Our home bird season has been poor by any standards. We hunted 8 days before we found any birds at all, searching our proven woodcock coverts and best quail covers. Among our season's days have been two diamonds, though, for which we are grateful. Here's a few photos of those two cherished days, diamonds in the rough of a challenging season.
Photos:
1-3. Our first quail of the season came on a too-warm day that made us linger in the field to soak in the moment -- and cool off. After days of trying, the reward of that first point -- our Aspen had the honors -- was like an unexpected gift. We couldn't help but give a prayer of thanks as the late afternoon rising of the moon blessed the end of this 3 covey day.
4-6. We escaped our Missouri deer season for a hunt somewhere in the Grand River bottom in Decatur County, Iowa on a gorgeous day with light breezes and clear skies. I told Elaine as we drove through this farm that I could "see" quail on the far hillside at the end of a large river bottom bean field, still unharvested on this late November hunt. The birds were there, and we found two nice coveys of that clearly had not been hunted, as each of them settled down from their initial flush where we could see them land -- something almost unheard of in the current day guerrilla warfare tactics of Mr. Bob and his kin. The cover was thick and briery and without Rill's keen nose, we would never have found our prizes.
7. As I've posted before, we "collect" old monarch trees, and we had to stop in the middle of a search for singles to admire this river bottom cottonwood. You can't tell from the photo, but the girth of this three stemmed giant would take over four good sized people to reach around. Rill was impatient, though, and told us not to linger too long.
8-9. Two of my favorite pictures from our hunt. Rill is in the heavy brush next to me, having pointed this fast flushing single. I kicked around for probably 30 seconds -- a lifetime when you and your pup's pre-flush clock is wound very, very tightly with anticipation. The bird came out finally and headed toward Elaine, but made the mistake of swinging out into the the field to pass around her, permitting me a quick shot. The little 30" DHE 20, originally ordered by a quail hunter from Kentucky during the waining days of WWI, brought it down. As I enjoyed the moment with Rill, I wondered how many times this wonderful gun had taken birds on this very same November day over the last 100+ years.
10. I often wonder what goes on in our dogs' mind on these wonderful days when there are birds and places to hunt them. I'm sure Aspen would say that a small swimming hole on a warm day was almost as good as finding a covey of wild birds. When you have birds in your game pouch, it means the day is complete.
(N.B. For my quail hunting friends Harold and Daryl, so far all but one of the quail we've taken has been a cock bird. I'd like to say I purposefully picked them out of the covey rises...but Rill and Aspen -- and most certainly, Elaine -- would tell you otherwise
)
Some Days are Diamonds...
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