I went out last Saturday and this past Saturday/Sunday on a 2 day trip with the primary intent to just hunt prairie chickens first if I came accross the habitat unless something looked more inviting for quail or pheasants.
Anyways, last Saturday (1-11-14) if any of you locals recall -- was amazing weather -- highs in the 40's or so with a slight wind around 10mph or so most of the day and decent humidity for great scenting conditions.
The one field I would classify as perfect Chicken habitat I hit a gold mine. It had been lightly grazed, had grass at what I would consider the ideal height and density, wide open with some necks and changes in terrain and green forbs and to top it all off, had water and not too far from grain fields.
I had hit the mecca. Every hill top I crested my dog would be on point. I probably found 40-60 + birds in this roughly 100 acre pasture. The best way I can describe it is that it seemed that no matter where we walked a few would get up like meadowlarks all over this place. To make a long story short, I had a friend with me that had never been hunting before in his life so I was concerned about getting him a shot. He did have a couple of gimmes but didnt connect. He had never seen prairie chickens before, but I told him that would be what would be getting up and to make sure and shoot. A lot of birds didnt let us get too close, but I was happy my dog pointed most of the birds, she just didnt handle the straggler (the ones that invaribly sit behind after the primary goup gets up) singles very well due to all of the scent. She did well for 3/4 of the field then busted some birds after she saw we werent getting any shots. This was only the 2nd day all year I had numerous bird contacts so I just called her over to me, made her sit beside me to chill out for a few minutes then she was fine the rest of the time.
This pasture is a roosting area Im most certain. I found Chicken Scat all over. Got into all of these birds around 11-1pm. Went back to this same place on Sunday 1-19-2014 around 11:30am. From the best I could tell no one had hunted this area since I had been there a week prior but found nothing. Still found more Chicken Scat in other areas of the pasture.
Now to get to my question. Ive read that these birds tend to have a schedule later in the year and sometimes can stick to this schedule pretty tightly. I understand near the evening they will tend to fly from feed fields back to their roost. Is there common knowledge that they will tend to fly out somewhere in the mornings on a "routine" to head from loafing/bedding cover to say feed? or is this so called "routine" only something that tends to happen in the evenings.
I was thinking back over the years and I most often get points and find the birds in pasture grounds/their loafing cover/roosting cover from probably 10:30-3:30pm or so and then in the grass again in LARGE flocks right at evening time. By far the BIGGEST flocks Ive ever found in one area have always been in the evening time towards the end of legal shooting time. (Id consider these evening time finds something similar to a covey of quail...ie they are all sitting that close together or similar to a large concentration of pheasants where 50-100 get up at once) My morning/afternoon finds have never been groups this big. Usually just smaller bunches with maybe 30 birds tops. Usually mid day finds are almost quail covey like in that they are 10-15 birds or so. If I said what the size of the largest flock I ever found was, no one would ever believe me, so I'll just keep it to myself. It was 2-3 years ago.
If Ive hunted feed fields during the day my experience has been to find 2-3 here and there, maybe a few more scattered about but Ive never found them in a large flock like Ive seen fly over me at times in the evening or found in the evenings right at the end of the day in grass.
Hope my question makes sense regarding the routine. Ive always been of the impression first thing in the morning the birds fly out from the roost to eat then come back a bit at a time to loafing cover then somehow flock up later in the day again?
I just know how to find their habitat in the pastures and find what fields they may feed in, I still dont quite understand what a typical 9-5 day of a Prairie Chicken normally is...if there is such a thing.
I know not all pheasants will normally adhere to a "strict" schedule per say but they have "typical" daily patterns. I would assume a prairie chicken has something similar?
I guess my question on the schedule thing comes from people pass shooting birds this time of year as Ive read when they fly over you can almost set your alarm clock to it every day. So I would assume maybe there is some other routine Im missing out on that happens the rest of the day?
Thanks -- and by the way - believe it or not on Saturday 1-18-2014, when the wind was howling 35+ all day did find another flock of 20-30 or so birds in a pasture very close to feed. Funny thing was they were down in a gulley/ravine that when you were in the bottom, it almost blocked the wind perfectly. My buddy walked down in the bottom and said you could have heard someone whisper next to you almost. Dogs didnt point these, we just stumbled across them (I think they saw us first and started getting up) but by the way the dogs were acting I think this flock had a lot more birds in it had we been there earlier in the day. Birds were seen around 10:45 am.
