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quail hound

quail hound

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Anybody moving any birds yet?

We flushed three roosters and a couple hens this morning and my brother and I both connected on a rooster. We wnt back out around noon and flushed another five hens, a big fat doe, a coyote, and a jack rabbit but no roosters. We'll give it another go in an hour or so and I'll get a few pics up later.:cheers:
 
Sorry guys, none of the pics I took today really came out well. I'll try harder tomorrow.

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Nice! T-minus 7 hours until I'm off for our Sunday hunt. Couldn't make Saturday. Report to follow tomorrow!
 
And Sunday was a big zilch. I guess Saturday at grizzly produced 30 birds from 105 Hunter's. I'm guessing Sunday had about a dozen of us in the morning. We didn't hunt the afternoon. At least the dogs had fun!
 
30 is pretty good for opening day I'd say, last year at Mendota only four were harvested on the opener. We hunted hard from 8 until 1 then back out from about 3:30 until dark and flushed one hen and one rooster.:eek:
 
Fish and game think a lot of the birds were flyovers from birds landing. It's funny that everyone showed up for the opener and hardly anyone on Sunday. Back at it next weekend!
 
Well we got two more roosters today and probably should've had one more but we left him for seed.:rolleyes: We ended up moving 30 or so birds today, mostly hens. Pics will be up soon when my cell service is a little better.
 
calamari said:
Now I see the photos. Very pretty.
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I was going to say, there shouldn't be any tags to click the way I post my pics.

We had a great time and even saw a few birds.:10sign: Three of the roosters harvested were young of year and one two year old bird. Its odd (to me anyways) pushing a covey of quail out of a ditch a mile from any hard cover/ roosting cover and its amazing what a few miles will do, two birds crops were full of weed seeds, green grass, and a few bugs and the other two were packed full of grain.

I'm going to rest the pups tomorrow and give it a go here in the valley Wednesday. Good luck to everyone for the rest of the season.:cheers:
 
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I'm going to have to get up there at some point in the future -- I've never done it and I'm considerably closer than you are.

It would've been really nice just to hunt somewhere over the weekend where some type of long-sleeved garment was appropriate. The heat in the valley was brutal!

As for the varied contents of those bird crops, that's something that surprisingly has only been known for the past few decades. Adult pheasants are almost goat-like in their willingness to eat just about anything. Food for the grown ones is almost never the issue in regard to their numbers.
 
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quail hound said:
I was going to say, there shouldn't be any tags to click the way I post my pics.
Click to expand...

The tags went away and the photos were there when I checked back. It didn't do that with your first photos posted so I don't know

odd (to me anyways) pushing a covey of quail out of a ditch a mile from any hard cover/ roosting cover
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Those ditches are their safety zone because there isn't a lot of other kinds of cover there. When it snows and you flush a pheasant on purpose or with your vehicle it immediately flies the shortest distance to a ditch and dives in usually with a raptor hot on its tail. I imagine it's true for quail too. Lots of raptors there this time of year.

... birds crops were full of weed seeds, green grass, and a few bugs and the other two were packed full of grain.
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I shot one bird in MT this year that was full of dry peas and there wasn't a pea field within miles that I could see. I only saw one grasshopper in the bird's craws even though there were clouds of them there. In years past Sharptails in Idaho that we shot have been full of adult Praying Mantis which is much bigger than a grasshopper. We'll never understand what they want to eat on any given day.
 
I would definitely recommend the trip, for the atmosphere more than anything. Hunters are still welcomed with open arms up there and help drive the economy this time of year. There was a lot of hunter orange around and everyone was talking about pheasants. If you ever decide to go let me know and I'll give some recommendations on lodging and places to eat.
 
JP and I got out today for one of our very special one on one Wednesday hunts at San Luis NWR. The conditions were less than ideal as it was VERY hot and dry but the habitat looked great, even on LB a lot of stuff that is usually heavily grazed was waist high and thick. We walked a long ways and hit all our usual spots without luck except for moving a very nice covey of quail (off limits) in a place where we've never seen a quail before. JP was on the verge of exhaustion but pressed on in what would be our last field when a rooster got up wild out the end. He took off and landed in some tules where he would normally be safe because that field is usually flooded but as luck would have it, for JP and I at least, it was bone dry and we decided to pursue. JP struck scent just beyond where I thought he lit and charged into a large clump of tules and as the saying goes "up got a guinea, bang went a penny half penny, and down fell a crown". One of the largest and hardest won roosters I have ever had the pleasure to bring to bag.

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