We are back at home mourning the passing of three bird seasons, having just returned from a brief trip to Kansas. Oklahoma still beckons, and we may succumb to the call, but for now, we are sorting out last days in our home state of Missouri, our adopted home of Iowa, and our "new" home of Kansas. Each state treated us kindly, even though bird numbers were nothing to brag about.
Although I love to savor a last day hunt, it saddens me to know I have more last days behind than ahead. Still, we make plans and hope for the best.
Here are some photos from our last day hunts:
1. Our last day hunt for Missouri almost did not happen. We had snow and bitter cold with high winds for the days preceding our Jan 15 last day. But the red gods smiled and although the snow and cold were an issue, the persistent wind of the prior days calmed, making our hunt bearable. I chose this photo as one that demonstrates a theme in hunting wild quail at times. I read with interest my friend Chris Pope's thread about a quail roost he found and in which he talked about the ruckus caused by the eruption of a covey. If you look closely at this photo, you'll see that there is a "back door" bird exiting the picture on the extreme left. The covey, a large one that we'd been fostering throughout the season, was buried deep in the snow and somewhat separated. I'm shooting at the bulk of the covey that is flushing to the right. It can be very distracting to draw down on a bird in front and have one come up in another direction. I think this is a Bobwhite conspiracy, intended to lower the shooting average of yours truly. I'm sad to say the strategy works more often than not.
2&3. Well, I did
not get a bird from the rise pictured in photo 1. We chased after the singles without luck. As we worked our way back, Rill pointed in the same location again. It was the rest of the covey, having held tight through the first flush and shot. This time I focused hard and took a double from different directions -- a very tough shot for me. Rill found the first bird, but we could not locate the second. I finally spotted the second bird across a small stream. It lay in the snow like a period at the end of the story that was our Missouri quail season. On our way out, Rill pointed another single. I felt good letting that bird fly with my last day limit of two Bobs in my vest.
4&5. We got an invitation to hunt an Iowa farm that had been a great bird farm for us for many years, but had been off limits of late. This would be our last day to hunt in Iowa. Quail numbers were up over last year in the areas we hunt, and we found a very large covey on a piece of this wonderful farm that held some good memories for us and many of our dogs. The birds flushed wild and then re-coveyed in the heavy brush. In photo 4 Aspen finally gets them to stop running after trailing the birds for about 50 yards through some nasty briars. When the birds flushed, I found myself smack in the middle of the spread out covey. Again, notice the back door bird that Elaine managed to catch in her photo (you can see it just at my back, exiting stage right as they say).
6. Aspen found my one bird from this covey that reassembled at least 3 times, but only giving me one chance. Aspen seemed pretty pleased with himself after he found the dead bird buried deep in the canary grass.
7. I have other quail guns, but I can't seem to leave this little DHE 20 at home, especially on the last day of a season.
8. We moved to another piece of this farm with Rill and found no quail, but hit the mother lode of pheasants. Iowa, a great pheasant state, chooses to end its pheasant season three weeks before the quail season closes. The irony is not lost on me that we have more pheasant points, and more chances at roosters, during this three week window. The good news is that the guys who will only travel for the big, gaudy import, are nowhere to be found in the quail only season. In the photo I watch a large rooster that Rill pinned along fence that separated a grass field from a harvested bean field. It would have been an easy shot, even for the little 20.
9. We were able to pass on the last pointed quail of the Iowa season, a purposeful gesture intended to assure the blessings of a good next season. I can't say this works, but then again...