Bob Peters
Well-known member
Yes, this post is coming in well past midnight. Turns out I caught a wild hare about 12 hours ago and decided to run a hot lap to chicken land. Now I need a beer to unwind and post on here so as to clear my mind. I had pre-marked my map with everything I wanted to look at. 3+ hours burning up the asphalt on 94, getting off that damn freeway and on the gravel couldn't come soon enough. I happily bounced down a min. maint. road, jumped out the truck, laced up some danners, then took off into the beautiful prairie just to see what I had. I loved it, wildflowers everywhere, some thistles, hell I even thought I saw some type of cactus. Anyways, my trip continued as such, driving around eyeballing lots of different areas, thinking some had potential, and others looked more like swamp buck and duck habitat. A guy I know said prairie chickens really like soybeans, so I made notes of them. One road I drove through a large WMA had a sign halfway through "State Game refuge: closed sept-nov." I back out a mile down the 2-track as there was no turnaround
. I wish this would have been noted on the dnr map! Anyways, I got to see different spots, different covers, and different thicknesses of grass. Even though I don't know which the birds like best, I'm hoping this will give me an advantage once I (fingers crossed) have some bird contacts. That being I've seen these areas, and can go to areas with similar cover. Around 6pm I got really excited, I ran across a pile of birds pecking grit right next to a public spot! Well, turns out they were pheasants, and even though I wish they were prairie chickens, I still enjoyed seeing them. This little thing summed up my scouting trip today, there was a moment where I thought, "I've never been here before... ever." And I smiled. I just really enjoyed being out seeing the land. I ran into 4 different people in town (gas station, cafe, etc.) and asked "Have you ever seen a prairie chicken?" They all answered no. At the end of the night, in the sunset picture, I looked up and saw a large upland bird, flap flap glide...flap flap glide. I couldn't help but think, there goes misses prairie chicken. I miss it already and wish I never left.
. I wish this would have been noted on the dnr map! Anyways, I got to see different spots, different covers, and different thicknesses of grass. Even though I don't know which the birds like best, I'm hoping this will give me an advantage once I (fingers crossed) have some bird contacts. That being I've seen these areas, and can go to areas with similar cover. Around 6pm I got really excited, I ran across a pile of birds pecking grit right next to a public spot! Well, turns out they were pheasants, and even though I wish they were prairie chickens, I still enjoyed seeing them. This little thing summed up my scouting trip today, there was a moment where I thought, "I've never been here before... ever." And I smiled. I just really enjoyed being out seeing the land. I ran into 4 different people in town (gas station, cafe, etc.) and asked "Have you ever seen a prairie chicken?" They all answered no. At the end of the night, in the sunset picture, I looked up and saw a large upland bird, flap flap glide...flap flap glide. I couldn't help but think, there goes misses prairie chicken. I miss it already and wish I never left.
