December Prospecting

[mobirdhunter]

We spend the first half of our season prospecting for coveys, hoping to log enough so that we can return and take a couple of birds from each and not hurt their chances to make it through the winter.

Today we went prospecting and located a couple of new coveys. This has been a poor year so far, so finding some new coveys was a big plus on this achingly beautiful day -- a tailgate day, when the the weather is such that it makes lunch at the truck a joy. Light winds and mild temperatures in mid-December are a gift.

Photos:

1. Weather that lets you eat lunch with the dogs on the tailgate is a treat that we don't take lightly.

2. This covey ran about 50 yards before Aspen finally pinned it. Elaine and I had to help each other crawl through a barbed wire fence while Aspen eased up (thankfully there are no photos of this ), waiting for me to flush the birds. The covey, in typical wild Bob fashion, exploded out in all directions. If you look closely to the left, you can see the smoke from my gun and the bird that is hit.

3. A plus for this day's hunt was blooding a new gun. While not made by the Brothers Parker, it was made by brothers, in this case the Watson Brothers of London. I'd been wanting a gun with sculpted fences and a 28 gauge with Damascus barrels. This little gun, made in 1909, has beautiful 28 inch tubes and is just heavy enough to swing well, but light enough to carry effortlessly all day. And it shoots where I look.

4. A new gun blooded, two new coveys, two shots, two Bobs, on a day too short.

[Garth Gustafson]

Beautiful country to go with that beautiful weather. You’re a lucky guy Garry.

[mobirdhunter]

Thanks, Garth. The luckiest part is to have a wife that goes with me, and to still be able to follow my dogs.

[Reggie B]

Wonderful stuff Garry!

[Bruce Hering]

Ok buddy.... So thats the #2 gun of a pair. Are ya gonna look for its kin ?

[mobirdhunter]

Originally Posted by Bruce Hering

Ok buddy.... So thats the #2 gun of a pair. Are ya gonna look for its kin ?

Not if I want to stay married!

[Ed Norman]

Originally Posted by Garry L Gordon

Not if I want to stay married!

Garry,
If you find that guns other half, send it to me, you and Elaine come up a week before you go to Minnesota. You can hunt in Michigan with your gun, then take it to Minnesota (think of the gas you will save by not carrying that extra weight from Missouri) drop it back off on your return, rest a couple days, hunt again in Michigan then I will keep it safe until you return again What a beautiful little gun.

[mobirdhunter]

Originally Posted by Ed Norman

Garry,
If you find that guns other half, send it to me, you and Elaine come up a week before you go to Minnesota. You can hunt in Michigan with your gun, then take it to Minnesota (think of the gas you will save by not carrying that extra weight from Missouri) drop it back off on your return, rest a couple days, hunt again in Michigan then I will keep it safe until you return again What a beautiful little gun.

[Reggie B]

That cover you are shooting in looks very much like Southeast Tennessee cover. The only thing missing here are the little feathered rockets!

[mobirdhunter]

Originally Posted by Reggie Bishop

That cover you are shooting in looks very much like Southeast Tennessee cover. The only thing missing here are the little feathered rockets!

And they are missing on many of the farms we hunt here in Missouri and Iowa, too. The bad weather last February killed lots of breeder birds, and the Spring rains hit some places very hard. The bigger problems are the incentives (and mixed messages) we give farmers (in some cases) to clear cover in the name of production on marginal land. On one hand we have CRP, and then we have programs that provide funding to take out fence rows and "clean up" ditches. It's an odd mix of good and bad (for quail at least) policies. I can't blame farmers for wanting to increase profits.

We went this morning to check on a covey we'd found earlier on a farm where bulldozers were taking cover away. This farm has been our Christmas Day farm, since it's pretty close and we can get to it and back home in time for dinner. When we arrived the bulldozers were gone(!), but the farm had received heavy disking, turning under any residual grain. No covey to be found in the scant cover that was left. The plight of Mr. Bob today. I'm sorry that your covers are barren of quail, Reggie. I know that Tennessee was once a great quail state, and I have hunted grouse there back in the late 1990s. It must be hard to see what has happened in the name of progress. I see it here, too.

But, I keep going, and I cherish every covey we find, and every day we have afield in what I have come to know as home.