Hunting with the help of the Hawks.

moellermd

moellermd

Super Moderator
I developed a new strategy today for hunting when the snow has made cover sparse. I drove around to the the fields that I can hunt and looked for hawks circling above. Knowing that the hawks would push the feeding birds into any amount of cover they could find I went and walked those little 20sq patches. Low and behold a lot of them had a bird in them. Too bad most of them were not redheads.

Yes I know it is 7:30pm on Christmas Eve but the kids are in bed and the wife is at work so what is a guy to do.
 
this strategy works for quail here in S. Indiana.
If you see a hawk circling in an area where there is usually a covey of quail you can be pretty certain that you will probably find them. sometimes the hawk has the covey already busted up!

going to head out this afternoon with my son and see if we can kick up anything!!!

Merry Christmas to all!
 
Hunting with the help of the Hawks

Don't laugh but years ago while hunting chukars along the "steep" Snake River canyons in Idaho I would get a helium filled ballon and tie it to my back belt loop along with a hawk call. Chukars can run faster uphill than they can fly, honest. Anyway with the sun to my back and the shadow from the ballon along with the "call" the chukars would hold up and hunker down. I have also seen hawks take pheasant in mid-air.
 
yesterday....Christmas Day afternoon
my son and I found a large covey of quail a couple miles from our home.
We managed to bag 2 birds. I have flushing dogs...so it is a bit of a challenge....
The land owner said he sees lots of hawks...they definitely are hard on the quail. The birds we find are in the heaviest, nastiest cover around. I believe that is because of the many hawks that are always after them!!!!
 
The NE Game & Parks is very adamant that hawks do not predate on pheasants and quail. That they actually help pheasant and quail because of the number of skunks and snakes that they eat. Cough....Cough....Cough

If you read the current issue of the Great Plains game and fish, you will see him as a feature article. A NE biologist that manages WMA's in SE Nebraska. He is friends with my uncle and he will help us burn CRP in the spring on my uncle/cousins ground. We took a break from burning a couple of springs back, and was having a "pop". A hawk pounced on some CRP that we werent burning that year, and my cousin and I commented that it was pry a pheasant it popped. He dropped the comment on us about the snakes and such. We argued for awhile and my cousin commented that the hawk hadnt flown back out yet. So we walked over and it got up when we were about 5 feet away, and a henny with a hole eaten out of its back was lying where the hawk was. Good Guy, real Good Guy and works hard...but manages all these WMA's and on opening day hunts my uncles ground that my cousin and I manage. Thank Goodness for all the hard work PF does in NE.
 
Newbie here, a fellow poster over at Shotgun World tipped me off to this forum.

Wow, a balloon and a hawk call? If you use a big enough balloon, it could really take a load off your feet! ;)

But seriously, I have heard that using a hawk call can hold pheasants, too. Anybody else try this?
 
mountain dave, they make a tracking collar for your dogs that have a hawk scream on it , I have a couple and they do seem to work in the shorter cover but in the tall stuff I haven't had any luck. the birds can still run in there and not worry about what is above.
 
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