I live close enough to Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska that I can get to an area to hunt or run the dogs and make it home to sleep in my own bed. Vince Dye and I wanted to check the areas that we had hunted a couple of years ago. Last year the quail in Iowa was way down but with the mild winter and good spring weather we thought, just maybe, the quail were making a come back.
Mann on point with Abby honoring.
I think this is Abby running in Iowa.
The area where we were running dogs.
Vince and my morning didn’t start well. We go by the Hungry Mule Cafe in Lathrop Missouri, most of the time, when we go to the north hunting and they were closed. A breakfast sandwich from McDonalds just is not a good substitute but we made do.
We went to a large Conservation area that 2 years ago we had found several coveys of quail, as well as some pheasants. The cover was really thick and they had not planted some of the areas where we had found quail before. They had mowed some strips along the edges of the fields that were planted.
Vince turned his young GSP, Ally, and his English cocker spaniel, Maggie, loose and I put the e-collars and GPS collars on Josie and Sally. The weather was cool with a light wind from the north and we went into the wind. About a mile into the Conservation area we saw a weedy field, that wasn’t too thick, we thought might hold some quail or pheasants.
In a low spot there was a little rise that had a clump of sumac growing. I saw Sally head to the thicket. I couldn’t see her but I felt the GPS handheld vibrate. I told Vince that she was on point and he said Ally was on point just a little way from Sally. He went to Ally as I tried to locate Sally. Before he got to Ally she started moving.
The handheld showed that she was close when I finally saw her buried in the sumac thicket. As I tried to force my way in to her, I got a whiff. Skunk! I started backward out of there yelling, “NO, SALLY!” She started toward me which wasn’t exactly what I wanted, then she started back toward the skunk. I turned the e-collar up and held the button on the transmitter down. Sally came away from the skunk.
At first, I didn’t think she had been sprayed very bad but when she came close I could see a yellowish, green streak between her eyes. Last year Mann had gotten sprayed by a skunk two different times but just running through the weeds cut the scent off him. I thought it might work that way with her but no such luck. She still smells bad! And the e-collar and GPS collars that she had on still smell.
I have had bird dogs for a lot of years and until Mann got into the skunks last year, I had never had a problem. One time, my son-in-law, Robert’s, Brittany got sprayed worse than Sally did. As a testament to how good a bird dogs nose is Robert’s dog still pointed singles. I could see a dog being able to point coveys but singles are hard for a dog to smell, but she pointed them.
Sally on wild quail.
When we got back to the truck, I didn’t want to touch her. She jumped up onto the tail gate but I still had to take the e-collar and GPS collars off. She went into the dog box and now the dog boxes, the e-collar, the GPS collar and my truck smell. The bad part of this most of the time these dogs don’t learn to leave the skunks alone. She may become a confirmed skunk dog. I hope not.
We drove by a couple of places that looked good but right now the cover is really heavy. We got to one of the areas we wanted to hunt and as we drove in a Biologist for Iowa Conservation drove in on a tractor right behind us. He was planting wild life plots. He said that last year the quail and pheasants were down about 50% but this year they had made a comeback.
Mann pointing a chukar.
We looked at some more places in this Conservation area and settled on the next one to try. The people that work for the Iowa Conservation Department work hard on their conservation areas. This area had a lot of different weeds and they had cut a lot of the taller trees, allowing the clumps of brush to grow.
Vince turned Ally and Maggie loose, again. I turned Mann and Abby out. We had only walked about a hundred yards when Mann went on point. I told Vince and started toward him. I had only taken a couple of steps when Vince yelled, “there goes a quail. It flushed right beside my foot”. I saw a baby quail, barely able to fly, going into the wind.
Luke pointing a pigeon.
When I got close to Mann he trailed into the wind. As I followed him a rooster pheasant flushed. Mann and Abby were going toward where the baby quail had flown and I called them away. Vince followed Ally and she was trailing real slow. He tried to call her off but she kept trailing. He grabbed her collar and led her away. We were afraid the dogs would be able to catch the young quail.
This area had a lot of grass hoppers and weed seeds. We continued on through. It was getting warm and we worked the dogs past a large pond, so they could cool off. We worked back to the truck without finding any more birds. It was getting too warm to work dogs so we just drove looking at other areas.
Iowa Conservation people work hard to make these areas as good as they possibly can be. Click on the first three pictures in this post, where they will come out full screen, and look at all of the different weeds. This cover and food is what will help these birds live through the winter and possibly raise other coveys for next year.