Recent content by Makintrax73

Did some public land hunting in the northern tier of counties today. Flushed 5 and shot 1 on county land. Not terrible and not outstanding for 3.5 hours. I noticed all 5 were within spitting distance of the edge of fresh clear cuts. The shot bird had only a few bits of green leaf in the...

I have seen a reasonable number while driving on the atv trails around Black River Falls. I believe some of those trails run through state forest. Never hunted it as I stick pretty far north, and I think even for a 2 day trip I'd make the extra drive. But I do think you'd find some in that...

If you don't mind a wine sauce braised pheasant legs/thighs are quite good. I believe this is the recipe I tried although I didn't copy it word for word. Some tasting and adjusting goes a ways towards making it suit your taste. I believe I added a corn starch slurry to thicken it for gravy at...

No thankfully.......but an emergency vet run was in the cards anyway. We just put fresh dogs down at a gate. Trying to navigate the gate my female setter ran under the fence and right up to a beehive. Got a few stings but didn't think much of it. Honestly never knew dogs were prone to bee...

First day of trip. Hunters already parked at the 1st two spots we picked. Never had that last I was here. Talked to another hunter between spots. Said he was seeing no birds in his marked spots from prior years. We struck out spot 1. Spot 2 was a mile hike in with no idea what the grass...

I've gotten permission to hunt some private CRP in IL a few times that I've seen incredible numbers. I think we stopped counting at 80 birds flushed from a quarter section in the best year I've seen there. The problem is those areas are pretty limited in scope, and good luck getting permission...

Western IL. Converted an old cool season filter strip from cool season (redtop and timothy totally overtaken by brome) to NWG. Unfortunately the property is not close to home. Went out for a visit mid-summer and there were areas that were nothing but giant ragweed. (n) Kind of a bummer. I...

Sharpies have a reputation for getting extremely hard to hunt as you get later in the season. They group up into bigger groups and get very jumpy. I have only ever hunted them in Montana in Sept. There were pheasants around too, and I guess I would just say they don't call them ditch parrots...

I'm far from an expert, but once in a few tries luck into a good spot. For sharpies I look for cover that averages about shin height (a little less on the tops, and taller in the draws), a variety of plant types (scattered berries, different shades of green when viewed from the road)...

I've been using identify.plantnet.org which you can upload a picture and get an AI identification....Hopefully it isn't full of malware....seems like anything free on the web is suspect.

Had a nice walk on the farm today. Flushed 3 young of the year pheasants out of a newish patch of native warm season grasses. Not anything to write home about for many of you, but hopefully a reminder for those of us East of the Mississippi that with work a few birds can find a place. So...

Thanks SD. The waterways were mowed last year as the farmer needed the grass for his cattle. That's why I was thinking there might be something that can reach the dirt, but I know it's always an uphill battle competing against turf grass. Not sure why turf grass on my farm kills damn near...

Western IL We have had good success at the farm establishing NWG filter strips. The filter strips are fed by grass waterways which due to age and mowing have become rye/brome grass dominated (not sure which). I'm considering trying to frost seed into the waterways perhaps 100' up from the NWG...

Been doing a sharpie trip for several years running. The first year was _rough_. As a pheasant hunter getting the idea of good pheasant cover out of my head was a challenge. Have done MT and ND (several areas). The birds are there if you put in the work, and pay attention to the cover...

My question is why not? It would be reasonably easy to test with a few field biologists and some volunteers. Pay a few farmers in diverse places $50 or $100ac to take part in a control experiment - certainly not outside of their budget. Get a rough estimate of beneficial insect abundance, and...