Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire While all you guys hunt deer......

Dog looks proud.
Congrats

Congrats OP.

I went pheasant hunting this morning but didn’t put any up. We were about 1/2 way home when this one popped out of a ditch and into a backyard.

I’m sure habitat is a lot. And the right weather conditions. And everything is out to kill a ground nesting bird.

Here is another piece of the puzzle that we didn’t even know was a puzzle piece until recently. How big of a deal is it, I don’t know?

Meateater podcast from a few weeks ago. I found it very interesting. Skip to the 10 or 15 minute mark where they start talking to the researcher if you’re not interested in the opening BS. He goes into it saying the eye worms not only affect quail, but sharpies, huns, and songbirds.



Topics discussed: More on cowboy hats in airports; spearfishing in Montana; explaining environmental toxicology; the treats to the Bobwhite quail; the boll weevil; coveys of quail; buzz bombs; the art of wing shooting; fire ants; Operation Idiopathic Decline; eye worms; mating inside the eye; caecal worms; surpassing the cycle; Quail Guard; and more.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-meateater-podcast/id960902903?i=1000676475967

Excellent far away to the West neighbor.

There's some wild pheasants around these part, most in non-huntable areas. No hunting for them on the Modoc Refuge that I've heard of. They have some properties right near town which likely is the reason I've seen some bird right at the boundary line.

Wish they'd do something to get sage grouse numbers up too, but of course there's no interest by the folks holding grazing permits on the sagelands. Same goes for increasing the numbers of elk around.

Reminds me we've got a high pressure system holding and decent weather. I should find make some time to get after some quail.

Nice!

Cool GSP, looks like my Harper girl.

Fantastic! I’ve only killed a handful of wild pheasant in my life. When I was a kid dad joined a small pheasant club. We hunted in the outskirts of the club and the birds been out there quite a while. No comparison when the lift. Habitat needs to be improved for all game. Wild game is a good natural resource .

Habit and predators. I see more coons, possum and hawks and fewer quail every year.

It's great to see kids started hunting. Thanks for starting the next generation.

My wife is from South Dakota. I've shot a few pheasants. Lot of fun.

Not that Siskiyou county is prime pheasant habitat...but back in the '60's the high school kids began a stocking program on cooperating farm lands. It was pretty successful for about 15 years. I asked one of the FFA mentors why it eventually failed. He admitted to not being a biologist, but his opinion was that in the '60's and '70's kids and adults alike used to shoot the hell out of the predators...all year long. As public opinions changed, he thought predators began to be protected, raptors began to be worshipped...and predator control became illegal and unpopular. And pheasants, and valley quail populations became totally unsustainable. He may have had a good point.
The expensive wild turkey introduction in this county was hugely successful in the beginning...but the timing was bad, about ten years into the program, the animal huggers in Hollywood figured out the best way to get more hugs was to put wildlife and hunting and trapping on the state ballot...that way city people could democratically participate in saving the animals (predators mostly). And a side benefit was a huge bump in donations to the professional beggars in the animal rights racket. End of predator hunting. Eventually the end of everything from quail to deer. But on the bright side, we got a great mtn lion and black bear population.

Nice to see the kid have success, but where is the tail? A juvenile bird?

Young teenager with dog and game, it doesn't get any better !!!

My son got one yesterday with his Harris hawk. It was a released bird. They don’t raise in SE Georgia although I know several people that have tried to turn them loose in hopes that they would.

Hawks-hawks-hawks! Edk

ND, SD, and Eastern MT used to be an ocean of CRP and there were rafts of upland birds (and deer, and pronghorn, and predators) everywhere. Any place that still has cover, still has birds. Anyplace that's farmed ditch to ditch or grazed/hayed short as a golf-course, doesn't have birds.

Eastern half of ND or SD, you're hunting cattails unless you have access to tree-rows or trees around farmsteads/feedlots. Western ND/Eastern MT it's wooded draws or again, trees around farms/ranches/feedlots.

Almost nobody is putting in CRP @ 10-15% +% discount to cash-rent for crops or a 25%+ discount to grazing. Those who are, probably bought the parcel of land with the expressed purpose of hunting it to begin with.

Yeah, definitely a young bird. Also it was crippled and the dog and him had a good tussle in the cattails

I believe it's the same for quail where I grew up. Not sure if hogs or fireants could also be a factor down this way.

The reason the predators are so hard on em is because they are centralized so to speak.

The good habitat is hard to come by...and it is spread out.


Instead of being spread all over hell...the game birds are localized in bird grocery stores.

Clean farming has been the killer around here. Way back in the day before all of the fertilizers, 4 wheel drive tractor’s, and tiled fields the fields were rested before getting plowed back under for soil nutrients and it wasn’t practical to farm ditch to ditch. Fur going out of fashion didn’t help. I can’t drive a mile without seeing a dead raccoon on the side of the road. We still have pheasants in the farm areas along the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron and other marsh areas but just about everything else in farm country is a desert with scattered open woodlots in the winter.

Basically what Conrad said above. It’s pretty damn tough to wipeout an animal if it has good habitat.

Congrats to the boy!


That’s sad to hear. Used to see quite a few just sitting in a stand or still hunting deer in W NE.