Pockets of Birds

W

Wingmaster

New member
I buddy and I got together recently to plan our opening weekend trip, and after much deliberation and bourbon consumption we decided that basically (from the information we had) one place was as good as another. We are only going to be hunting public land and we know it's going to be "pretty thin? out there this year regardless of where we go, so we just picked a spot we liked and that was that.
That is when the old "There are always pockets of birds, maybe we will get luck and find one" idea/prayer came up. Now I have heard of this "pockets of birds" theory since 2010 when things started going south, and now I am wondering if there is any real truth to that. I hate rehashing old stuff (or bring back bad memories), but did anyone actually limit out, opening weekend or otherwise last year?
Opening weekend a group of 4 of us collected just 5 birds in three days :(. Does anyone have a story from last year that would provide some hope for the rest of us that weren't so lucky? With 250K bids taken last year someone must have limited, I just don't know any.
 
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Wingmaster said:
I buddy and I got together recently to plan our opening weekend trip, and after much deliberation and bourbon consumption we decided that basically (from the information we had) one place was as good as another. We are only going to be hunting public land and we know it's going to be "pretty thin? out there this year regardless of where we go, so we just picked a spot we liked and that was that.
That is when the old "There are always pockets of birds, maybe we will get luck and find one" idea/prayer came up. Now I have heard of this "pockets of birds" theory since 2010 when things started going south, and now I am wondering if there is any real truth to that. I hate rehashing old stuff (or bring back bad memories), but did anyone actually limit out, opening weekend or otherwise last year?
Opening weekend a group of 4 of us collected just 5 birds in three days :(. Does anyone have a story from last year that would provide some hope for the rest of us that weren't so lucky? With 250K bids taken last year someone must have limited, I just don't know any.
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Last year on opening weekend our group of 11 hunters took 25 birds all on public land over two days. Sunday was a much better day than saturday with the colder weather. Saturday we were hunting in short sleeves by 10am.
 
I shot 1 wild rooster on the opener last year.

I did not shoot a limit of roosters last season, but there was one day in January I could have and should have, but that was in a very different part of the state than where I was on the opener.

On a different day in January, I hunted with a guy who had grown up in the area he took me to. He shot a limit, but I only got 1 bird....he just knew which side of each field to walk. Had I gone to those places by myself, I probably wouldn't have known where to be and when to be there, so as to have harvested a limit. Point being, I'm sure some guys who know their spots well harvested a limit or 2 last season.
 
kansasbrittany said:
I shot 1 wild rooster on the opener last year.

I did not shoot a limit of roosters last season, but there was one day in January I could have and should have, but that was in a very different part of the state than where I was on the opener.

On a different day in January, I hunted with a guy who had grown up in the area he took me to. He shot a limit, but I only got 1 bird....he just knew which side of each field to walk. Had I gone to those places by myself, I probably wouldn't have known where to be and when to be there, so as to have harvested a limit. Point being, I'm sure some guys who know their spots well harvested a limit or 2 last season.
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I agree whole heartedly with you. My family and my uncles and grandfather until he passed away last year have been going to the same place on opening weekend since the 1980. I can pretty much walk over every inch of the area blindfolded. Know where every treebranch is where every hidden hole in the ground is, btw nothing worse than walking through chest waist high cover and stepping into a two foor hole lol. Knowing the key spots is half the battle but finding the new ones always puts a smile on a face. A lot of us will go up on wednesday and just campout for a few days to make sure we get our spot and pass down the fun and anticipation to our younger family members. Half the fun is getting there a couple days ahead of time and just spending quality family time together out in the field. Sitting by the campfire. Dreaming about the good ole days.
 
It has been many years since I shot a limit in Kansas. I shot two wild birds in kansas last year and should have had two more. I am sure I could have had a few more, but I am slowing down some with my knees and my back. I threw my back out bad two day's before I left for sd and suffered all winter with it. My son had a shot at a limit one day, but came up a couple short.
 
I read today that north central had late harvested wheat which could be a good thing. Only time will tell. Hopefully me and my dad will see and talk to our farmers while we go fall turkey hunting. Hope they have better news than last year cuz we didnt go when they told us they hadrly seen any bird when they cut there fields.:mad:
 
the pockets of birds phrase was coined by a KDWP journalist some years ago when the bird pop. began to decline...it is basically a marketing tool....
 
last year

i actually had a pretty good year last year and had several limit days, one day even pastor john shot several birds, takes him lots of shells for that. most were pointed but didn't seem to make things much easier. yes there is and always has been pockets of birds and in most average years they are in the same area. birds are rarely anywhere by accident, there is a reason and mostly those same reasons keep coming back. if you look up the crow count routes from this spring and then look at the rainfall in those areas you will get some great starting points. the routes are plotted on a map so you know pretty much where they do it. you can check some of the rainfall amounts by going to the weather collector.com and there ya have it. i'm really bored today

cheers
 
Last year was a really bad year for me. I solo-killed one wild rooster and perhaps 4-5 quail. I participated in a team-kill of maybe 2-3 more roosters. The only way you could describe the areas I hunted as having "pockets" of birds is if one bird constitutes a pocket.
 
bad luck

matto said:
Last year was a really bad year for me. I solo-killed one wild rooster and perhaps 4-5 quail. I participated in a team-kill of maybe 2-3 more roosters. The only way you could describe the areas I hunted as having "pockets" of birds is if one bird constitutes a pocket.
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last year was pastor john's first year, he probably shot a doz. maybe he prays better than you, surely couldn't be out shooting you though.

cheers
 
I did not fire a dozen rounds at wild pheasants last year. My one solo kill came on the second shot. I think I only shot once at the team-killed birds, that gets me to maybe 5, and then there was one bird I flat missed. Perhaps I'm forgetting a couple, but certainly less than 10 rounds fired at wild pheasants last year.

Must pray harder... or surreptitiously put a GPS unit on your truck and a bug on your phone line...
 
Will always be pockets of birds, those pockets may be small though. I got 3 birds on opening day last year, our group of 18 got 5. We hunt with a family of farmers on the opener, they told us it was going to be terrible. With many more miles walked throughout the rest of the season, 2 more birds were all i could muster. Good thing the waterfowl hunting was great.
 
I didn't shoot a limit of pheasants, in any one day last season, but I shot my share of them.

But the areas I hunt are on the edge of pheasant country, so a limit day is pretty rare even in good years.
 
I hunted in Colorado and Kansas and the only bird i killed all last season was in NW Kansas, and it was opening day, so you can probably guess how the rest of the season went.
 
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Both my nephew and my son backed out on me at the last minute, so I hunted by myself on opening weekend last year. Which doesn't bother me in the least and I'm real selective of who I'll take to my land.
Anyway, I shot one pointed single, and then dropped a double out of a big group flush down in a plum thicket. The wind was starting to really pick up and they were really holed up in that plum thicket.
I missed my 4th bird on the way back to the truck. The wind was flat kickin by this time. That was the windiest I've ever seen it or for sure hunted in! The radio said sustained winds of 45 mph with gusts to 75!!!
When that bird hit the wind, there was no way I was going to catch up to it!
So, I should have had a limit, but settled for 3. After hearing all the horrible reports of parties of 20-25 with 1-2 birds...I felt a little better. ;)
 
I did not get a bird on the opener. To hot and I gave up at noon. I did well after the first snow and ended the year with somewhere around a dozen wild birds all told. I did see some hens spread out in the areas that I hunt. Hoping that they did well this year and I see a few. The pup is raring to go!!
 
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