Way North of Yellowstone
 

Opening the bird season . First day and about 40 Hungarian partridge up . Lots of opportunities. It is too warm now at 73 so during the heat of the day we relax and wait for evening.

We can imagine that some people are at work , whatever that is, others are at places where they do not have wild birds and still others too young and infirm to walk hard. There was a lot of screaming , arm waving and teeth gnashing on the radio ..... something must be going on.... so we just turned it off. Somebody is having a conniption fit. Not us, we are bird hunting.

Beautiful!

If you haven't listened to the news in a few days, don't turn it on. Things only getting worse

Another day away from meltdowns , incivility and arm waving. Here we are between mountain ranges on the high benches.

For a few minutes we thought we were under attack and could hear The Ride of the Valkeries.

We were chasing Sharptail grouse today . We walked for miles , the dogs ran for many more.
We came for Sharptail, we found them. We did well, had lots of opportunities , it was as good as it gets. Dinner in a small town bar and catching up with people I used to fly with in wars past.

The sun sets. A fitting end to a perfect day. We are blessed to be here .

As always, excellent narratives and pics Bruce!

Gotta love the Big Sky country. Thanks for posting.

Looks like a Colt there

I think I know the pointer and the setter.

Birds birds birds today. Big birds. Bird Lives Matter.

Nice to see the “W. B. Day” gold colt getting some time out of the safe!

I like it. It has come home. Tight bores and full chokes make for an easy 60 yard shot if I do my part.

Heading for the Bighorn today, close to where Custer should have gone fishing .

Every day is a good day in country like that! enjoy every minute of it, Gary

Looks like the Great Falls area. I've hunted there some and had good hunting. Lots of very wide open grain fields that go forever.

What is your recipe?
 

I assume these are Sage Grouse. What is your recipe? I eat almost any bird, but I have found Sage Grouse to be more difficult to prepare.

Last time I tried the dogs liked them more than I did.

I will try long soaking in milk then marinating in oil and herbs. And I’ll see.

Back in the hills by a long bumpy ride is a original cabin that is maintained by the local people. The door is always unlocked and kept as you see it here. Heritage preserved.

We got blown out from flogging trout waters but we have a stylish acutrement for Dick’s dog Archie. It’s not every bird dog that can boast an Hello Kitty collar and LBGQT rainbow bow tie.

And people wonder why their dog bites them?

I am not being judgmental, but am truly curious. Why do folks shoot sage grouse? My understanding is they are hard to find but easy to shoot, and most people don't like them to eat or feed them to the dogs, as you've alluded to.

They are hard to find but locally plentiful. The season , bag limit and location are well regulated. Sage grouse need sage , when the sage is ripped up or burned , the habitat is lost. We hunt where they are plentiful. Some years we see many , other years none. This year has grasshoppers everywhere so the bird population climbed significantly .

Many people do not know where in the vast sagebrush sea the birds may be found. Others have difficulty hunting them . Many people consider them a prize as one of the North American grouse species . We killed three out of two
groups totaling 40-50 birds . Even so it was a 10 mile walk in rolling terrain . I believe they had not been hunted this year and the season is short and closed now.

Many hunters struggle with the difficulty of this sort of hunt. I have taken some folks out who are done after a couple miles.

The first year birds are palatable , the older birds not so much.