KBell
New member
Sophie and I hit the ground running today in Pocahontas area. Been patiently waiting to visit--corn was up until Wednesday. Many of you know I frequent this area during bird season.
We began in the creek bottom. Sophie's first point yielded momma hen followed by eight birds so brown and immature that I did not fire a shot!
These were by far the youngest birds I have ever seen in the pheasant fields. After going ten yards or less these little brown "squabs" hit the picked corn and began immediately calling for momma. I have never had this happen before. Recalling Sophie and continuing our walk yielded another strong point. Up pops momma hen and I figured it was the hen from the first flush. Wrong--ten brown "squabs" release from the grass immediately to the left of momma's flush. Again flying 10 to 15 yards and landing in the picked corn. I was stunned! I now saw twenty birds, could only identify the two adult hens and witnessed a cacophony of young birds calling and calling! I called Sophie back in and we continued on. I reasoned this was a great sign of an extremely late hatch and deduced there was no point in flushing them again as identifying them was impossible.
As we neared a patch of snakeweed Sophie locked on point facing back into the wind for me. Rooster one flushed straight up and he joined us for the rest of the hunt! Crossing the creek Sophie has another solid point. Up pops very long tailed rooster and I wiff twice. My first point miss of the year. At the shot, middle rooster in the photo rises from the same cover and heads out left to right. You guessed it, he joined his brother in my game vest. I debated continuing on. I still had the cattail patch to hit on my right of the creek. As I neared it Sophie exhibited signs of "birdiness" and at that point six very long tailed roosters and twice as many hens flushed from the cattails. I worked Sophie to the left and we again flushed wild seven roosters and as many hens. I observed two birds running to a heavy patch and cover next to the creek and Sophie and I moved in. The last bird of the day on the left flushed after the point and flew right of Sophie for a slow-motion rising shot.
All three birds were early hatch this year. Sophie and I walked two other pieces of cover in this section to scout for tomorrow's action.
We flushed on point or wild close to 60 birds today. 31 of these were roosters. We spent 1 hour and 48 minutes in the field. I am back at it tomorrow in Pocahontas. I am not sure I can sleep tonight!
We began in the creek bottom. Sophie's first point yielded momma hen followed by eight birds so brown and immature that I did not fire a shot!
These were by far the youngest birds I have ever seen in the pheasant fields. After going ten yards or less these little brown "squabs" hit the picked corn and began immediately calling for momma. I have never had this happen before. Recalling Sophie and continuing our walk yielded another strong point. Up pops momma hen and I figured it was the hen from the first flush. Wrong--ten brown "squabs" release from the grass immediately to the left of momma's flush. Again flying 10 to 15 yards and landing in the picked corn. I was stunned! I now saw twenty birds, could only identify the two adult hens and witnessed a cacophony of young birds calling and calling! I called Sophie back in and we continued on. I reasoned this was a great sign of an extremely late hatch and deduced there was no point in flushing them again as identifying them was impossible.As we neared a patch of snakeweed Sophie locked on point facing back into the wind for me. Rooster one flushed straight up and he joined us for the rest of the hunt!
Crossing the creek Sophie has another solid point. Up pops very long tailed rooster and I wiff twice. My first point miss of the year. At the shot, middle rooster in the photo rises from the same cover and heads out left to right. You guessed it, he joined his brother in my game vest. I debated continuing on. I still had the cattail patch to hit on my right of the creek. As I neared it Sophie exhibited signs of "birdiness" and at that point six very long tailed roosters and twice as many hens flushed from the cattails. I worked Sophie to the left and we again flushed wild seven roosters and as many hens. I observed two birds running to a heavy patch and cover next to the creek and Sophie and I moved in. The last bird of the day on the left flushed after the point and flew right of Sophie for a slow-motion rising shot. All three birds were early hatch this year. Sophie and I walked two other pieces of cover in this section to scout for tomorrow's action.
We flushed on point or wild close to 60 birds today. 31 of these were roosters. We spent 1 hour and 48 minutes in the field. I am back at it tomorrow in Pocahontas. I am not sure I can sleep tonight!
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