On the third day I hunted Cooper Wildlife Area near Woodward. I got there before daylight so I drove to an area I wasn’t going to hunt and turned all of the dogs out for a drink and to relieve themselves. Although it had been in the 50 degree range the day before the snow had not melted as much as I would have liked but it was better than on the first day. While I was waiting on the dogs a bunch of coyotes started singing. It always sounds as if there are 40 or 50 of them. Coyotes are just one of the things that prey on the quail.
I went to the parking lot that I had hunted on the first day and turned Lucky, Tur Bo and Whitey out. We worked the area where we had seen a couple of birds and lots of tracks on the first day. It was cold enough that the snow had a crust on top so I couldn’t see any tracks. We worked the area and then went further back to a new area for us. Cooper WMA has a lot of sage and rag weed for quail food. We were in about a mile when we came to a large canyon. I hunted along side of it for a ways but the dogs kept crossing to the other side so I crossed over. As I was scrambling up the other side, out of breath, I told myself I wasn’t crossing any more canyons.
I made it to the top and hunted back to the truck on fairly level ground. Again I found some fire breaks[?] that had a lot of rag weed growing in them and me and the dogs followed along but today we found no quail.
When I got back to the truck I put these three dogs up and turned Dolly, Luke and Blaze out. We hunted back to the east along the road then went back north. Shortly after turning north the Garmin GPS said Dolly was on point about 40 yards from me. When I got there Dolly was in the middle of a plum thicket with Blaze honoring her. I circled the plum thicket and nothing flushed. I released the dogs and they started trailing then Blaze pointed. Before I got to her she started trailing again. Luke came in and started trailing along with Dolly and Blaze. All three dogs pointed then moved on. I must have had 6 or 7 points and never saw a bird. Finally the dogs just went back to hunting. I believe when Dolly pointed and before I got there a covey of quail ran for 50 or 60 yards then flushed. I believe they were far enough ahead of the dogs they didn’t see or hear them.
We hunted on north and although I had vowed not to cross another canyon I crossed not one but two. From the top of the second one you could see for ever. I took pictures in three directions, west, north and east but the pictures didn’t do justice to the view I had. It was certainly worth crossing a couple of canyons. We hunted on back to the truck without seeing a single quail.
It was after 11:00 am and I had a long drive home and when I quit I knew my 2013-2014 quail season had come to an end. Although it was the worst season I have ever had in terms of number of quail harvested I didn’t want it to be over. I have enjoyed blogging about my hunts even if I haven’t been very successful.
To keep my blog going until hunting season next year I’m going to blog about training my dogs. At 8 months old Tur Bo needs a lot of training. I have never made my dogs steady to wing, shot and fall but I may try that this off season. My idea is to write shorter pieces, more pictures and to try to do a blog every day, Lord willing.
I want to thank the people who have been reading about my hunting trips and hope that you have enjoyed it half as much as I have. I hope you will continue to read about the training sessions. Thank you again and God bless you and yours.