Cheesy,
Thanks for you kind comments on the picture.
I am finding about even numbers of old birds and young this year. Most years the yound birds greatly out number the old birds. Of the two pictured in the snow, one was old and one was from this year's hatch. The one I got early that day was also an old bird. I think the drought and lack of insects this summer really hurt our bird numbers. Most years I have to spray for grasshoppers...this year I saw less than a dozen all summer long and that includes what I saw on my daily walks/runs of 3-4 miles. Other farmers in the area that I talked to also saw very few 'hoppers this summer.
I was out again today for about a 2 hour hunt. I saw 5 hens and they held nicely for the dog. So I consider it a very successful day with 5 great points on snow covered ground and no birds to clean when the hunt was over! It was another super day outside enjoying all that is provided for us if we just open our eyes.
We have very little good cover here this year. I found another CRP patch on my hunt today that has been grazed. In past years it was a very good spot since it cannot be seen from the road and the only access is by walking a half mile. Most hunters today won't walk that far. If we end up having a bad winter, we could loose big numbers of our already diminishing pheasant population due to the lack of good winter cover.
