Last Chance Pheasants

February 3, 2011 Lock, Stock and Bedlam No Comments

Monday, January 31, 2011 – Last Day of Bird Season

…having finished up at Pheasant Fest in Omaha the day before & staring the months of the off-season square in the eye, Jeff and I decided to give it one more run…just wish the weather would have cooperated as we made the decision to do some driving and head to the pheasant hotbed of Nebraska…head west!……the drive was interesting, but never truly dangerous as we made our way through the blowing snow…I must admit we questioned our sanity, as did the gas station attendants & fast-food employees, as the thermometer reading decreased & the wind speed increased…but the thought of not being able hunt birds for the next several months kept us focused…after circling the same frozen skunk twice on the road, we arrived at our designated hunting spot – a CRP-MAP field I had hunted earlier in the year…the cutting wind caught us a bit off-guard as we opened the doors and made ready…

…having a had some success in this field previously, I thought I had a good idea of how to work it…the birds had different ideas this day as they seemed to be more interested in feeding than laying low in thick cover…we ran across some birds rather quickly, but the wind had them on edge and not overly eager to hold…as we neared the grassy edge near the cornfield, we started finding more cooperative birds – mostly hens, but enough to make us grip our shotguns a bit tighter…my biggest complaint of the day was how fast the roosters could catch the wind, which they took great advantage of – our reaction times were a bit hampered by the numerous layers of clothing, too…

…we were able to hunt parts of three different CRP-MAP fields, saw pheasants in each & prairie grouse in two of them – not bad for the last day of the season…we didn’t get lots of shots fired, but had a very positive end to the season - enough that I am already looking forward to visiting these same areas next year – especially if we get favorable weather this winter & spring…as we got back on the interstate, I was already making plans for Fall 2011 & the work that I needed to complete before that final Saturday of October – one of the things that make hunting so much fun is the anticipation of the hunt yet to come…