Cockleburs

Pointing Breed Event

Tue, January 10, 2012

There is an event coming up at the end of this month for those who are interested in training/testing bird dogs that are supposed to stop and stand very still before the bird flushes.

Here is a note I received from Shae Birkey:

I wanted to introduce myself and my dog training chapter.  I am the President of a small, central IL based dog training and testing chapter called Spoon River.  We are an arm of the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVHDA).  We’re constantly looking for new members, as we survive on membership and testing dues (and a raffle or two).  The purpose of our chapter is to provide a venue for versatile breed hunting dog owners to come together for training and testing under the NAVHDA system.  Our dues are nominal ($35 a year), and we have access to some fantastic private and public grounds, as well as game birds for training purposes.  Many of our members are seasoned trainers and willing to help others out in a moment’s notice.  I would appreciate it if you could in any way help us promote our chapter to potential members.  I truly believe that anyone with an interest in training and/or testing European (pointing) hunting dog breeds will benefit from our membership.  We hold several events a year and align ourselves as guides for the NWTF Wheelin Sportsman hunts as well as various public and private youth hunts throughout Illinois.  Our annual meeting and sporting clay shoot (or optional bird hunt) will be this coming January 29 at Oakridge Hunt Club in Mackinaw, IL.  Anyone interested in membership and/or our annual meeting event can contact Shae Birkey at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).  I’ll also provide our website for additional information.

Be sure to contact Shae directly for event information, not Oakridge.  Dewey won’t have the signup sheets.

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A Walk in the Weeds

Mon, January 09, 2012

Here is a shot from a successful hunt in Iowa earlier this season.  The Heartland Outdoors Toyota truck provides the cool graphic at the bottom.

For every time I actually go bird hunting, there are several other times when I just load Lil and go somewhere for a long walk in the prairie.  My hunting ground access is limited and my primary interest is getting some exercise, watching the dog work and just seeing what we can see.

Last Saturday was a good example.  Couldn’t find a spot to hunt the last weekend in the northern zone that generated any excitement.  While we had more good hunts than I had expected, generally speaking, bird numbers are way down and the thought of driving a long way (Clinton, Shelbyville) to probably see one hen flush in the distance just wasn’t worth it. 

As a result, the pooch and I just settled for a run in a no-hunting area.  Put our noses in the wind and go through the cover.  Lil got birdy in some places but nothing popped out.  As we crested a small rise, I saw a large deer standing broadside at about 150 yards.  Looked like a buck but couldn’t tell for sure.  I just stood and watched him and he watched me.

As we plowed ahead, Lil got birdy again and, after trailing for about 50 yards, she pushed out a hen.  I stepped to the side and another hen got up right at my feet.  It’s always a rush when you see the birds that closely.

Beautiful day, light wind, sun was bright, not too cold.  We just bumbled along.  Lil stayed pretty close and checked in to see where I was.  As I turned into a new area, two great horned owls lifted out of the tall grass about 30 yards in front of me.  They both landed in small scrub trees at the edge of the field.  I just stood and watched while they hooted softly back and forth.  I wondered if they had been feeding on something in the grass.  Finally Lil made her way closer to their roosts and they silently flew into the deeper timber.  They were so large and yet totally quiet in flight.  That was cool.  Checked the grass where they had flushed and couldn’t find anything. Odd to see them active at 8 a.m.

Down a gulley and up the other side.  At the crest a sudden motion caught my eye.  Wow!  Antlers were bouncing through a dense weed patch.  Then could see the buck in occasional openings.  A nice chunky 8-10 pointer.  Not record book, but still great to see. Might have been the buck I saw initially.

We worked our way back to the car and didn’t find any other birds.  Would have preferred a real hunt but this was OK. It was good to see the hens at the end of the season.  Now it is up to the predators and weather to see if they bring off broods next spring. 

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Winding Down

Tue, January 03, 2012

The 2011 upland season is winding to a close and turned out better than I had anticipated.  Below is a shot from Panther Creek on Christmas Eve.  Larry Oliver, my son Alex and I are in the picture with the Ferndelle mob of springers in the foreground.  I found those sunglasses in a sock drawer and they are at least 27 years old.  They’re so big they help block the poke-in-the-eye native grasses so that is a good thing.

We had a great morning hunt .  It was fun to have three pups: Chaps, Calvin and Hobbes; really encountering pheasants in a hunting situation for the second time.  Their enthusiasm was contagious.  As Mr. Drysdale likes to say, “They’re certainly not gun dogs yet, but they’re well on the way to being bird dogs.”  Hobbes started the day on a frugal note by bringing in a hen without a shot being fired.

Here is another shot of the dogs, with a very disciplined appearance.  From left, Calvin, Chaps, Daphne and Hobbes.  My dog Lil is in the witness protection program so she doesn’t participate often in these photo ops.

Last week, Mr. Drysdale and two other friends hunted with me in the El Paso area.  We had hunted this same spot earlier in the season and found a big field of standing corn that was providing safe haven for the birds.  The corn was out and there are filter strips along both sides of a main ditch – our hopes were fairly high.  The morning started off well.  Rooster pops up less than 200 yards from the starting point.  Guns blaze and rooster falls into briskly flowing ditch.  Pheasants can swim and this one swapped sides of the ditch and hid in dense canary grass.  Libby cruised the waterway and eventually locked in on his location and dug him out.

As we headed north along the ditch, the filter strips got broader and there was corn stubble on the sides. Looked promising.  We did see two more roosters but were unable to put either one in the bag.  Oddly enough, we didn’t see a single hen.  Strange for this time of year.  Mr. D. hunted Birkbeck and saw 19 hens and 3 roosters.  That’s not uncommon in late season.

Might be a chance for a last hurrah next weekend.  Scrounging for places to go so will see what we can come up with.

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