CO Hunter
New member
I suppose this is more of a two part question for the folks here. Over the last several seasons, I have really been trying to better understand bird behavior and daily "routines" in attempt to try make the most of my time afield- especially as it pertains to the Golden Hour. I seem to walk CRP fields and then see birds piling out of cut crops on my drive back probably 20 min after legal shooting....other times, I walk cut crop edges trying to push birds into CRP and I see/hear birds already in the grass. I can't quite crack the code on the Golden Hour.
It likely doesn't matter, but this scenario occurred at a parcel of CRP (WIHA) in western Kansas. This particular field is surrounded by cut crops on 3 sides and has some decent CRP on the 4th side- all private. I have hunted this field as a first field in the morning and have typically found birds- although I have witnessed them leaving the field prior to legal light on several occasions, so I figured that it would be a good idea to try to catch them in the field in the afternoon.
1st evening: Started walking CRP from the south end of the parcel at approximately 45 min prior to sunset. Probably 30+ birds flushed wild (75-100 yds) in front of my dog and I as we approached the north side of the WIHA property. Encouraging walk, but no shot opportunities.
2nd evening: In an attempt to try to understand when/how the birds got into the WIHA, I parked 1/8 mile away and snuck into the north side of the field from the road. We just stood in the corner of the field and didn't enter the grass until about 15 min prior to sunset. I observed 20-40 pheasants fly from the (north) adjoining cut crop field to the adjacent (private) CRP field. I walked for the last 15 minutes and didn't move a bird from the general area where we saw 30+ birds the night before.
My assumption is that the birds that I encountered on the first night, changed plans on the 2nd evening and decided to roost in the adjacent CRP field instead of the WIHA parcel.
So here are my questions:
1. Assuming that you hunt for 2-3 days at a time, what is the general consensus of hunting a field twice over the period of a weekend? I'm just guessing, but it looks like my disruption of the birds roosting altered their behavior to select a different field the next evening. Again, I have no way of knowing how the birds have been pressured the day before or week before...so a small, but interesting, data set from the 1st to 2nd evening. I find that I hunt a field and then learn how the birds escape and try to fool them the next day by changing tactic, adding a blocker, etc., but the 2nd attempt NEVER seems to yield the same bird encounters as the first hunt.
2. Any guesses at how long hunting pressure changes bird behavior? As in, would they have to get pressured off of the private land to return to roosting on the WIHA or after a few days will they just kind of hit reset in the head and return a former pattern? The season had been opened for about 2 weeks prior to my hunt....so I would assume it is unlikely that I was the first guy to walk the field.
Thanks for any insight and I hope everyone has a good rest of the season.
It likely doesn't matter, but this scenario occurred at a parcel of CRP (WIHA) in western Kansas. This particular field is surrounded by cut crops on 3 sides and has some decent CRP on the 4th side- all private. I have hunted this field as a first field in the morning and have typically found birds- although I have witnessed them leaving the field prior to legal light on several occasions, so I figured that it would be a good idea to try to catch them in the field in the afternoon.
1st evening: Started walking CRP from the south end of the parcel at approximately 45 min prior to sunset. Probably 30+ birds flushed wild (75-100 yds) in front of my dog and I as we approached the north side of the WIHA property. Encouraging walk, but no shot opportunities.
2nd evening: In an attempt to try to understand when/how the birds got into the WIHA, I parked 1/8 mile away and snuck into the north side of the field from the road. We just stood in the corner of the field and didn't enter the grass until about 15 min prior to sunset. I observed 20-40 pheasants fly from the (north) adjoining cut crop field to the adjacent (private) CRP field. I walked for the last 15 minutes and didn't move a bird from the general area where we saw 30+ birds the night before.
My assumption is that the birds that I encountered on the first night, changed plans on the 2nd evening and decided to roost in the adjacent CRP field instead of the WIHA parcel.
So here are my questions:
1. Assuming that you hunt for 2-3 days at a time, what is the general consensus of hunting a field twice over the period of a weekend? I'm just guessing, but it looks like my disruption of the birds roosting altered their behavior to select a different field the next evening. Again, I have no way of knowing how the birds have been pressured the day before or week before...so a small, but interesting, data set from the 1st to 2nd evening. I find that I hunt a field and then learn how the birds escape and try to fool them the next day by changing tactic, adding a blocker, etc., but the 2nd attempt NEVER seems to yield the same bird encounters as the first hunt.
2. Any guesses at how long hunting pressure changes bird behavior? As in, would they have to get pressured off of the private land to return to roosting on the WIHA or after a few days will they just kind of hit reset in the head and return a former pattern? The season had been opened for about 2 weeks prior to my hunt....so I would assume it is unlikely that I was the first guy to walk the field.
Thanks for any insight and I hope everyone has a good rest of the season.