Has anyone done any scouting?

CO_Weimar

CO_Weimar

New member
Has anyone been out to do any scouting?

Getting cabin fever after 2 months of selling 2 houses, buying one house and packing, moving unpacking. Missed my grouse hunting weekend due to the flooding. I am thinking that it might be time for a drive north on I76 to have a look around. :)
 
CO_Weimar said:
Has anyone been out to do any scouting?

Getting cabin fever after 2 months of selling 2 houses, buying one house and packing, moving unpacking. Missed my grouse hunting weekend due to the flooding. I am thinking that it might be time for a drive north on I76 to have a look around. :)
Click to expand...

Good luck driving up I76 with the south platte flooding all the way to Nebraska.....not sure what it looks like. Still might try to get out and grouse hunt next weekend.

Greg
 
Been doing some half-*$sed scouting on my way to and from Nebraska for grouse. Southeast corner of the state is bad. It's never been a big hotspot but this year no birds found on WMAs. Well turkeys but no pheasant or quail.

Further north more birds but less than last year. That might be because there is actually cover this year though and the birds just have a place to hide now. My completely unscientific "sunset roadside survey" and "springer sniff test" shows more birds north and not always near the grain fields. The birds I saw were sticking close to water except around Julesburg where there is still too much water.

Some of the east central WIAs that were deserts or ankle-high last year are good heavy cover this year. My impression is the birds are there but not as many as last year but I'm no biologist. I'm pretty sure private, well-managed land is a different story.

I wish Colorado would go back to the pheasant WIA stamp program and pay the land-owners a fair price with money from the stamps to enroll their land.

Next time I'm out I'll take my camera and try to get some pictures. Hope this helps some. Birds or not a day in the field with the dogs beats a day at work inside. :thumbsup:
 
Hobie,
You are one generous fellow ;) I am sure folks appreciate the info. I would gather that most of what you said is fairly accurate. With all the "cover" this year compared to last, it will behoove guys to have some good bird dogs with them (whether pointers or flushers).

I am just glad there is more cover and if we have a good, wet, cold winter then a good spring, perhaps next year can be a "rebound" year, who knows....

Greg
 
floods

retrvrman said:
Good luck driving up I76 with the south platte flooding all the way to Nebraska.....not sure what it looks like. Still might try to get out and grouse hunt next weekend.

Greg
Click to expand...

no problem in getting to at least brush on hwy. 34, once past kersey, no damage at all

cheers
 
retrvrman said:
Good luck driving up I76 with the south platte flooding all the way to Nebraska.....not sure what it looks like. Still might try to get out and grouse hunt next weekend.

Greg
Click to expand...

I might have to meander east first, then up 385 ... or something like that. ;)

Really wanting to try to get some dusky grouse hunting in as well, but would have to head up to WY and drop into Routt. Maybe it is time to burn some vacation days.

As for pheasant, I am thinking that it might be a year to head to MT or the Dakotas. I will still do some scouting and will give it a try here in CO.
 
CO_Weimar said:
As for pheasant, I am thinking that it might be a year to head to MT or the Dakotas. I will still do some scouting and will give it a try here in CO.
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking. With the amount of birds I saw in SD I think this is a good year to head north when burning vacation time and then as Greg said hope that habitat and weather bring us a good year next Fall.

I'll still have to take the dogs on day trips to the eastern plains of CO of course... :D
 
I'm in the Sterling/Crook area of I76 right now for a field trial/hunt test and can report that there are no problems. That being said I think some of the roads just opened a day or two ago because of the flooding.
 
14 is open over the top now. You should be able to run all the way to Routt from Ft. Collins.
 
I did a little scouting this afternoon near Brush. I spent a bit too much time training in the morning out at Strasburg Game Birds and didn't get home until after 3:00.

Brush looked pretty good. Several fields that were corn last year had been switched over to winter wheat. At least with corn stubble, you can always hope that it might be holding birds, but with 1" high winter wheat, you can pretty much tell that there aren't any birds.

Anyhow, that is my limited scouting report. :rolleyes:

A few pics from our fun in the morning.

Cowboy pointing a Chukar.
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The big blue guy on point
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A little Chukar chasing.
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:cheers:
 
One more thing - having a look at the pictures above, the cover in Strasburg was much improved over last fall and early spring. Hopefully things have improved and will continue to improve out east.

:cheers:
 
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