Anyways, last Saturday (1-11-14) if any of you locals recall -- was amazing weather -- highs in the 40's or so with a slight wind around 10mph or so most of the day and decent humidity for great scenting conditions.
The one field I would classify as perfect Chicken habitat I hit a gold mine. It had been lightly grazed, had grass at what I would consider the ideal height and density, wide open with some necks and changes in terrain and green forbs and to top it all off, had water and not too far from grain fields.
I had hit the mecca. Every hill top I crested my dog would be on point. I probably found 40-60 + birds in this roughly 100 acre pasture. The best way I can describe it is that it seemed that no matter where we walked a few would get up like meadowlarks all over this place. To make a long story short, I had a friend with me that had never been hunting before in his life so I was concerned about getting him a shot. He did have a couple of gimmes but didnt connect. He had never seen prairie chickens before, but I told him that would be what would be getting up and to make sure and shoot. A lot of birds didnt let us get too close, but I was happy my dog pointed most of the birds, she just didnt handle the straggler (the ones that invaribly sit behind after the primary goup gets up) singles very well due to all of the scent. She did well for 3/4 of the field then busted some birds after she saw we werent getting any shots. This was only the 2nd day all year I had numerous bird contacts so I just called her over to me, made her sit beside me to chill out for a few minutes then she was fine the rest of the time.
This pasture is a roosting area Im most certain. I found Chicken Scat all over. Got into all of these birds around 11-1pm. Went back to this same place on Sunday 1-19-2014 around 11:30am. From the best I could tell no one had hunted this area since I had been there a week prior but found nothing. Still found more Chicken Scat in other areas of the pasture.
Now to get to my question. Ive read that these birds tend to have a schedule later in the year and sometimes can stick to this schedule pretty tightly. I understand near the evening they will tend to fly from feed fields back to their roost. Is there common knowledge that they will tend to fly out somewhere in the mornings on a "routine" to head from loafing/bedding cover to say feed? or is this so called "routine" only something that tends to happen in the evenings.
I was thinking back over the years and I most often get points and find the birds in pasture grounds/their loafing cover/roosting cover from probably 10:30-3:30pm or so and then in the grass again in LARGE flocks right at evening time. By far the BIGGEST flocks Ive ever found in one area have always been in the evening time towards the end of legal shooting time. (Id consider these evening time finds something similar to a covey of quail...ie they are all sitting that close together or similar to a large concentration of pheasants where 50-100 get up at once) My morning/afternoon finds have never been groups this big. Usually just smaller bunches with maybe 30 birds tops. Usually mid day finds are almost quail covey like in that they are 10-15 birds or so. If I said what the size of the largest flock I ever found was, no one would ever believe me, so I'll just keep it to myself. It was 2-3 years ago.
If Ive hunted feed fields during the day my experience has been to find 2-3 here and there, maybe a few more scattered about but Ive never found them in a large flock like Ive seen fly over me at times in the evening or found in the evenings right at the end of the day in grass.
Hope my question makes sense regarding the routine. Ive always been of the impression first thing in the morning the birds fly out from the roost to eat then come back a bit at a time to loafing cover then somehow flock up later in the day again?
I just know how to find their habitat in the pastures and find what fields they may feed in, I still dont quite understand what a typical 9-5 day of a Prairie Chicken normally is...if there is such a thing.
I know not all pheasants will normally adhere to a "strict" schedule per say but they have "typical" daily patterns. I would assume a prairie chicken has something similar?
I guess my question on the schedule thing comes from people pass shooting birds this time of year as Ive read when they fly over you can almost set your alarm clock to it every day. So I would assume maybe there is some other routine Im missing out on that happens the rest of the day?
Thanks -- and by the way - believe it or not on Saturday 1-18-2014, when the wind was howling 35+ all day did find another flock of 20-30 or so birds in a pasture very close to feed. Funny thing was they were down in a gulley/ravine that when you were in the bottom, it almost blocked the wind perfectly. My buddy walked down in the bottom and said you could have heard someone whisper next to you almost. Dogs didnt point these, we just stumbled across them (I think they saw us first and started getting up) but by the way the dogs were acting I think this flock had a lot more birds in it had we been there earlier in the day. Birds were seen around 10:45 am.
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I don't know all that much about chickens either....I don't like wild goose chases