on.
Luke on point and Lucky, on the left, honoring.
When I started in Sally came in front of me, saw Luke and Lucky and honored.
Sally backing Dolly.