"Pheasant Tree"

henhenROOSTER!!!

New member
Dec 9th with sub-zero temps & a fresh blanket of snow with drifting was the best pheasant hunt of my life to date...We saw pheasants everywhere we went - in the evergreen shelterbelts, in roadside ditchbanks, in the middle of the road picking gravel, in the corn, in old abandoned grown-up farmsteads, in tiny & isolated irrigation pits, even in old wheatfields...The dogs had a blast rooting & digging em out from under the snow!!!

My personal best mind-photo of the day was the lone "Pheasant Tree" in a tiny, isolated old irrigation pit...It looked like a Christmas tree decorated to the hilt from top-to-bottom with psycadelic roosters!!! Would've traded my limit for a Christmas card pic of that, but the wily little devils with their sentry/lookouts would never allow anyone within a country mile for that!...My hunting partner blurted out a loud "Jesus Christ" as we passed by - being a minister and all I didn't even bother to preach at him, I just whispered a grinning/understanding prayer and said a quiet Hallelujah!!! :10sign:

I am hooked on pheasant hunting in the snow for life - you can bet the very next time the white stuff falls during season, if at all possible I will be dropping everything & barreling straight for eastern CO!!! The difference in being able to work the dogs on late-season birds that actually hold tight instead of running-&-flushing wild is night and day!!!...I paid with the missus for that trip, coming right on the heels of a two-day hunt in NE - normally I would not suggest or endorse such married-life behavior but we are all human & like a dog who knows better chasing after the flush, I saw opportunity knocking and was willing to just take my licks for this one - and I don't regret it one bit!!! :D

MORAL OF THE STORY: If you possibly can, drop everything & go rooster-chasing immediately after the next snowstorm - you will not be sorry you did!!! :)
 
That sound awesome!:10sign: Take your licking and keep on ticking!

I have seen a few roosting in trees together, but no more than a dozen or so at a time!
 
Maybe it was because it was the only tree anywhere in sight (not a big one or an evergreen--more like an oversize plum or ???)...I did forget to mention all the extra roosters (and hens) underneath as well, like presents under the already ornate tree!!! :D

That snapshot-in-time will be a forever picture implanted in my mind, even if it was impossible to capture on camera!
 
Nah,
It was butt-freezin below-zero & they weren't in any mood to go anywhere even at high-noon right by the road...But we were smart enough not to slow down too much or stop either, that would've bailed em outta there in a heartbeat!!! :eek:
 
Nah,
It was butt-freezin below-zero & they weren't in any mood to go anywhere even at high-noon right by the road...But we were smart enough not to slow down too much or stop either, that would've bailed em outta there in a heartbeat!!! :eek:

We were in South Dakota a couple of years ago and i seen a rooster run across the road we stoped got out and there was a lone tree about 25 yards of the road,The rooster i seen flew and then about 45 seconds of bird after bird started getting up around that tree, all three of us stood there in awe watching hundreds upon hundreds of birds fly every which way, didnt fire a shot just looked at each other and went Wow,,,
 
wow..I witnessed the same thing this weekend as well. There's a first for everything. Just about every road we were driving on, we saw pheasants. If there was a house nearby with pine trees, there were pheasants. They were everywhere! I wish I could have snapped a pic of the roosters flying off the trees as well, but like you hen, hen, rooster I will have that vision engraved in my head. I don't even think we saw this many birds on opening day.
 
I have had my nephew out three times this year and twice with my brother and have been quite shocked at some of the landowners reactions to us. This past weekend was amazing for the number of birds we saw we only took one. We stopped and watched birds flying from trees and running across the roads diving and hiding in cover.

It is cool I showed some Polaroid pictures, to my grandpa and he said that's what it looked like when he was hunting.
 
this is awesome news! i just hope it stays this good for years to come! I am going out friday and trying to get some pheasant!
 
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