This post is about a two day Iowa pheasant hunt in December or 2022.
We started the day at a new location. It was a Waterfowl Production Area (WPA) with a mix of prairie and cattail marsh. Due to the drought, the prairie was stunted and marsh was dry. We walked the WPA and did flush a single rooster which we harvested. Stella tracked a couple of hens but overall we didn’t see a lot of birds. In a normal year (rain wise) this would probably be a good location.
From there we drove south to another new WPA, which was part of a larger complex consisting of WPA, Wildlife Management Area (WMA) and county wildlife land. Stella tracked a bird but it ran through the sparse cover and eventually flushed well out of range. We continued to explore and found an area that had a good stand of prairie grass. No birds, but good cover. In a normal year this might be a good area, although it appears to be hunted fairly heavily.
That ended our first day. We drove to our motel, cleaned up, and then ate at Pizza ranch. Lights out at about 9:15 as it started snowing outside.
We were expecting about 3-5″ of snow overnight. When I took Stella out the next morning I discovered we got about 10-12″. (See picture of truck in parking lot. We loaded up and drove to our planned hunting area. Fortunately, the road had been plowed. We we got to the parking area, we decided to shovel out an area just to be sure we didn’t get stuck. That tool a few minutes and then we were off.
It was very tough walking through the snow. At times, the snow was on grass so you would be plowing through 2-3′ tall snow covered grass. The birds were bunched up in willow thickets. Stella would go in and eventually birds would pop out. We saw a lot of birds and eventually had some shooting opportunities. See the pictures below.
