Some pre-season work

bauerline

bauerline

Well-known member
The cool weather made for a nice evening to work the dogs and get them some exercise. I took them to an area that holds some liberated pheasants and quail. Both Nittany and Blitz got some good work in on the running pheasants. They both had some points but sometimes the pheasants flushed wild. It was still good work for them. After finding the pheasants they were in hunt mode. They were out of site for a while and I ended up finding them on one of the mowed paths.

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I saw a few bobwhites running to the corner of the field and I tried to get some pictures of them.
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I was able to get a video as I walked up to the corner of the field. My dogs are not steady to the shot but they will hold point for me. They tend to walk with me as I walk past them to the area they are pointing to. I don't mind since it helps me find tight sitting birds. I think Nittany went a different direction on a different bird when I started taking the video.



They were able to find some singles on our way out. I did not flush them since it was getting later. I could hear the other birds calling to covey up. Here are some of the last pictures I took:
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Only a few more weeks until we get some youth out on birds. Looking forward to it.
 
What a great area you have to work your dogs! Where those pheasants the ones from last year? Quail?

We're getting pretty excited, can't wait!
 
The birds from the video are from this year. I did see a hen from last year a few weeks ago and I see a rooster from last year just about everyday. Lately he's been chasing a cat away from the flight pen. A couple of weeks ago I released some quail and I heard birds calling to covey up shortly after the release. I heard birds calling from the woods and none of the ones I released flew into the woods. Some of them may have been from last year.

Are your pheasant areas still looking good?
 
I think it's going to be a great year. Our traditional spots should be at least as good as last year, it seems they change very little from year to year, which is unusual when it comes to pheasant hunting. The area around camp seems to have improved quite a bit, both with the number of birds released and a high number of holdover birds available.

Dugan is in shape and ready to go, and we hope to get some shooting in, October here we come!
 
I had the dogs out again and we managed to get on some more birds. Blitz started out with a solid point on a single quail in the switchgrass. We moved on and I saw Blitz in a different section of switchgrass:
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And the flush:


A look at the cover:
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After this we were able to find a good size covey of quail from the johnny house and another hen pheasant.
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These birds were found in the same area when I got a video of the covey flush.

Just over two more weeks and some kids will be able to hunt behind the dogs. I hope the weather cooperates for all the youth hunts in the state.
 
The cover has been very thick the past few years. It is difficult to keep up with the growth but we do what we can. The path you see in the video was just done in late August. We are looking at a possible burn to help get things improved. The deer seem to like the fields, too.
 
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